Feast of the Theophany
The Feast of the Theophany is one of the Seven Major Feasts of our Lord in the Coptic Orthodox Church. It is celebrated on the 11th of the Coptic month of Tobe. The word "epiphany" in the sense of this Feast means "divine appearance" (from the Greek epiphaneia). This Feast is also known as the Feast of the Theophany, which means "manifestation of God," because, on this day, when our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized by St. John the Baptist, the Holy Trinity was manifested to mankind for the first time. His Holiness Pope Shenouda teaches us, "The Son is baptized, the Father declares from heaven: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,’ and the Holy Spirit appears ‘like of a dove’ (Matt. 3:16, 17). Hence, the baptism of the Lord Christ shows the creed of the Holy Trinity." Thus, this Christian feast primarily entails the manifestation of God in Christ, Christ being manifested as the Son of God and God as the Trinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
On this day, the Lord Christ was baptized in the River Jordan by John the Baptist, not for repentance, as the rest of the world, or because of His need to, but rather on the behalf of and for the sake of humanity, as well as revealing to us the Holy Trinity, transfigured and glorified. St. Luke speaks of this in his gospel saying: "Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’" (Lk. 3:21-22). From these verses, we notice that through the baptism of the Lord Christ, the heavens were opened once again after Adam was prevented from returning to the Garden of Eden. The Holy Trinity is also revealed to us in this passage; the Father by His voice and witness to Christ, the Son baptized in the River, and the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove on the Lord Christ.
From the early Church, this Feast was of great importance, because, on it, the Patriarch of Alexandria would announce the days for the Great Lent, Holy Passion Week, and the Feast of the Resurrection for that particular year. This task was entrusted by the entire early Church to the Patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt and followed by churches worldwide.
In the Eastern Orthodox churches, this Feast is celebrated on January 6 (for those following the Gregorian calendar) or January 19 (for those following the Julian calendar.) These churches celebrate the same underlying event in this Feast: the manifestation of the Holy Trinity in the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ and the beginning of His earthly ministry. In the West, including the Roman Catholic Church, this Feast is celebrated on January 6 and commemorates the visit of the oriental kings, the Magi, as the event that marked the manifestation of Christ’s divinity to the Gentiles, the "nations" who were not Jewish.
In the modern Coptic Orthodox rite, the Feast is celebrated with the Divine Liturgy on the night before the Feast, as is done in the other major Feasts of the Lord, such as the Feast of the Nativity (Christmas) and the Feast of the Resurrection (Easter.) In this liturgical celebration, believers participate in the Liturgy of the Blessing of Water (Laqqan) in which the priest anoints believers with water that has been blessed through the liturgical prayer. After this prayer, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated until its conclusion, which must fall after midnight so that the Liturgy ends on the actual day of the Feast.
May the blessings of this Feast be with us, Amen.
| Theophany2010.mp3 | 7.7 MB |