The Holy Theophany of Our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ
Titus 2:11-15; 3:4-7; Matthew 3:13-17
Feast of our Lord
Read Titus 2:11-15; 3:4-7
Christ is baptized!
On the Feast of Theophany
by St. Gregory Nazianzus
Christ is bathed in light; let us also be bathed in light. Christ is baptized; let us also go down with Him, and rise with Him.
John is baptizing when Jesus draws near. Perhaps He comes to sanctify His baptizer; certainly, He comes to bury sinful humanity in the waters. He comes to sanctify the Jordan for our sake and in readiness for us; He Who is spirit and flesh comes to begin a new creation through Spirit and water.
The Baptist protests; Jesus insists. Then John says: “I ought to be baptized by You.” He is the lamp in the presence of the Sun, the voice in the presence of the woman in the presence of the Firstborn of all creation, the one who leapt in his mother’s womb in the presence of Him Who has already come and is to come again. “I ought to be baptized by You”; we should add: “and for You,” for John is to be baptized in blood, washed clean like Peter, not only by the washing of his feet.
Jesus rises from the waters; the world rises with Him. The heavens like Paradise with its flaming sword, closed by Adam for himself and his descendants, are rent open. The Spirit comes to Him as to an equal, bearing witness to His Godhead. A voice bears witness to Him from heaven, His place of origin. The Spirit descends in bodily form like a dove that so long ago announced the ending of the flood and so gives honor to the body that is one with God.
Today let us do honour to Christ’s baptism and celebrate this feast in holiness. Be cleansed entirely and continue to be cleansed. Nothing gives such pleasure to God as the conversion and salvation of humanity, for whom His every word and every revelation exist. He wants you to become a living force for all humanity, lights shining in the world. You are to be radiant lights as you stand beside Christ, the great light, bathed in the glory of Him Who is the light of heaven. You are to enjoy more and more the pure and dazzling light of the Trinity, as now you have received – though not in its fullness – a ray of its splendour, proceeding from the one God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom be glory and power now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen!