Feast of the Epiphany
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and wish you all a blessed New Year. This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany.
The name Epiphany comes from the Greek word “Epiphaneia,” meaning “appearance” or “manifestation,” and refers to the manifestation of Jesus Christ to the world. This holy day is also called the Feast of the Epiphany, Theophany, or Three Kings' Day.
Traditionally, this feast celebrates the first of three joyful wonders that signified Jesus' identity as the long-awaited Messiah. The first epiphany was the visit of the Magi. They followed a star from the East to find the King of the universe to give Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The second was Jesus' baptism in the River Jordan and the first revelation of the Divine Trinity: God the Holy Spirit descended over God the Son in the form of a dove, and the divine voice of God the Father spoke from Heaven. The third revelation occurred at the wedding feast at Cana when Jesus turned water into wine in His first miracle.
In the Gospel accounts of these three epiphanies, we learn that God appears in creation to move forward His divine plan. He reveals Himself as a guiding star, as a dove accompanied by a voice from Heaven, and in the gift of wine that miraculously came from stone jars of water to prefigure the miracle of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.
In the Western Church, a separate feast of the Baptism of the Lord was instituted in 1955, thus weakening further the connection between the feast of the Epiphany and the commemoration of the baptism of Christ. Now, the feast commemorates principally the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child, and thus Jesus Christ's physical manifestation to the Gentiles. It is sometimes called Three Kings' Day. Eastern Christians, on the other hand, commemorate the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, seen as His manifestation to the world as the Son of God.
What does this feast teach us today? That we have to manifest Christ to people, to evangelize by our words, deeds, and good example.
God bless you all,
Fr. John