Church Matters: Retrieving the Great Tradition

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Chur ch Mat ter s : Ret r i ev i ng the Great Trad i t i on

A Theology of the Christian Year, continued

Christmas: The Savior’s Birth When Jesus saw the light of day, it was in fact rather the world that was being illuminated by the incarnation of the divine Word. The birth of the eternal Son of God from a human mother was the early dawn of a new day, the drawing near of ‘the Sun of righteousness’ (Mal. 4:2). Although Scripture does not help us to fix Christ’s nativity on December 25 (Rome) or January 6 (Egypt), it was doubtless influenced along one track or another by the natural practice of observing the winter solstice as the point at which “the sun begins again to grow.” Eventually the Roman date won out. That the present-day Slavonic Orthodox celebrate Christmas on a different date (thirteen days after what the rest of the world calls December 25) is only due to their refusal to make the “secular” transition from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Epiphany Some other aspects of Christ’s “manifestation” to the world were left to a January season of Epiphany (Greek epiphaneia ; Latin manifestatio ): his showing to the Gentiles (the Western church placed the visit of the Magi on January 6, whereas the East associates it directly with Christmas), his public appearance as the divine Son (the Eastern church places Christ’s baptism on January 6, and the Western church traditionally kept January 13), and the shining forth of his glory at the wedding feast of Cana (the second Sunday after Epiphany in the West). An ancient Latin Epiphany antiphon weaves these themes together beautifully:

Today the heavenly Bridegroom weds his Church, since Christ has washed away her sins in the Jordan; the wise men hasten with their gifts to the royal wedding, and the guests are made glad by the water turned to wine.

A hymn by Christopher Wordsworth prolongs this threefold manifestation into Christ’s ultimate epiphany:

Sun and moon shall darkened be, Stars shall fall, the heavens shall flee; Christ will then like lightning shine.

All will see his glorious sign; All will then the trumpet hear, All will see the Judge appear: Thou by all wilt be confest, God in Man made manifest.