You can learn a
lot about the Orthodox faith by looking at icons. For example, their gold backgrounds are signs
of the glory of God. Whenever we see an
icon, an image of our salvation, we see an image of the brilliant light of the
Kingdom and of what it means for a human being to be illumined by the divine
glory.
We need and welcome that light, for
like the people of Galilee, we often find ourselves in darkness and
shadows. We usually do not have to look
far at all in our own lives or the world in which we live for discouraging,
painful, and fearful realities that can take the joy out of life and make us
miserable. That kind of existence can
seem as black as midnight and as pointless as wandering around with our eyes
closed.
The good news during this season of
Epiphany is that the Son of God has brought the brilliant light of heaven into
our darkened world. His divinity is
revealed, is made clear, immediately after His baptism when the Father
declares, “This is my beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased” and the Holy
Spirit descends upon Him in the form of a dove. The light of His divinity shines clearly from the dark waters of the Jordan. He was lowered into the waters of baptism. He was symbolically buried under them. Thus, He entered into the corruption of His fallen creation.
Spirit descends upon Him in the form of a dove. The light of His divinity shines clearly from the dark waters of the Jordan. He was lowered into the waters of baptism. He was symbolically buried under them. Thus, He entered into the corruption of His fallen creation.
And He did so in
order to raise us from darkness to light, to illuminate us—and the entire universe—as
an icon of His salvation. Even as He
rose up out of the waters, He raises us up from the futility and pain of
spiritual blindness and death. For we were not created for misery and
despair, but in the image of God and with the calling to grow in His
likeness. But we follow in the way of
Adam and Eve, choosing to live according to our own will, not God’s. And as such we bring the entire creation down
with us. Instead of being priests who
offer the world and ourselves to God for blessing, we have become self-centered
consumers. We devour ourselves and one
another with our own addiction to our passions.
We do the same thing to our physical environment, obscuring the beauty
of the world our Lord spoke into existence.
Had not the Son
of God entered into our darkened world and corrupt life, had not His light
dawned upon us and the entire creation through the waters of the Jordan, there
would be no hope for us. For by entering
into our life and world, He makes it possible for us to share in His. He descended into the lower parts of the
earth to raise us up to the divine life.
As St. Paul writes, “He who descended is also the One who ascended far
above all the heavens that He might fill all things.” He brings a new heaven and a new earth, the
fulfillment of the entire universe in the Kingdom of God.
This is all
tremendously good news, but we must not fall prey to the temptation to make
general statements that miss the practical, daily challenges of our life in the
world. For if Epiphany is merely a
collection of religious services and pious statements, we will the point
completely. We are not called in this
season simply to remember Christ’s baptism, but to participate personally in
the salvation that He has brought to the world.
And that means, in St. Paul’s words, that we “all come to the unity of
the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
You see, our
Lord’s divinity was revealed at His baptism and must also be revealed through
us. His divine glory has dawned upon a
darkened world and must continue to shine brightly through our lives. That’s what it means to grow into the stature
of the fullness of Christ, to become perfect in Him, truly to know the Son of
God. Like an iron left in a fire glows
red hot, we are to become living, breathing manifestations of the holiness,
love, and mercy of our Lord.
But since we
have been in darkness and shadow for so long, as has the rest of the creation,
we should not be surprised that our fulfillment in Christ is a process, an
infinite journey of creatures sharing in the life of the Creator. That journey begins with our baptism, in
which we put on Christ, but we err to think of baptism merely as one religious
service that was completed long ago. For
the entire Christian life is a process of entering more fully into the death of
Christ, of dying to our sins and passions so that we may rise and ascend with
Him into the new life of the Kingdom.
This season of Epiphany, we should all examine our lives for areas where
we have not yet put on Christ, for sinful habits or attitudes or actions which
have not yet died. Yes, we all still
need to grow into our baptism.
We all still have
dark shadows within us. We should not be
surprised or shocked by that. Neither
should we wallow in paralyzing guilt.
The light of Christ’s divinity does not shine brightly in order to kill
us, but to bring us more fully into His life.
The point is not obsessive self-judgment, but to offer the weak,
distorted dimensions of our lives to the Lord for healing, blessing, and
transformation.
We are baptized
into the Body of Christ, for He was baptized and later died, rose again, and
ascended into Heaven as a whole, complete human being who is also God. He did all these things with a body just like
ours so that He could bring people—just like you and me—into the eternal life
of the Holy Trinity.
The Body of
Christ also refers, of course, to the Church; and it is through baptism that we
become members of His Body. Not only was
the Lord raised in the Body, He makes us part of His Body, He shares Himself
and His life with us fully. One of the
symptoms of our sinfulness is our belief that we are isolated individuals, that
true life and freedom are found on our own terms with us calling all the shots
and letting no one constrain our freedom.
We pity people who are so self-centered that they cannot maintain
meaningful relationships with others.
Human community takes many forms, but no one finds fulfillment in
complete isolation. That’s a recipe for
misery.
All the more is
the truth about the Christian life. If
we want to grow into the full stature of Christ, if we want our lives to become
epiphanies of the glory of God, we cannot do it by ourselves. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the Church
embodies various ministries for the equipping of the saints, for the edifying
of the body of Christ. No one person
possesses all those gifts, graces, and ministries. If we want to die with Christ to our sins and
ascend with Him into the new life of the Kingdom, we will do that in His Body,
the Church, where we pray, repent, work, and serve together--and also learn to
put up with one another’s weaknesses with patience, humility, and love.
So let us
celebrate Epiphany this year by becoming more like the saints whose images we
see in the icons. They are illumined by
the divine glory, for they have put on Christ without reservation. They have left behind the dark shadows of sin
and now radiate the brilliant light of the Kingdom. And in doing so, they have become more fully and
beautifully themselves, and found eternal life, peace, strength, and blessing. We may do the same by joining our Lord in the
Jordan, by dying to sin and death and corruption so that we may ascend with Him
into brilliant light and unending joy of the Kingdom.
Let us live out
our baptism, then, together as members of one another in our Lord, God, and
Savior Jesus Christ as we become epiphanies of His salvation. For that is really the only way to celebrate
this feast.
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