|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Feast of the Epiphany was
established as a solemn feast in the Eastern Church in the
middle of the IV century as proclaimed in the Apostolic
Constitutions: "Let the Epiphany, in which the Lord
manifested to us His own divinity, be to you the most honored
festival and let it be celebrated on the sixth day of
January." (cf. Apostolic Constitutions V, 13)
The Greek word "epiphany" means manifestation and
applied by the Christians to the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
it specifically meant the manifestation of His divinity. St.
John Chrysostom (died 407) elucidates: "Why do we call this
day Epiphany? Because Jesus Christ manifested Himself to all
people, not when He was born, but, rather, when He was baptized.
Until that time He was unknown to the people, as testified by
St. John the Baptist, saying,: ‘There stands among you One,
Whom you don’t know!’ (Jn. 1:26)." (cf. Homily on the
Epiphany, 2)
In the Old Slavonic, the feast is called "Bohojavlenije,"
equivalent to the Greek "Theophany," which means the
manifestation of the Godhead. This word, however, more clearly
reflects the manifestation of the Blessed Trinity at Christ’s
baptism as poetically described in the troparion of the Feast:
"At Your baptism in the Jordan…"
The solemn baptism of the catechumens was also administered in
the Eastern Church on the eve of the Epiphany since the IV
century. The early Fathers of the Church referred to this as the
Mystery of Illumination or Enlightenment. Thus the Epiphany was
also called The Feast of Lights or The Day of Illumination (cf.
St. Gregory of Nazianz, Oration XL, 1-6). Following this, our
liturgical books still call the Sunday before and after Epiphany
the Sunday before the Illumination and the Sunday after the
Illumination. St. Proclus, the Patriarch of Constantinople (d.
447), gives us the following explanation: "Christ
manifested Himself to the world; He filled it with light and
joy; He sanctified the waters and diffused His light in the
souls of men." (cf. Migne, P.G. 65, 757-761)
Since the solemn blessing of the water takes place on Epiphany,
the feast is also known as the Feast of the Blessing of Water,
popularly called "Vodokschi," an abbreviated form of
the Old Slavonic term "Vodokresch," meaning the
blessing of water.
The Solemn Blessing of Water, in commemoration of Christ’s
Baptism in the Jordan, is the main feature of the Feast of
Epiphany. St. Gregory the Wonderworker, in the homily quoted
above, commented: "The Lord, Who has come upon the Jordan
River, through its streams transmitted sanctification to all
streams (of water)." And precisely, in our liturgical
books, the blessing of water is referred to as The Blessing of
Jordan, since it is considered as the re-enactment of Christ’s
baptism. By His baptism in the Jordan, Our Savior imparted upon
water a mystical power of sanctification, a "sign of
heavenly streams" of divine grace. (cf. St. Gregory the
Wonderworker, Ibid.)
St. Basil the Great (died 379) affirms that the blessing of
water came to us as a "mystical tradition" (of. On the
Holy Spirit, XXVII, 66) and that the water, through the prayer
and blessing of the priest, receives a "quickening power of
the Holy Spirit." (Ibid, XV, 35) St. Ambrose (died 397)
also taught that it was the Holy Spirit Who "consecrated
the waters through the prayer of the minister." (cf. On the
Holy Spirit, L. I. c. VII, 88) Consequently, in the prayer for
the blessing of the water we always find the epiklesis—the
invocation of the Holy Spirit.
The oldest prayer for the blessing of the water was preserved
for us in The Euchologion of Serapion (died. after 362), the
Bishop of Thmuis in Lower Egypt. It is almost certain that the
prayer itself dates back well before his time and is also
witness to the early practice of the Church. The Apostolic
Constitutions, VIII, 39, attribute the authorship of the first
prayer for the blessing of water to St. Matthias the Apostle.
According to Armenian sources, the original author of our ritual
of the Solemn Blessing of Water was St. Basil the Great who
composed it during his visit in Jerusalem in 377 A.D. This
ritual was probably used in Antioch in 387 when St. John
Chrysostom delivered his homily on the Baptism of Christ,
saying: "This is the day on which Christ was baptized and
through His baptism sanctified the element of water. Wherefore,
at midnight on this feast, all (faithful) draw of the (holy)
water and store it in their homes, because on this day the water
is consecrated."
It seems that St. Basil’s ritual was later revised by St.
Proclus of Constantinople (434-447) and, finally, by St.
Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem (634-638) who composed
the introductory sticheras and rearranged the entire ritual
according to the customs of the Alexandrian Church. For this
reason, our present ritual of The Solemn Blessing of Water is
ascribed to St. Sophronius of Jerusalem.
Our Trebnik contains another ritual for blessing water called
The Simple Blessing of Water. This ceremony can be taken at any
time of the year but it is used especially on the first day of
August (in commemoration of the Holy Cross) and also on the
occasion of a pilgrimage. An example of this is the custom of
blessing the water at the Lourdes Grotto at Mount St. Macrina in
Uniontown, Pa. during the annual Assumption Pilgrimage.
Among the various petitions mentioned in the ceremony during the
blessing of the water is the sanctification of homes. With this
the Church imposes a duty and obligation upon the priests to
bless the homes of the faithful entrusted to their pastoral care
at the beginning of the New Year. Theologically speaking, the
blessing of homes constitutes an invocative blessing, meaning
that by his prayer and by the sprinkling of the Holy Water the
priest invokes God’s protection upon the home and those living
in it. The prayer, reprinted on the back cover, best explains
its meaning.
As our souls, so also our homes become tainted by the sins of
those living in them and, consequently, lose God’s protective
power. Every year, then, at the Feast of the Epiphany, they
should be blessed again to secure for them God’s blessings and
protection. Just as the faithful cleanse their soul of sin at
least ONCE A YEAR, and the church is blessed with the newly
blessed water every year, so should the homes of the faithful be
yearly blessed to invoke God’s blessings and protection on it
and its inhabitants.
As we renew the insurance on our home every year, so we should
renew our insurance of God’s protection and his blessing which
is of greater importance and more effective. As we welcome our
priest during the holy season of Epiphany to bless our home, let
us be mindful that he is bringing to us the "blessing of
Jordan," and that unless God protect and bless our home, we
"labor in vain." (Ps. 127:1) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
