On January 6, Orthodox Christians celebrate the Theophany or revelation of the Holy Trinity at Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River.
When we, as Orthodox Christians, attempt to explain the significance of this feast, we normally stress two closely related themes. On the one hand, God reveals himself as a tri-unity of divine Persons, a revelation that will be repeated in modified form at Jesus’ Transfiguration. Thereby Jesus is revealed to be “one of the Holy Trinity,” the eternal Son of God who took upon himself fallen human nature in order to glorify that nature and to restore human persons to the life, the perfection and the beauty for which they were originally created. At the same time, Jesus by his baptism enacts and establishes the sacramental ritual by which believers can share in his death and rise with him “in newness of life” (Rom 6:3-4), uniting themselves to his glorified Body, the Church.
Theophany celebrates the baptismal renewal of God’s people, members of the Body of Christ. But it also provides the perspective we are to assume with regard to the entire created world. Stated otherwise, it provides the foundation for a genuinely Christian “ecology.”
Elizabeth Theokritoff has written a book published by St Vladimir’s Seminary Press. It is entitled, Living in God’s Creation, with the subtitle “The Ecological Vision of Orthodox Christianity.” One theme the book stresses is of particular importance in this time of Theophany. The author points out that our relation to the created world is less that of “steward” than it is of priest. We are called not only to preserve and care for the created order. Our vocation relative to the world we live in, both natural and human, is to make of it an offering to God, with the ongoing supplication that he bless, restore and make fruitful this planet over which he has granted us dominion. That dominion implies responsibility and respect toward all living things. But it means, too, that we recognize the “fallenness” of creation and its need for restoration, even redemption (Rom 8:18-23).
If that renewal is to be realized, particularly with today’s ecological precariousness, it requires not only a thoroughgoing transformation in the way we see the world and make use of it. It requires above all that we, as baptized members of Christ’s Body, accept our priestly calling to offer this world to its Creator and Lord, never ceasing to call down his blessing and grace upon it and upon each of its inhabitants.
Jesus submitted himself to baptism in order to identify with each of us, held as we are in bondage to sin and death, and to enable us to die and rise with him in newness of life, leading to life everlasting. Yet he also descended into the baptismal waters in order to bless and sanctify those waters. Thereby he demonstrated the truth that the Holy Trinity, manifest at his baptism, loves and cares for all of creation. And he calls us to assume the same attitude of loving concern, to acquire an “ecological vision” that scraps our habitual utilitarian exploitation of the environment in favor of an awe-filled wonder at the beauty and value inherent in the world that God has made.
~Adapted from John Breck, “Sanctify the Waters,” Life in Christ, web site of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) http://oca.org/reflections/fr.-john-breck
