At the other end of the twelve days is Christ’s Theophany. In the early history of the Church the Nativity and the Baptism of Christ were celebrated together. The Armenian Apostolic Church still observes this union.
In the rest of Christianity it soon became evident that the Birth of the Lord and His Baptism as an adult made for an incongruent single observance. Thus the two were separated. But there was a point of difference in the manner that the Church of Rome interpreted this. They took the Nativity separately and left the Worship of the Wise Men and the Baptism of our Lord together, but they considered the worship by the Wise Men to be a superior Feast and relegated the Baptism to a minor role.
Their reasoning is that the worship of the Christ Child by the gentiles was more meaningful for the future of Christianity among the gentiles. This despite that the Wise Men came to visit and worship the newborn “King of Israel” with no indication in the Scriptures that they looked upon Him as a God since “worship” was also offered to rulers, not only to gods. Moreover we have no indication that there were only three wise men for this was assumed because there were three gifts.
Also the Latin Church accepted three names for them, although no names were mentioned in the Scriptures! However, the Eastern Churches looked upon the presence of the Holy Spirit and the voice of God declaring This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” during His baptism, as the truest Theophany that is infinitely more important than the role of the Wise Men, whom they moved to a place closer to where they belong, on December 25th accompanying the Nativity.
Theophany points in the direction of the future, for the Lord immediately goes to the wilderness where He will stay for forty days fasting from all foods, knowing hunger and facing temptation by the devil. This was no modest temptation but for the Son of God and the Creator of the world it meant nothing and He let the devil know just that. Still this was something He had to do and to face if He were to experience and know what it means to be a mortal, for He was aware that all too soon He would endure torture and pain, and was to die.
The next stage into the future is the gradual approach to the Triodion where we are taught repentance and forgiveness before going on to the Great Forty Day Fast, the Tessarakosti, (which was given a Latin name “Lenten” by the Western Church, a word that means slowly or patiently). This ends with Christ’s triumphant entry to Jerusalem on Palms Sunday, and on the following Sunday we have the greatest feast of all, Pascha our Christian passover, and Our Lord’s Resurrection from the dead.
This entire cycle occurs over a period slightly longer than one calendar year when we worship our Lord’s presence as a man in the world of man. There are other Feast Days of Jesus Christ and His mother, the Theotokos, i.e. the birthgiver of our God, that do not occur in any particular sequence such as those above, but this does not invalidate the cycle revolving about the pivot created by the Feast of the Circumcision.
~By John P. Nasou, M.D., May 23, 2011. John is a life-long parishioner and former parish council president of Saint Sophia Cathedral, Washington, DC.
