A HOMILY FOR THE GREAT FEAST OF THEOPHANY
(Jan. 6/19)
About the One God Glorified in Trinity
Brothers and sisters!
Today our Holy Orthodox Church celebrates the Feast of Enlightenment, the commemoration of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He sanctified the nature of water by His descent into water and initiated the Christian Mystery of Baptism, through which we are granted the grace of illumination. However, this feast is better known as Epiphany, which means “manifestation,” or “Theophany,” which means “the manifestation of God.” There are two reasons it is called by these names. First, on this day Jesus, the supposed son of Joseph, abandoned His obscurity as a poor carpenter and began His ministry to the world. Second, on this day all three Persons of the Triune Godhead were revealed with greater clarity than ever before. God the Father spoke from heaven, God the Holy Spirit came down from heaven in the form of a dove, and God the Son was proclaimed by God the Father as His only-begotten and infinitely beloved Child. This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased, announced the Father.
On this day of Theophany, it behooves us, dear brothers and sisters, to consider an extremely important question, related to the usual title of the feast: Why do we call upon the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit so frequently? For while the entire New Testament obviously centers around the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the formula “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” only appears in it in a few places, and then in somewhat varied forms.
Historically, the answer to the question lies in the Church of Christ’s titanic struggle against the Arian and Macedonian heresies, in the East primarily during the Fourth and early Fifth Centuries, and in the West for considerably longer. The first of these heresies denied the divinity of the Son of God and resulted in the convening of the First Oecumenical Council; the second denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit, and caused the assembling of the Second Council.
To ensure as far as possible that the Church’s faith would never again be threatened by these or similar heresies, the Holy Fathers insisted on the consubstantiality of the three Persons of the Trinity and inserted the Trinitarian formula throughout the Church’s prayers. This did not constitute an innovation in the Church’s faith, but a clarification necessary to defend the integrity of that faith, the faith once delivered to the saints[1] at the very onset of the New Testament Church. Even Jews and Muslims believe in one God; but they do not confess God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In fact, they vehemently deny the Holy Trinity. Only we Christians know the true God, one in essence and three in Persons. The true, Christian faith is first and foremost distinguished from false faiths by the teaching that there is one God Who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
If we knew not that God is one in three Persons, we would be like the Jews and Muslims, ignorant of the primary expression of God’s love for us. We would fail to comprehend what it means that God the Father so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.[2] We would not know Who is our Saviour; that He is the only-begotten, infinitely beloved, consubstantial Child of the Father, Who descended from heaven, assumed flesh, suffered, died upon the Cross, returned to Heaven with our human nature, and was enthroned with it in glory at the right hand of the Father. Likewise, we would not know Who is the Holy Spirit that sanctifies Orthodox Christians, lives in them, guides them, upbraids them for their sins, cleanses them, and illumines them. In a word, if we did not know that God is one in three Persons, we would be lost in darkness: we would not be Christians.
The God Who repeatedly declared His oneness in the Old Testament, but only hinted that He is three in Person, on this day revealed Himself clearly as the Trinity. After this, the Son of God would send out His disciples to preach and baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Blessed are ye, O Orthodox Christian, for you believe undoubtingly in the Most Holy Trinity and were baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! The true faith is the beginning of salvation, for without it one cannot truly please God. Blessed are ye, for it is impossible for you not to be saved, if only you truly desire salvation. When you call upon Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, begging to be saved, God the Father turns to you in all His infinite love, God the Son intercedes for you with the blood shed for your salvation, and God the Holy Spirit sanctifies you with His gracious power, rendering you fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Calling upon the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in prayer, we do not imagine three Gods, but invoke the one God, for God is ever one in essence and eternally a single God; nonetheless, we never forget that God is three in Person. Frequently, we call upon the individual Persons of the Trinity as well, either the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit: but mainly upon the Son of God, Jesus Christ. This is because the Lord Jesus, as the God-man, is nearer to us, more accessible to our hardened hearts, than are the others, on account of His assumed humanity and especially His sufferings for us. He is our Mediator before the Father, not in prayer, as is the case with the saints or other Christians, but as the Mediator of our eternal salvation and the cosmic link reconciling man and God. This is why we frequently offer up supplications to the Trinity simply in the name of Jesus Christ. It is through the Son of God that we receive whatever we receive from God. It is through the Son that we know the Father, and on the Son’s account that the Holy Spirit descends upon us with His grace. Even when we pray using only the name of God the Son, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit receive our prayer, for the three are but one God. The Persons of the Holy Trinity are to be distinguished from one another and are unmingled in Person, but They share one divine energy and will; thus, their response to our prayer – however we phrase it – is one and united. Being one in essence, they are equal in everything pertaining to the shared essence, the Father having the preeminence only in that He is unoriginate, whereas the Son and the Holy Spirit have their origin outside time from the Father; the Son being begotten but not proceeding, the Spirit proceeding from the Father but not being begotten.
And so, dear Christians, who have been taught by this day of illumination and epiphany to know and worship the Most Holy Trinity, remember that whether you call upon one Person or all the Persons of the Trinity in prayer, or simply say “Lord,” or “God,” all three Persons hear and answer your prayer. The Father turns to you with supreme paternal love; the Son, crowned with thorns, intercedes for you before the Father, offering the Cross, the nails, the spear, and the sponge, together with His precious blood; and the Holy Spirit quickens you spiritually with His lifegiving, gracious, unlimited power.
Wondrous is God in all His works, but especially wondrous is He in His single essence and three divine Persons! Amen.
[1] Jude 3
[2] John 3:16
