Celebrating the Seasons. Robert Atwell
Jesus rises from the waters; and a drowned world rises with him. The heavens like paradise with its flaming sword, closed by Adam for himself and his descendants, are rent open. The Spirit comes to him as to an equal, bearing witness to his Godhead. A voice bears witness to him from heaven, his place of origin. The Spirit descends in bodily form like the dove that once long ago announced the ending of the flood and so gives honour to the body that is one with God.
Today let us honour Christ’s baptism and celebrate this feast in holiness. Be cleansed entirely and continue to be cleansed. Nothing gives such pleasure to God as the conversion and salvation of human beings, for whom his every word and every revelation exist. He wants you to become a living force for all humanity, lights shining in the world. You are to be radiant lights as you stand beside Christ, the great light, bathed in the glory of him who is the light of heaven. You are to enjoy more and more the pure and dazzling light of the Trinity, as now you have received – though not in its fullness – a ray of its splendour, proceeding from the one God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever.
alternative reading
A Reading from an oration of Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople
Christ has been revealed to the world, and has brought order to our disordered world, making it resplendent with his glory. He has taken upon himself the sin of the world, and cast down our ancient enemy. He has sanctified the flowing waters, and enlightened our souls. He has enfolded miracles with yet greater ones.
For today both earth and sea share in the grace of the Saviour, and joy has spread over the face of the whole world. Today’s feast is even more miraculous than the one we have just celebrated. On the feast of our Saviour’s birth, earth joined in the celebrations because she bore the Lord in a crib; but today on the Theophany, the sea leaped with exultant joy and danced with delight, delighting that it had received the blessing of sanctification in the midst of the Jordan. In the former celebration an immature infant was revealed to our gaze, witnessing to our own incompleteness; but today a full-grown man is to be seen, in obscure fashion pointing us to him who being perfect proceeds from the perfect God. At his birth the King put on the purple robe of a human body; today the deep swells round him like a river as if to clothe him.
Come then and see new and overwhelming miracles: the Sun of Righteousness bathing in the Jordan, the fire immersed in water, and God being sanctified by human ministry. Today all creation resounds with hymns, crying out: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ Blessed is he who comes at all times, for this is not the first time that he has come.
So who is this? Speak more clearly, I pray, blessed David. ‘God is the Lord, and he has given us light.’ David the prophet does not speak alone in this; in fact the apostle Paul supports his statement with his own testimony when he says: ‘The grace of God has appeared with healing for all the world.’ Not just to some people, but to all – that is, both Jews and Greeks equally, God has poured forth our salvation through baptism, offering to all people everywhere a common blessing in baptism.
Come then, and see this strange and new flood, greater and more powerful than that which occurred in the days of Noah. There the water of the flood destroyed the human race; but here the water of the baptism, by the power of him who is baptized in it, has called back the dead to life. There the dove carried an olive branch in its beak, denoting the fragrance of the sweet-smelling savour of the Lord Christ, but here the Holy Spirit, descending in the form of a dove, reveals to us the presence of our merciful God.
Monday after Epiphany 1
A Reading from the Instructions of Columbanus
Moses wrote in the law: ‘God made humankind in his image and likeness.’ Consider, I ask you, the dignity of these words. God is all-powerful. We cannot see or understand him, describe or assess him. Yet he fashioned us from clay and endowed us with the nobility of his own image. What have we in common with God? Or earth with spirit? – for ‘God is a spirit.’ It is a glorious privilege that God should grant us his eternal image and the likeness of his character. Our likeness to God, if we preserve it, imparts high dignity.
If we apply the virtues planted in our souls to the right purpose, we will be like God. God’s commands have taught us to give him back the virtues he sowed in us in our first innocence. The first command is ‘to love our Lord with our whole heart because he loved us first’ from the beginning, before our existence. Loving God renews his image in us. Anyone who loves God keeps his commandments, for he said: ‘If you love me, keep my commandments.’ His command is that we love one another. In his own words: ‘This is my command, that you love one another as I also have loved you.’
True love is shown not merely ‘in word, but in deed and in truth’, so we must turn back our image undefiled and holy to our God and Father, for he is holy; in the words of Scripture: ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’ We must restore his image with love, for he is love; in John’s words: ‘God is love.’ We must restore it with loyalty and truth, for God is loyal and truthful. The image we depict must not be that of one who is unlike God; for one who is harsh and irascible and proud would display the image of a despot.
Let us not imprint on ourselves the image of a despot, but let Christ paint his image in us with his words: ‘My peace I give you, my peace I leave with you.’ But the knowledge that peace is good is of no benefit to us if we do not practise it. The most valuable objects are usually the most fragile; costly things require the most careful handling. Particularly fragile is that which is lost by wanton talk and destroyed with the slightest injury of a brother or sister. People like nothing better than discussing and minding the business of others, passing superfluous comments at random and criticising people behind their backs. So those who cannot say: ‘The Lord has given me a discerning tongue, that I may with a word support those who are weary’ should keep silent, or if they do say anything it should promote peace.
Tuesday after Epiphany 1
A Reading from an oration ‘On the Love of the Poor’
by Gregory of Nazianzus
Recognise to whom you owe the fact that you exist, that you breathe, that you understand, that you are wise, and, above all, that you know God and hope for the kingdom of heaven and the vision of glory, now darkly and as in a mirror but then with greater fullness and purity. You have been made a child of God, a co-heir with Christ. Where did you get all this, and from whom?
Now let me turn to what is of less importance: the visible world around us. What benefactor has enabled you to look out upon the beauty of the sky, the sun in its course, the circle of the moon, the countless number of stars, with the harmony and order that are theirs, like the music of a harp? Who has blessed you with rain, with the art of husbandry, with different kinds of food, with the arts, with houses, with laws, with states, with a life of humanity and culture, with friendship and the easy familiarity of kinship?
Who has given you dominion over animals, both those that are tame and those that provide you with food? Who has made you master of everything on earth? In short, who has endowed you with all that makes humankind superior to all other living creatures? Is it not God who asks you now in your turn to show yourself generous above all other creatures and for the sake of all other creatures? Because we have received from God so many wonderful gifts, will we not be ashamed to refuse him this one thing only, our generosity? Though he is God and Lord he is not afraid to be known as our Father. Shall we for our part repudiate those who are our kith and kin?
Friends, let us never allow ourselves to misuse what has been given us by God’s gift. If we do, we shall hear St Peter say: ‘Be ashamed of yourselves for holding on to what belongs to someone else. Resolve to imitate God’s justice, and no one will be poor.’ Let us not labour to heap up and hoard riches while others remain in need. If we do, the prophet Amos will speak out against us with sharp and threatening words: ‘Come now, you that say: When will the new moon be over, so that we may start selling? When will sabbath be over, so that we may start opening our treasures?’
Let us put into practice the supreme and primary law of God. He sends down rain on the righteous