St. Peter Chrysologus, Archbishop of Ravenna (5th Century) Homily 157, A Second on Epiphany The Feast days of the Lord reveal their content by their names, for just as Christ gave the Day of His Birth by being Born, and gave the Day of the Resurrection by Rising, so too he produced the Day of His Illumination by the light of wondrous deeds. The One Who earlier when he was born concealed Himself within a human body, later by His works revealed Himself in heavenly mystery. Later in three different ways He appeared as God Who earlier was seen as a Man with an Uparalleled Birth. Rightly, therefore, is the present solemnity called by the name of Epipany, in which the Deity, which was kept hidden without our flesh from our gaze, now shone brightly. This, brothers, this is the feast which was conceived on different occasions and bore three characteristic signs of the Deity. Through the Epiphany the Magi acknowledged Christ as God with mystical gifts, and the worshippers of stars and inhabitants of night find the Creator of light when it was pitch dark, to indicate that this comes from the Grace of the Author, not the diligence of the seeker; that it is the gift, not of the star, but of God the Creator; that the credit goes, not to any creature, nor to human ingenuity, but to Gods Generosity. Magi came from the east, saying Where is the newborn King of the Jews? For we have seen His star and have come to adore Him. (Mt.2:1-2). We have seen His star. And what is not his? The star belongs to Him, He does not belong to the star. His is the star that received existence, but did not give it. The Author was in control of the stars rising; it was not in control of the Authors rising. It is call His star not because it created Him but because it was created by Him; it originated by His command, not by fate; not by computation, but by the Author; it was not something that would cause a rising, but that would undergo a setting. The star was not a lawgiver, but a sign-bearer, producing not the arrangement of days, but light at night. The star guides ones journey, not ones life; it was the Magis companion, not Christs relative; not a lady ruling with the Lord, but a little maidservant of little servants. But someone asks: Why Magi, why by means of a star, if there is no causal relationship or connection among the stars, ones origin, and ones nature? Why Magi? Why a star? It is so that through Christ the very material of error would thus become the occasion of salvation, just as through Christ the cause of death became the cause of life. It is the singular characteristic of strength to throw the enemy into confusion by means of his own sword. Among the Magi it was not ignorance and not their will that was to blame, and it was not their intention, but their error that was at fault. To search for God while not knowing how to search is an incapacity rather than guilt. Therefore, it was merciful that God both granted that He be found by those who were searching, and placed the blame on error. And so Paul by a similar kind of consideration was made a preacher out of being a persecutor, because through his zeal for the Law he was attacking the Law, and in his love for God he was sinning against God. This is why faith is attributable to his ignorance. But the listener says in addition: Granted that the star shows the way to the Magi in their search not of its own accord, but at Gods bidding, but where did they derive such great knowledge of mystical gifts? Where did they learn the great sacred symbolism of what they were offering? Not from Chaldean ingenuity, but from the ancient tradition of the sacred elders. There were of Noahs race of the sons of Abraham, who had learned through God and not through craft that Christ was Born, and they had come to know by a profound mystery that this Mas was God, a King, and that He was about to die. And so it is that they brought gifts in accord with the faith of their fathers, and such that they knew enough to offer gold to the King, incense to God, and myrrh to the One about to die, and by such gifts they showed appropriate reverence and honour. But let these remarks suffice as far as the Magi are concerned. During Epiphany Christ at the wedding gave water the taste of wine, so that it was on account of power and not pleasure that Christ attended the wedding; not for the sake of courtesy, but of a miracle; the reason for his action was to perform a sign, not to fill His stomach; it was not to provide for drunkenness, but to manifest His Divinity. And so the very moment when He changed the nature of the water, He disclosed the Author, and the Creator of the elements was revealed by means of the transformation of the created entity. Happy is that wedding, happy indeed, at which Christ is present, and which is consecrated not by dissipation, but by His acts of power! What then will not be transformed into grace, when water has been transformed into wine? During Epiphany Christ entered the basin of the Jordan to consecrate our Baptism, in order that those whom He had assumed by being born on earth, He would raise up to Heaven by being reborn; that He would have free in Himself those whom He had seen were captives when they were apart from Him; that He would bring to life those whom guilt had made mortal ;that He would make those live forever whom death had caused to live only for a time; and that those whom the devil had made exiles on earth, He would make His partners in Heaven. The reason, brothers, that the Holy Ghost descended and infused Himself in full at that time, and that the Father proclaims from Heaven: This is My Beloved Son, was that Those Who had Shared with the Son in One Activity of creating us would together impart the Grace to restore us. Thus it was that Christ was recognized as God at different times, but on one and the same day, by the Magis gifts, by the transformation of the water, and by the Voice of His Father as a threefold testimony, and that from the Triple Revelation of Christ the One Hallowed Feast of Epiphany was established.
Posted on: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 22:29:39 +0000
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