Your Eminence Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta, our beloved brother and concelebrant in the Holy Spirit, Christ-loving clergy and laity of the Holy Metropolis, our beloved in the Lord: Grace be to you and peace from God.
It is on this ever-joyous feast of Holy Theophany that we greet all of you and offer together with the rest of creation hymns of praise to the Triune God, whose mystery was made manifest most especially when our Savior descended into the waters of Jordan to be baptized. To this very day, all of creation has been watered and granted life by the streams of grace flowing from the Holy Spirit. And in our own baptisms, we received “redemption, sanctification, cleansing of flesh and spirit, loosing of bonds, forgiveness of sins, illumination of soul, a renewal of the spirit, the great gift of sonship, a garment of incorruption.”
During the Sacrament of Holy Baptism and on this great feast, we chant that all those who have been baptized in Christ “have put on Christ,” and we are all called to remember that we, too, took the very first steps of our new life in Christ as we danced liturgically around the baptismal font three times while this sacred hymn was thrice proclaimed. Saint Nicholas Cabasilas elaborates on these Pauline words, explaining that Christ has been engraved on us, formed on us and wrapped around us like a garment. And according to Saint Nicholas, this is most likely why in our tradition each person’s nameday is linked to their baptism; for, it is at our baptism “that we are formed and shaped, and our shapeless and undefined life receives shape and definition.”
Christ made Himself known to the people of His time on the feast of Theophany. Until then, as the blessed Forerunner said on that day: “among you stands one whom you do not know.” (John 1:26) But if we are to truly know and understand Christ today, if we are to understand the beauty of this most precious feast, or to understand the beauty of the Trinity, our baptisms and the message of the Gospel, this ultimately means that we are to understand love. True understanding always leads to love. Essentially, our dearly beloved, as Saint Paul describes, we can achieve nothing in this life without love. (1 Cor. 13)
Therefore, having received such spiritual gifts on this day and on the day of our baptisms, let us lead lives of encouragement, strength and love, so that with boldness we may confess to those near and far the loving-kindness that each person of the Holy Trinity, the Triune Godhead, has demonstrated to save our human race. Theophany is a celebration of new life, freedom in Christ and the revelation of the divine mystery of the Holy Trinity. It is a celebration of witness and illumination, so by embracing this great gift, we may “be the light” to those in darkness, who are far from the freeing and life-giving Truth, the “Truth which shall set us free.”
May the joy from this tradition of processing to the waters of the Spring Bayou become a theophany in itself for you personally, as well as for all those who have gathered to witness this wonderful expression of our Hellenic Orthodox Faith, so that the “religion of the Greeks” may serve to encourage and invite also those who are not of our fold, just as it mesmerized the representatives of Prince Vladimir in the 10th century—when they were seeking to find a religion for their people. Rejoice; for, “we have seen the True Light! We have received the Heavenly Spirit! We have found the True Faith! Worshiping the Undivided Trinity, who has saved us.”
Conveying to you our Patriarchal blessings and prayers, as well as our heartfelt congratulations, we wish you and your families a blessed feast, as well as health and strength in the new year.
At the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Feast of Theophany 2019
Your fervent supplicant before God,
+ Bartholomew
Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome
and Ecumenical Patriarch
