Saturday, January 10, 2004
Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa
Kellia: Exodus 14:15-29 Epistle: Ephesians 6:10-17 Gospel: St. Matthew 4:1-11
Exodus 14:15-29 LXX (Ex. 14:15-29 MT), especially vs. 25,
"...and the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them...." The
Feast of Theophany is the greatest of the Holy Days of the Church after Pascha and Pentecost.
The Gospel read this day at the Divine Liturgy (Mt. 3:13-17) is the account of the first,
undisguised, historical manifestation of the God the Holy Trinity: God the Son, the Incarnate
Word, is baptized by the Forerunner in the waters of Jordan. God the Father audibly voices His
infinite pleasure in His Beloved Son. The Holy Spirit confirms the Father's word in His descent
upon the Lord Jesus in the form of a dove.
Anciently, in preparation for the Feast, the Church kept an all night Vigil. Holy Baptism was
administered during this service. The Vigil began with the full assembly - Catechumens and the
Faithful - sharing in a Solemn Catechesis of fifteen Lessons from the Old Testament, after which
those to be Baptized were led to a separate building called a "Baptisterion" while the Faithful
continued with Little Compline, Great Vespers, Litiya and Artoklasia. Finally, the newly
Baptized came in procession and joined the Faithful for Orthros and the Divine Liturgy.
The ten Old Testament lessons which we begin reading today are from the Catechesis. They
describe events that were foreshadowings or antitypes of the greater reality of Holy Baptism
revealed in the Mystery of Christ. Like all antitypes, they actually participate in the eternal truths
of the reality they herald. As each Christian partakes in the Lord's Baptism through his own
Baptism, in a similar manner, each of these events, as antitype, conveys something of the
Mystery of Christ's Baptism and ours: Israel's escape at the Red Sea, the entrance into the Holy
Land at the Jordan, Isaiah's call to repentance, Jacob's experience at Mahanaim, Moses' rescue
from the Nile, Gideon's fleece, Elijah's sacrifice on Mount Carmel, the sweetening of the bitter
waters of Marah, Isaiah's vision of the great Day of Salvation, Naaman's cleansing from leprosy.
To be Baptized, therefore, is to proclaim our deliverance at the Red Sea: that the Lord fights for
us, that God Himself delivers us from our enemy - the old slave master - and that the Lord
Himself blesses us by the hand of His servants. We not only proclaim these truths as rational
knowledge but also as an act of God that has transformed us because we share in the Mystery of
Christ through Holy Baptism. The truth is we are defended, delivered, and blessed by the one
God, for "A helper and protector [is God] unto me for salvation (Ex. 15:2 LXX).
Who has not tasted defeat by sin, the overwhelming, crushing power of sin to enslave and
dehumanize us? Who could fail to assent with St. John of the Ladder in his struggle as one
passion gives place to another and the "spirit of despair rejoices at the sight of increasing vice."
Yet, as the Lord's own, we stand amazed as He takes up on our behalf our battle against sin, and
the Holy Spirit, like a pillar of glory, stands between us and our sin and prevents its advance.
The Lord yokes Himself to us, and delivers us from our enemy the slave master, vanquishing in
and through our flesh that which has held us. Death comes with chariot, spear, and sword, and we
find no escape from his tyranny, yet we see Moses "trace the Cross, thus symbolizing that
invincible weapon" as his hands are stretched over the sea.
When the Lord's Priest plunged us beneath the waters we knew the blessing of the Master Who
"couldst not endure to behold mankind oppressed by the Devil" and "didst come and save us."
The Priest's hands that baptized, lifted us up, and anointed us, were Christ's own hands.
We confess Thy grace. We proclaim Thy mercy. We conceal not Thy gracious acts. Thou hast
delivered the generations of our mortal nature. All creation magnifieth Thee.