The Feast and Mystery of Epiphany
January 6 is the day after the 12th Day of Christmas, and the feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord! Before 1955, this important feast day used to have its own Octave, the Octave of Epiphany (which went from January 6-13), and the Sundays after Epiphany were known as.... well, the Sundays after Epiphhany — and not the Sundays in Ordinary Time, as they are now called.
In the Catholic East, this feast day is celebrated with even more solemnity than Christmas. For us Western Catholics of the Roman Rite, however, Christmas has always had more prominence — especially in the more recent era. Even the sacred liturgy attests to this fact, for in 1955 when Pope Pius XII eliminated almost all the Octaves in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Rite, he kept the Octave of Christmas, while doing away with the Octave of Epiphany. So while Roman Catholics today celebrate Christmas with more solemnity, Eastern Rite Catholics (and the Eastern Orthodox) hold Epiphany in higher esteem.
The Greek word from which the English word Epiphany is derived is epiphania (ἐπιφάνεια). Etymological dictionaries of Ancient and Biblical Greek define the word as:
manifestation
striking appearance
festival held in commemoration of the appearance of a god at some particular place
Thus, an epiphany is not just an ordinary appearance. It is an appearance or manifestation that sets itself apart by some extraordinary character or phenomenon, and is often associated with the divine.
The feast of Epiphany that the Church celebrates on January 6 every year (in the modern liturgy, it is often transferred to the nearest Sunday in many dioceses) is usually associated with the visit of the Magi or Wise Men from the East to the manger in Bethlehem. However, the Eastern Catholic Churches seem to maintain the more ancient tradition of commemorating three manifestations or revelations of Christ on January 6:
the Visit of the Wise Men to the manger;
the Baptism of Our Lord in the River Jordan;
the Miracle at the Wedding Feast in Cana.
All three are still referred to in the antiphons that the Roman Church uses in the Divine Office for the feast of Epiphany, for all three are public revelations or manifestations ("epiphanies") of Our Lord.
At the Baptism of Our Lord, Jesus is manifest as the Only-Begotten Son of God the Father: "This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him." At the wedding feast at Cana, Jesus performs His first public miracle, after which His disciples first begin to believe in Him; Christ is manifest as the Messiah, as attested to by His power to work miracles. And at the visit of the Wise Men to the manger, the Divine Infant is manifest to the foreign visitors (who represent the pagan nations) in a three-fold manner, as represented by the three gifts that they bring Him.
The Gospel of St. Matthew is the only one that mentions the Wise Men. In the Douay-Rheims Version, the Gospel reads as follows (Mt 2:1-12):
1 When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem,
2 Saying: Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and are come to adore him.
3 And king Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
4 And assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born.
5 But they said to him: In Bethlehem of Juda. For so it is written by the prophet:
6 And thou Bethlehem the land of Juda art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come forth the captain that shall rule my people Israel.
7 Then Herod, privately calling the wise men, learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them;
8 And sending them into Bethlehem, said: Go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him.
9 Who having heard the king, went their way; and behold the star which they had seen in the East, went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was.
10 And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
11 And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored him: and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
12 And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country.
In the current lectionary used in the Novus Ordo Mass (at least, here in Canada), the scriptural reading says "we have come to pay him homage" (v. 2); "that I also may come and pay him homage" (v. 8); and "falling down, they paid him homage" (v. 11). However, the Latin Vulgate and the original Greek speak more precisely of worshipping or adoring the Christ-Child. One can "pay homage" to any monarch or important figure; but one can only worship or adore God.
Notice that the Gospel does not actually mention the number of Wise Men who arrived at the manger. However, Catholic tradition has always maintained that there were three of them, as represented by the three gifts that were brought to the Christ-Child. The Catholic Tradition even provides them with names: Casper, Melchior, and Balthasar. And the gifts that they bring convey three aspects of the identity of the Child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger:
Gold for Christ the King;
Frankincense for Christ the God;
Myrrh for Christ the Man.
Gold is a kingly gift, associated with royalty and wealth, and also with majesty. Frankincense was burned in the Temple and offered as a sacrifice to honour God. And Myrrh was used to embalm the dead; thus a symbol of mortality, of Christ's sacrifice of His own life on the Cross for the salvation of mankind.
The Blessed Sacrament in Relation to Epiphany
In my two previous blog posts, we looked at the relationship between Christmas (the Nativity or Incarnation of Our Lord) and the Blessed Sacrament (Transubstantiation or the Real Presence). We saw how the mystery of Christ's Real Presence upon the Altar after the Consecration at Mass mirrors or parallels the coming of Christ from Heaven into the manger of Bethlehem at the Incarnation. But there is another parallel that we must now consider. It is the relationship between Epiphany and the Blessed Sacrament.
Epiphany is primarily about the manifestation or self-revelation of Christ, while Christmas focuses more on the presence of Christ itself. Now, while Christ is clearly present on the Altar after the words of Consecration are said by the Priest (thus the parallel between Christmas and the Mass), can we also say that Jesus reveals or manifests Himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament? Can we say that the Blessed Sacrament is a manifestation or "epiphany" of Jesus Christ — thereby making a parallel between Epiphany and the Mass?
The place to start looking for an answer to this question is with the three gifts brought by the Wise Men to the manger and what they reveal ("manifest") about Who the Infant in the manger really is. As we saw above, gold was brought to acknowledge Christ as King; frankincense to acknowledge Christ as God; and myrrh to acknowledge Christ as Man. If the Blessed Sacrament and the Mass parallel the feast of Epiphany, then the Catholic Mass should present us with these three aspects of Our Lord's identity in the Sacred Host. This means that in the Blessed Sacrament, we should be able to contemplate the Consecrated Host as Christ revealing Himself as King, as Christ revealing Himself as God, and as Christ revealing Himself as Man.
Christ as King : the Gold
The Kingship of Christ is shown in the Blessed Sacrament by the acts of kingly veneration that we give to the Consecrated Host, especially the act of genuflection. Genuflecting (or bending the knee to the ground) was used in the royal court in the Middle Ages as a sign of venerating the authority of the king. So was kissing the hand of the king, especially at the ring which represents the authority of the monarch to reign. In the Mass, this is translated by the priest kissing the Altar at various moments of the Mass and (at least in the traditional rite) the altar server kissing the hand of the priest at various moments of the Mass — especially when he gives or receives from him some object such as the thurible, cruets, etc.
The Kingship of Christ is also reflected in the Mass by the use of gold altar vessels, monstrances, chalices, patens, and often even gold-coloured vestments on special feast days. The gold that would often adorn high altars in our traditional churches, and the gold leaf used in many Eastern-style Catholic icons, are also reflections of the Royal Kingship of Christ.
Christ as God : the Frankincense
Besides acknowledging the Kingship of Christ, genuflection within the Mass also acknowledges the Divinity of Christ. In the royal courts, especially in the Middle Ages, the left knee was usually used to genuflect to the king, as bending the right knee was reserved to honouring God alone. Thus, one would bend the left knee before the earthly monarch, but only bend the right knee before God in the Blessed Sacrament. Genuflection, at Holy Mass, is always done with the right knee. But when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed on the Altar for Eucharistic Adoration, the faithful fall on both knees — to make a distinction between Christ present behind the veil of the Tabernacle and Christ present outside the Tabernacle veil and "visibly" in the monstrance on the Altar [Note: Sadly, the double genuflection (bending both knees to the ground) was officially done away with in the reformed liturgy after Vatican II — although it is still observed by some of the pious faithful to this day, thankfully].
Besides genuflection on the right knee and kneeling on both knees, the Divinity of Christ is also shown at Holy Mass by the use of incense (cf. the gift of frankincense for Christ the God at Epiphany). During more solemn Masses, the Altar is incensed as it is a symbol of Christ and the place upon which the Sacrifice of Christ takes place. The Evangelium (Book of the Gospels) is also incensed, as it contains the words and actions of Our Blessed Lord. The Priest is also incensed as he stands at the Altar of Sacrifice in the Person of Jesus Christ. Thus, many signs of Christ are incensed at the Mass in honour of Christ our God. Incense is especially pertinent at the moment of elevation after the two Consecrations at Mass, since Christ is really and truly present, from that moment, upon the Altar.
Christ as Mortal Man : the Myrrh
So we can see how the Holy Eucharist epiphanies or manifests both the Kingship and the Divinity of Christ. The gold and the frankincense are thus accounted for. But what about the myrrh? Myrrh was offered on Epiphany by the Wise Men in recognition of Christ as Man, of Christ who would offer up His life on the Cross for man's salvation. Myrrh is reminiscent of the tomb, the burial of Christ. How is this mystery of the humanity of Christ made present in the Blessed Sacrament and the Holy Mass?
Well, first of all, most of the prayers of the Mass (for example, the Collect Prayer) are addressed to the Father through the Son. This is why most of them end with the words per Dominum nostrum Jesus Christum Filium tuum... ("through Our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son..."); or with the shorter form per Christum Dominum nostrum ("through Christ Our Lord"). Christ is thus being invoked in these prayers as the Mediator between God and man. He is the perfect Mediator because He is not just truly God but also truly Man. We are not offering Jesus Christ the God to the Eternal Father; we are offering Him in His sacred humanity, as Man. It is Christ the High Priest and Victim who is being offered to God the Father and who is doing the offering itself (through His priest at the Altar). The humanity of Christ is thus the bridge that unites the Divine and the human, as Our Lord Himself revealed to St. Catherine of Siena as recounted in her famous Dialogues.
Note, however, that it is impossible to separate Christ the Man from Christ the God. So we are not separating the two natures of Christ. But it is important to know that it is through the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ that our prayers are being offered to God the Father.
Christ as Man is also made present at every Mass through the mystery of Transubstantiation at the Consecration. The bread and wine truly become His Body and Blood, the very Flesh and Blood that constituted Jesus in His human nature. Along with His Body and Blood, the Blessed Sacrament contains the Soul of Christ. This is not His Divinity, His Divine Spirit as God; it is His human soul. Thus the Body and Blood, and Soul, that are present in the Blessed Sacrament contain Christ in the fullness of His humanity. To these, of course, are attached concomitantly the Divinity of Christ as the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. This is why we use the expression, when speaking about the Blessed Sacrament:
Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The Body and Blood are the physical elements of Christ's humanity; the Soul is the immaterial (spiritual) element of Christ's humanity; and the Divinity is of course Christ as the Second Person of the Triune Godhead.
The mystery of Christ as Man is present at the Catholic Mass in another way too. The Roman Missal (at least before the changes to the liturgy after Vatican II) contains several special Masses that honour various aspects of the humanity of Christ. Some of these survived the changes after the Council, whereas others did not. There were (and in some cases still are) Masses in honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Precious Blood of Jesus, the Holy Name of Jesus (which is His name as Man), the Sacred Wounds of Jesus, the Holy Face of Jesus, and others. These Masses, which were often devotional and votive in nature, emphasized the sacred humanity of Christ in a marvellous way, all the while not at all denying His Divinity and identity as God the Son.
Thus we see that the three aspects of the Divine Infant that were acknowledged by the Wise Men in their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh on Epiphany — which highlight Christ as King, as God, and as Man — are marvellously made present in the Catholic Mass through the mystery of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The Holy Catholic Mass is not just an encapsulation of the entire mystery of Christmas; it also contains the full mystery of Epiphany as well. Both the Incarnation of Christ (Christmas) and the manifestation or revelation of Christ (Epiphany) are present for us to contemplate in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar!
Venite, adoremus; venite, adoremus; venite, adoremus, Dominum!
O Come, let us adore Him; o come, let us adore Him, o come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!
