BAPTISM / THEOPHANY / ILLUMINATION

6th January. 

1. BAPTISM. Our Lord received baptism at His servant's hands to fulfill every requirement;  He did not accept it as the sequel to a confession, for He was sinless. He received it as ratifying the mission of His great forerunner - the last and great child of the Old Dispensation, the earliest herald of the New; and He also received it as the beautiful symbol of moral  purification, and the humble inauguration of a ministry which came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill. "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3.15)

2. THEOPHANY. At the Baptism of the Lord in water the mystery of the Holy Trinity of God was revealed: the Father revealed Himself to the sense of hearing, the Spirit to the sense of sight and the Son, further beyond these, to the sense of touch. The Father gave His testimony of the Son, the Son was baptized in the waters and the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, hovered over the waters. 

3. ILLUMINATION. Each of us,  baptized in the water is illuminated by the Father of lights, through the merits of the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

• < Prev
• Next >