On this final day of the Christmas Season, let us take reflect on the number of “theophanies” with which this Season has given us. A Theophany is a manifestation of God.
On the liturgies of Christmas Eve, the first theophany is that of the Angels to the shepherds in the field and later manifested in the person of the infant Jesus to them in the stable at Bethlehem.. On the Epiphany, God is manifested in Jesus to the Magi. In the presentation of Jesus in the temple, God is manifested in Jesus to Simeon and Anna. In the finding of the 12 year old Jesus in the Temple, God is manifested in Jesus as he conversed with the scribes and teachers of the Temple. Today in his baptism in the Jordan, God is manifested in Jesus to John the Baptist and those at the river.
The Baptism of Jesus raises two questions for us who have been baptized. Baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus are we a living theophany of God in our world? Do our lives manifest God in our world?
The mystic/contemplative and doctor of the Church, Teresa of Avila says this particularly well.
“Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Or, as Edwina Gately writes so wonderfully from, There Was No Path So I Trod One (1996, 2013):
Called to Become
You are
called to become
A perfect creation.
No one is called to become
Who you are called to be.
It does not matter
How short or tall
Or thick-set or slow
You may be.
It does not matter
Whether you sparkle with life
Or are as silent as a still pool.
Whether you sing your song aloud
Or weep alone in darkness.
It does not matter
Whether you feel loved and admired
Or unloved and alone
For you are called to become
A perfect creation.
No one’s shadow
Should cloud your becoming.
No one’s light
Should dispel your spark.
For the Lord delights in you.
Jealously looks upon you
And encourages with gentle joy
Every movement of the Spirit
Within you.
Unique and loved you stand.
Beautiful or stunted in your growth
But never without hope and life.
For you are called to become
A perfect creation.
This becoming may be
Gentle or harsh.
Subtle or violent.
But it never ceases.
Never
pauses or hesitates.
Only is—
Creative force—
Calling you
Calling you to become
A perfect creation.
So, on this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, how well are we living our baptismal call to manifest God in our lives to our world? What do we need to change in our lives to manifest God finer in our lives?
