When does Christmas end? For many in the secular world, Christmas ends on Dec. 26. But in the Church the celebration is just beginning. We have the Octave of Christmas culminating with the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Then there are the Twelve Days of Christmas leading up to Epiphany. Liturgically, the last day of the Christmas season is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, after which begins Ordinary Time, although some parts of the world continue to observe Christmas right up until the Feast of the Presentation on Feb. 2.
It seems fitting to me that the line between Christmas and the rest of the year is a little fuzzy, because what we celebrate on Christmas is not only the Lord’s Nativity but everything that flows from it. This deeper meaning of Christmas is summed up by the word “epiphany.”
We give this name to the feast on which we celebrate the Adoration of the Magi, but the word itself means a revelation or manifestation. The ancient tradition of the Church celebrates not only the Adoration of the Magi with this name, but also the Baptism of the Lord and the Miracle at Cana. Ponder the Gospel Antiphon from Vespers on the evening of Epiphany, prayed in the Liturgy of the Hours: “Three mysteries mark this holy day: today the star leads the magi to the infant Christ; today water is changed into wine for the wedding feast; today Christ wills to be baptized by John in the river Jordan to bring us salvation.”
We see these three events linked together in the cycle of readings for the Mass. On the Feast of Epiphany we hear the gospel of the magi following the light of a star to adore the infant King. On the following Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord with the gospel telling of Christ’s baptism in the Jordan by John, bringing us into Ordinary Time. And on the Sunday after that, every three years in Cycle C, we read from John’s gospel of Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. Prior to the liturgical reforms after the Second Vatican Council, this gospel would have been heard every year on the Sunday after the Baptism of the Lord.
These three Sundays, then, form a kind of Epiphany Triptych. What ties these seemingly unrelated events together? They are all an epiphany, or manifestation, of Emmanuel. They are all signs that God is with us in Christ.
The ever-expanding revelation of God to man is the story of salvation history. God made us in His image (Gen 1:27) with a rational intellect and free will, so that we might know and love Him. But as a result of the Fall, we lost knowledge of God. This is reflected in the way Adam and Eve hid themselves from God in the garden (Gen 3:8).
We distance ourselves from God by our sins.
But God never ceases to seek us out and make Himself known to us.
We see God’s revelation unfolding throughout the Old Testament. He gives us the Law so that we might know His mind. He sends prophets to call us back to His friendship. But we ignore the law. We persecute the prophets.
But God still doesn’t give up on us. In the fullness of time, He sends His only begotten Son into the world, born of a woman so that we might become adopted children of God (Gal 4:4). What a mystery! What love the Father must have for us! Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is the ultimate self-revelation of God. “No one has ever seen God. The only Son… has revealed Him” (Jn 1:18).
We celebrate the Incarnation with special joy at Christmas, but it began nine months earlier, at the Annunciation. The Word of God came to Mary by the message of an angel, who conceived God’s Son in her womb. This revelation was for a time a “family secret,” but it didn’t stay a secret for long. At Christ’s birth it was made known to the shepherds by an angel. It was made known to the magi by a star. It was made known at His baptism by the Father’s own voice declaring, “This is My beloved Son” (Mt 3:17). It was made known by Christ Himself when He demonstrated His authority over creation by changing water into wine.
God took on human flesh so that by His death and resurrection we might be redeemed.
But salvation means more than that. It means knowing and loving God; the very reason God made us in His image. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (Jn 17:3). And so Christ did more than die on a cross. He established a Church and left her with sacraments so that He might always be Emmanuel, God-with-us. And He gave the Church the mission to make disciples of all nations (Mt 28:19) – that is, to make Him known to the ends of the earth.
This is why when we come together as the Church to celebrate the sacrament of Christ’s continuing presence among us, the Eucharist, we are also sent on a mission.
“Go,” the deacon instructs us, “and announce the Gospel of the Lord.” Like the wise men of old, we have followed the light to Christ and now we must go into the world and be light for others. We must make Him known. The three mysteries of the Epiphany – the Adoration of the Magi, the Miracle at Cana, and the Baptism of the Lord – both end the Christmas season and begin Ordinary Time because the Lord’s Epiphany is more than a feast day. It is an ongoing reality, the mission of the Church and the task of every Christian.
Deacon Matthew Newsome is the Catholic campus minister at Western Carolina University and the regional faith formation coordinator for the Smoky Mountain Vicariate.