Theophany Icon Explained

The following excerpt from http://members.sti.net/byzantineimages/theophany.htm clearly describes the symbolism inherint in the Theophany Icon.

“You must put on a new person created in God’s image, whose justice and holiness are born of truth.” Eph. 4: 24

The feast of Theophany, or the Baptism of Christ, reminds us that, as Christians, we live, die, and are born again in Christ. Theophany or “manifestation of God” is a joyous feast of the Church which occurs on January 6. It is also called the Feast of Illumination because the apparition of the Trinitarian God—evident in the icon—is accompanied by a resplendence of Light. The kontakion of the feast sings: “Thou has come, Thou art made manifest, the Light that no man can approach.” After Easter and Pentecost, Theophany is the greatest feast in the Byzantine churches. The Epiphany is the first public manifestation of Christ. In humility, the Lord submits to baptism, while simultaneously, his glory is made manifest through the appearance of the hand of the Creator God and the image of the Holy Spirit which blesses and sanctifies the holy event. Let us examine some of the images of the holy icon.

The rocky ground symbolizes the earth level, the material world into which Christ enters to transform it by the penetration of his brilliance. Christ alone stands in the picture in bare feel. Besides being a natural way one would stand in water, bare feet represents something else in icon-painting. The Savior is almost always pictured with bare feet in icons, as are many of the saints. It indicates a level of spiritual achievement which allows divine influence to be channeled directly down through the universe. St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote, “Sandaled feet cannot ascend that height where the light of truth is seen..[they] must be removed from the feet of the soul.”

Through Christ’s baptism, the lower parts of our world (and the lower, untransformed part of our own nature) are illuminated and raised up with him to put on the robes of incorruptibility. Indeed, baptism itself was formally called ‘illumination,’ and the feast of Theophany brings, not only the waters of purification but the grace of Epiphany. The Epiphany, called in the ancient Greek church, the ‘feast of lights’ is the mystery of the manifestation of who Christ really is. “Today Thou hast appeared to the inhabited earth, and Thy light, O Lord, has shown itself to us, who with knowledge sing Thy praise.” (Kontakion)

The revelation of the Trinity is evident in the icon because at the top, heaven is opening (symbolized by the half circle) and divine rays are flowing out through the image of the Holy Spirit (symbolized by the dove in the 2nd circle.) The Creator-God is never imaged as a person in Eastern iconography. The Word takes flesh in the person of Christ. In some versions of this icon, Jesus is depicted fully immersed in water and sometimes naked, representing his self-emptying love. Hence the water is both womb and tomb for us, united with him through our own baptism. As a new self emerges from the watery womb, we drown all that is unredeemable: the old self dies. Christ is blessing the waters, indicating that all of creation is renewed.

Christ did not need to be baptized; through it, he is “clothed” in the nakedness of the Adam, the symbol of our universal parent. The angels attend to this Epiphany of the Universal Logos, who has come, not to rule, but to serve. The three angels point to the unity of the Trinity. They wait, with bowed heads, to attend to the Lord with reverence. John the Baptist holds out one hand in the typical gesture of baptism; however with his left hand, John makes a gesture of prayer as he witnesses the first Theophany, or “showing forth” of God.

John the Baptist, (whose feast is celebrated on the next day, Jan 7) is called the Precursor, the last and greatest of the prophets, the new Elijah. In John’s gospel, the Baptist not only preaches repentance and conversion; he reveals Jesus as the “Lamb of God.” (John 1: 29-34) Indeed, “John declares that Jesus accomplishes what the baptism of repentance cannot do," as the monk Lev Gillet says, for in the stream of the river Jordon, Christ “has washed away the transgression of the world.” Personal repentance is transformed into the gift of this great grace.

Theophany is the feast wherein the Church performs the ritual of the “Great Blessing of the Waters” in which we pray, “Grant to all those who touch, who anoint themselves with it or drink from it, sanctification, blessing, cleansing, and health.” The Church acknowledges that it is Christ himself who blesses the waters and all of the elements of our earth by extension. Through Christ’s Incarnation, all material things are made holy. As Bishop Kallistos Ware explains,

“This, then, is part of the meaning of Theophany: in the eyes of one who is a Christian, nothing should ever appear trivial or mean, for the redemptive and transforming grace of the Savior extends to all things, however outwardly despicable.”

Every drop of the holy waters which falls upon our heads, our homes, our icons, our altars, connects us to the water into which Our Lord was immersed when he was baptized.

Theophany Tradition in the Ukrainian Catholic Church

The custom of the priest visiting parishioners' homes and businesses to bless them with the "Jordan Water" from Theophany has endured for hundreds of years. Traditionally, house blessings should be completed before the beginning of Great Lent.

The first few years, which are spent almost entirely in the home, are the most formative years of life.
In a real sense, the home is a school. Things are constantly being taught there. Parents and others in the household reach by what they are and how they live every day. It is the most important of schools, because values, attitudes, a way of life are taught there all the time. In a real sense, the home is also a church. Prayers are said there. God is worshipped there. Most homes have a Bible and prayer books. There is an altar in the home-the dining table. There we bless our daily food and eat it. This food becomes our body and blood-our tissues of life, constantly renewed and replaced.

There are people, Christians, in the home, just as in church. Most homes have a cross and icons; many have candles. Most Christians pray at home, in the morning and in the evening. If they have sinned, they ask for God's forgiveness. Certainly religion is not something found only ni church. It is found in the home, too. This is why the Church brings the blessing of Theophany into the home. Just as the home is an extension of church, this blessing of the home is an extension of the service of blessing that began in the church. So let our homes be Christian places. Let them show our faith, with icons and candles and prayers and Christian living. Above all, let them be places where the presence of Christ is felt day by day. Let them be places of light, of love, of refuge from the darkness of the world.