“Just as no physical life is possible without water and light, so too spiritual life cannot be sustained if we are not perpetually cleansed and if we do not walk in the light of Christ.”
- Vassilios Papavassiliou, Meditations for the 12 Feasts pg 44
Reflection:
Only when we walk in the Light of Christ (His Gospel and Church) and participate in the purification of the Sacraments will our lives truly feel joyfully full of purpose and transformed in wisdom. God works through His creation, through His Church.
Our Lord’s Baptism, the Feast of Lights (Τα Φὠτα), Holy Epiphany, is a feast of water and light, of a new creation(1), of purification and illumination.
Christ enters the waters of the Jordan today not to be cleansed (for He is the Only Sinless One), but in doing so He purifies the waters, humanity, and all creation.
We are illumined with the revelation of the Holy Trinity (voice of the Father, Christ Himself, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove). We have the Sacrament of Holy Baptism so that we might be united to Christ and be reshaped as a new creation - adopted by Grace(2) as sons and daughters of our heavenly Father.
By Holy Baptism and Chrismation we are given the potential to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven being true sons and daughters of God - but we must continually choose to live close to Him, to love God and neighbor, and live as the Body of Christ.
Today we are reminded of our own baptism, or perhaps we are seeking Christ for the first time. Let us do our best to walk in the Light of Christ by growing closer to Him with every choice we make, strengthened and transformed by Him through the Sacraments of the Church.
Resources:
1) 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
