Fr. Thomas Hopko on the Blessing of the Waters

Source: oca.org

 

Dear Parish Faithful, I believe that yesterday - January 6 - was the first time in my priesthood that I was unable to serve the Liturgy for Theophany. No sense trying to fight the elements! That means that we have yet to bless the waters for this year. Since Theophany is such a great Feast, that means that the Afterfeast extends until January 14. Therefore, since next Sunday falls within the Afterfeast, we will serve the Great Blessing of the Waters at the close of the Liturgy. In preparation, here is an excellent explanation of that "ancient rite" from Fr. Thomas Hopko.  Hope you are enjoying being snowbound! The Blessing of the Waters Fr. Thomas Hopko Sometimes people think that the blessing of water and the practice of drinking it and sprinkling it over everyone and everything is a “paganism” which has falsely entered the Christian Church. We know, however, that this ritual was practiced by the People of God in the Old Testament, and that in the Christian Church it has a very special and important significance. It is the faith of Christians that since the Son of God has taken human flesh and has been immersed in the streams of the Jordan, all matter is sanctified and made pure in Him, purged of its death-dealing qualities inherited from the devil and the wickedness of men. In the Lord’s epiphany all creation becomes good again, indeed “very good,” the way that God Himself made it and proclaimed it to be in the beginning when “the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters” (Gen 1.2) and when the “Breath of Life” was breathing in man and in everything that God made (Gen 1.30; 2.7). The world and everything in it is indeed “very good” (Gen 1.31) and when it becomes polluted, corrupted and dead, God saves it once more by effecting the “new creation” in Christ, his divine Son and our Lord by the grace of the Holy Spirit (Gal 6.15). This is what is celebrated on Epiphany, particularly in the Great Blessing of Water. The consecration of the waters on this feast places the entire world—through its “prime element” of watering the perspective of the cosmic creation, sanctification, and glorification of the Kingdom of God in Christ arid the Spirit. It tells us that man and the world were indeed created and saved in order to be “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3.19), the “fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph 1.22). It tells us that Christ, in Who in “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,” is and shall be truly “all, and in all” (Col 2.9, 3.11). It tells us as well that the “new heavens and the new earth” which God has promised through His prophets and apostles (Is 66.2; 2 Peter 3.13; Rev 21.1) are truly “with us” already now in the mystery of Christ and His Church. Thus, the sanctification and sprinkling of the Epiphany water is no pagan ritual. It is the expression of the most central fact of the Christian vision of man, his life and his world. It is the liturgical testimony that the vocation and destiny of creation is to be “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3.19). --Fr Thomas Hopko

Coffee with Sister Vassa

 

THE LIGHT OF HUMAN BEINGS

There’s so much to write about today: It’s New Year’s Day; it’s also the NC (meaning New Calendar and not North Carolina, just so you know)-feasts of The Circumcision of the Lord and St. Basil the Great; it’s the OC day before the Forefeast of Nativity and Holy Martyr Bonifatius; and it’s a Wednesday. All faith-invigorating topics, particularly on New Year’s Day. But I’ll reflect just on the faith-inspiring coincidence that we are beginning this year on a Wednesday, called “the fourth day” in Hebrew and Greek, which signifies the Fourth Day of creation, when God created and put into motion the planets and the stars. He thus formed and put into motion what is known as “time.” And “God saw that it was good.” 

The forward motion of time, which we celebrate on New Year’s, was “good” in God’s eyes from the beginning. His only-begotten Son reaffirmed this goodness of our time, by stepping into it; by becoming One of us via a Virgin Birth, and walking through it His way, the Way of the Cross. We celebrate both these central mysteries of Christianity every Wednesday, which in our Byzantine liturgical tradition is the day of the Cross and of the Theotokos, with the liturgical hymns thematizing specifically the “stavro-theotokial” topic of her standing next to the Cross. We thus celebrate every Wednesday the “goodness” of God-given time in light of the Cross, and in light of the reality of all of us, as the Mother-Church (signified by the Mother of God), standing near the Cross and participating in her lament. It is a lament that is always leading us to the joy of new life, as the Cross leads to Resurrection. Christ Himself consoles us from His Cross, as in the hymn we chant on Holy Saturday: “Do not lament me, O Mother…, for I shall rise…” I’m reminded also of Bob Dylan’s prophetic song, “It’s alright, Ma, I’m only dying…”

We’re not closing our eyes to the dark reality of Christ being crucified in our world, also in our time, as we stay close by the side of His Cross. But “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it,” (Jn 1:5) is the Great Fact in this human-divine drama, in which we are called to be receiving and emanating this invincible Light. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of human beings.” (Jn 1:4) Let me not miss out on shining the Light onto the darkness today, is my New Years Day resolution (because New Year’s resolutions for the whole year don’t work for me). Thank You, God. Let there be light!

Happy New Year, dear Friends!