Epiphany at the Romanian Patriarchate

On 6th January 2013, the Orthodox Christians celebrated the Baptism of the Lord. Also named “Epiphany”, “Appearance of the Lord” or “Teofany”, the feast reminds the moment when Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was baptised by Saint John the Prophet, in the water of the River Jordan.

Hundreds of faithful attended the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral celebrated by His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, together with a group of priests and deacons.

In the sermon delivered after reading the Evangelical pericope, His Beatitude emphasised the importance of the Baptism of the Lord as basis of the Christian Baptism: “The Baptism is celebrated in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, just because at the Baptism of the Lord in the River Jordan not only the Son was present, but also the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Lord has come to be baptised with the baptism of repentance for forgiving the sins, John’s baptism, which was a preparation for the Christian Baptism, an awareness of the need to forgive the sins. Saint Basil the Great says that John’s baptism was the beginning of the Christian Baptism, and the Christian Baptism is the completion of the baptism of repentance that Saint John the Baptist practiced. Thus, the grace was not given through the baptism of John, but only the beginning of the forgiveness of the sins as an awareness of the need to forgive the sins. The grace was given through Christ and this is why after His resurrection Christ gives the Holy Spirit to the Apostles so that they may forgive the sins; the baptism is celebrated only after the Descent of the Holy Spirit over the Saint Apostles at the Pentecost. In other words, the Baptism of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, is not a simple baptism in the water, but a Baptism with water and Holy Spirit. The water shows the need of cleaning the soul and body, but this thing is done invisibly, through the work of the Holy Spirit. In the Baptism we have the mystery of the love of the Most Holy Trinity for us. We become Christians when we are baptised in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit because Christ, our Lord and Saviour, is One in the Holy Trinity”.

Today’s feast, celebrated after the Divine Liturgy, is continued with the celebration of the High Holy Water, done only on the eve of the Baptism of the Lord and on the day of the Baptism of the Lord, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel said, showing that: “The consecration of the High Holy Water reminds us of the our Christian Baptism. When we were baptised we were children, the godfather confessed for us and we were grown up in the Church because we become Christians through Baptism, we go by the name of Christ and receive the Chrismation, namely the seal of the gifs of the Holy Spirit. As soon as Jesus Christ got out of the water the Holy Spirit came down over Him. So do we when we take the child out of the water and administrate the Chrismation. The same hour we also give him the Holy Communion, the Body and Blood of the Lord, to show that he is a full member of the Church, the Mysterious Body of Christ. So, the Orthodox Church does not postpone the Baptism, Chrismation and Holy Communion for a certain age under pretext that they do not understand these sacraments. Nor even when 100 can we fully understand how the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of the Lord, but we do know that these things are holy, that they show the love of God for us and that they are the foretaste of the eternal life given to us in the Church even in this world. Thus, we baptise the children when they are 40 days old, we administrate the chrismation with the Holy Great Myrrh and communion the children with the eternal love of Christ shown in the Mystery of the Cross and of the Resurrection”.

After the Divine Liturgy, the Patriarch of Romania celebrated the consecration of the High Holy Water, in front of the Patriarchal Residence, assisted by a group of priests and deacons, in the presence of thousands of faithful.

The consecration of the High Holy Water, said the Patriarch of Romania in the speech delivered, is one of the most beautiful services of the Orthodoxy.

His Beatitude has also shown that the prayers within the consecration of the water show us the gifts and blessings of the Holy Water: “The High Holy Water celebrates three works and brings three great gifts, namely: the consecration of the soul and body, as well as of the space in which we live and work; it brings about healing of the spiritual and physical diseases, because the Holy Water relates us to God, a relationship of prayer and thanksgiving to God. The body is also healed because rather often many of the physical diseases are the result of the spiritual ones. Thirdly, the High Holy Water protects us against the evil spirits and the passions that the evil spirits maintain and multiply in the humans”.

The feast of the Baptism of the Lord, has also shown His Beatitude, is for us, the Romanians, an occasion to remember the Baptism of our people: “We do not have a year of our official Christianisation because we have not been Christianised at command, by order of the emperor or of the prince, but our Christianisation began with the work of Saint Andrew the Apostle and it went off for a few centuries while the Romanian people was formed as a new people in the history from the Dacians and Romans. Pagan migratory populations such as the Goths, Gepises, Huns, Avars, Humans, Turks and Tatars passed over the territory of our country but they did not succeed in uprooting the Sacrament of Baptism, of the Cross, and of the Resurrection of Christ from the life of the Romanian people”.

As every year, an ice cross was set in the yard of the Patriarchal Cathedral, bedecked with fir branches, flowers and basil. This year 24 barrels of 12,000 l of water were prepared, after consecration, which was offered to the faithful present at the Patriarchal Cathedral, on the occasion of the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Source: