Sunday after the Theophany

The Sunday after Theophany belongs to the liturgical structure surrounding the feast of Theophany, one of the most ancient feasts of the Eastern Church. According to early Christian records, Theophany has been celebrated in the East since at least the time of Clement of Alexandria, around AD 200, making the surrounding cycle of forefeast and afterfeast among the older elements of the fixed calendar.

In its early history the feast celebrated several manifestations of Christ's glory and divinity together — the Baptism, the miracle at Cana, the Nativity, and the visit of the Magi. Over time the Western Church came increasingly to focus on the visit of the Magi, while the East retained the Baptism in the Jordan as the central mystery of the feast. In Jerusalem the observance developed its own character, with elaborate octave celebrations involving processions and services at multiple holy sites, reflecting the proximity of Bethlehem.

The afterfeast of Theophany runs January 7 to January 14, and within it the Church appointed distinct readings for the Saturday and Sunday immediately following the feast, readings that relate to penance and to perseverance in the Christian struggle. The Sunday's position is anchored to the feast rather than to a fixed date, so it moves across the days from January 7 to January 13 depending on the year. The Leavetaking on January 14 repeats the entire office of the feast except for the Entrance, the festal readings, the Litya, the Blessing of Loaves at Vespers, and the Polyeleos and festal Gospel at Matins.

The Gospel appointed for this Sunday, Matthew 4:12–17, presents the formal inauguration of Christ's public ministry. Having heard that John the Baptist had been arrested, Jesus withdrew into Galilee, left Nazareth, and settled in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. There He began to preach, proclaiming, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' The commemoration thus carries a call to repentance directly out of the Baptism it follows.

The evangelist reads this beginning through the prophecy of Isaiah: the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, the Galilee of the Gentiles, is the place where the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and where light has dawned upon those abiding in the shadow of death. By locating Christ's first preaching in this region, the Gospel presents Him as the messianic light dawning on those in darkness, and the Sunday's placement in the afterfeast draws out the continuity between the light manifested at the Jordan and the light of His teaching.

The theology of the surrounding feast informs the whole period. Theophany is understood in the East as a Trinitarian manifestation, in which all three Persons of the Trinity revealed themselves simultaneously to humanity: the Father speaking from heaven, the Son baptized in the water, and the Holy Spirit descending visibly as a dove. Many hymns of the afterfeast glorify Christ as God who sanctifies the waters of the Jordan by being baptized in them, teaching that His immersion transformed and consecrated the waters themselves and established baptism as a sacrament for all believers.

The afterfeast hymnody sustains this sacramental theme, comparing the streams of the Jordan to the life-giving waters of Baptism and inviting the faithful to purify their minds in order to see Christ. Read within this framework, the Sunday's call to repentance is bound to the renewal given in baptism: the ministry that opens with 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand' is the ministry of the One whose own baptism opened the way of Christian initiation.

The Sunday falls within the Afterfeast of Theophany, and its services carry the festal hymns of that period. Many of these hymns glorify Christ as God who sanctifies the waters of the Jordan by being baptized in them; others compare the streams of the Jordan to the life-giving waters of Baptism and invite the faithful to purify their minds in order to see Christ. The Divine Liturgy of Theophany substitutes the baptismal hymn, in which the newly illumined are addressed as those baptized into Christ, for the Trisagion, a proper carried through the celebration of the feast.

The feast of Theophany includes an eight-day afterfeast during which the regular fasting discipline is suspended. The Sunday after Theophany falls within this fast-free period, so it is kept without the usual weekly abstinence.

The Great Blessing of Waters is the principal feature of the feast of Theophany; priests subsequently bless homes with the holy water, a practice that extends through the days of the afterfeast within which this Sunday falls.

Theophany is traditionally associated with baptism, both in the East and West, linking the commemoration of Christ's own Baptism to the initiation of new Christians.

• Matthew 4:12-17 — The appointed Gospel: the Lord withdraws to Galilee and begins to preach, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
• Isaiah 9:1-2 — The prophecy fulfilled in Christ's ministry in Galilee — the people in darkness have seen a great light.