Saturday, January 13, 2018

Met Ephrem (Kyriakos): Theophany is the Manifestation of the Holy Trinity

Arabic original here.

Theophany is the Manifestation of the Holy Trinity

We said the John the Forerunner prepared the people of God to receive Christ through humility, "There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (Mark 1:7-8).

Christ is perfect man and perfect God, who came to baptism as a human person, but without sin. He entered the water and there demonstrated that He would die, so His baptism indicated that He would taste death in the body. But after this baptism, the voice of the Father was heard saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."

John the Baptist bears witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him" (John 1:32). 

So the Holy Trinity is who baptizes believers in Jesus: the Father spoke, the Son was witnessed incarnate, and John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit and openly announced the Trintiy for the first time in human history.

This is what Christ publicly declared to His disciples after His resurrection:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20).

Thus God appeared as Holy Trinity on the banks of the River Jordan at Jesus' baptism: God the Father is the source, God the Son is eternally begotten of the Father just as light comes out of the sun, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father: "the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father" (John 15:26).

Word is accompanied by a spirit from man. The Holy Spirit is the breath of life that is in Christ and in us in baptism.

Theophany happened once by the River Jordan, but it also happens within us at every moment, in every aspect of our life: in our thoughts, our words, and all our actions.

+Ephrem
Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies

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