THEOLOGICAL CLUE

The Epiphany was originally a unitive festival, an observation of Jesus' birth, his baptism, and the first miracle he performed at Cana; Coelius Sedulius' fifth century hymn, "When Christ's Appearing Was Made Known," (Hymn 85, LBW) illustrates this three-fold nature of the Epiphany. Twelfth Night now concludes the Christmas season, the First Sunday after the Epiphany commemorates the Baptism of Our Lord, and the first miracle at Cana is assigned to the Second Sunday after the Epiphany only in Cycle/Year C. As it is now constituted, the liturgical function of this festival, which brings the lections into homiletical focus, is to celebrate Jesus' incarnation as God's revelation as Messiah and to affirm that he came into the world for the benefit of all people; he comes to d…