“And when Jesus had been baptized, just as He came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is My Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3:16)
The voice of the Father, the Lord Jesus and the Spirit like a dove—Three Persons acting in unison for our salvation. Here is the meaning of Theophany, or God’s manifestation par excellence. The Church spells it out in the hymn:
“The voice of the Father bore witness to You, calling You His beloved Son; and the Spirit in the form of a dove, confessed the truth of that word; O Christ Who has revealed Yourself, glory to You.”
Yet the renowned theologian St. Maximus the Confessor tells us that more Theophanies are exposed to the perceptive who know where to search for them.
Creation itself is a Theophany. The Bible states in the beginning: “God [the Father] said [the Son and Word] let there be [light, waters, etc.] and there was… [an act by the Holy Spirit]. The Spirit completes the plan of the Father Who spoke the Word of God. All thinking human beings [if that is not an oxymoron] are able to understand this. Those who don’t think through creation presume that it just happened without a Personal God planning and carrying it out. Even many who appreciate the beauty of the universe, who are overwhelmed with the splendor and majesty of it all, even as scientists hold as a premise the design and intricacy of each atom and solar system have little reason to muse on how it happened and why it continues—even when they devote their lives to restoring the cosmic loveliness cosmetically. To our shame they even transcend Christians and other religious bodies in protecting and preserving the environment.
God has also revealed Himself through the history of Israel. Even Islam, its contemporary opponent, honors Judaism and Christianity as people of the Book, or Word of God. Yet it is only the Christians who explain Israel’s history as the plan of the Father being worked out in the Son and living Word, then written at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, proving once again the common action of the Holy Trinity.
Through the Bible we discover the themes of separation of the Lord’s children from the profane and ignorant—those capable of and willing to respond to God’s love with an openness to His will, preparing the way for the Savior Messiah. What those chosen people were selected to do was to preserve and reflect upon the Word of God, and to become a “light to enlighten the gentiles,” not to set themselves as an exclusive ethnic nation apart from all others for all time. As St. Paul observed, since they had not fulfilled the plan of the Lord, God grafted the gentiles into the root of Israel to grow and flourish throughout the ages.
Even since Pentecost we go in search of Christ in those who are called by His Name, whose lives are devoted to preparing themselves for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, who pray, fast, and receive Christ in His Body and Blood. He thereby incarnates Himself in us, or desires to do so, and we know that because of it we are dedicated to purifying ourselves from sin. Even God is limited by His divine nature; hence He calls us to come out and separate ourselves from all that is sinful, shameful, vulgar and destructive