Happy New Year, readers! I have started this new year of 2020 with being in the midst of the Twelve Days of Christmas, both on the Gregorian calendar and on the Julian calendar. Because I belong to an Eastern jurisdiction Orthodox Church, and at the same time follow a Western Rite Orthodox prayer rule through the Rule of St. Benedict of Nursia, I have the privilege of celebrating three lovely feasts in January: (1) Western Epiphany on January 6, the feast of the three magi coming to worship Jesus; (2) Theophany on January 6, the Eastern Orthodox feast of the Baptism of the Lord Jesus in the Jordan, a feast day where the holy water for the main part of the year is blessed by the priest, and we all take home our own personal bottles of holy water to use in our homes; (3) Julian Calendar Christmas, on January 7, which means that I get an extra twelve days of Christmas from the 7th to the 19th! Basically, I just leave up the Christmas decorations until St. Brigid's Day on February 1, and Candlemas (the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, also known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary), on February 2.
All of these feast days in January signify a type of renewal. Western Epiphany bespeaks a new birth of faith within us, just as the three magi were born to a new faith when they beheld the Incarnate Son of God and worshipped Him. Theophany bespeaks the renewal of creation, because Jesus transformed the nature of water with His divinity when He was baptized in the Jordan. He sanctified the water through His Divine Nature; also, the Holy Trinity was revealed to the Israelites and Gentiles present at His baptism in the Jordan River. Through the revelation of the Trinity, a new chapter began with their faith. Last but not least, Nativity as a feast always leads to renewed faith in Christ our Light, Who was born to free us from darkness.
Notice the little creatures in the water on the above icon for Theophany, the Baptism of the Lord. Fr. Photius, our priest at St. Sava Orthodox Church, talked a little about those creatures in his sermon on Monday (the Feast of the Theophany, Jan. 6): basically, those little creatures are demons in the water. During ancient times, many people from various cultures believed that water was inhabited by capricious spirits that had to be appeased through offerings. In this icon, Christ triumphs over those spirits and makes water something that the ancient Israelites, Greeks and Canaanites need no longer fear. That is something new to reflect upon, regarding the Baptism of the Lord Jesus by St. John the Baptist.
God sanctifies nature. It was always holy, in a certain sense, because He made it. But when Jesus Christ came to earth as the Incarnate Second Person of the Trinity, He sanctified the earth in such a way that people were no longer beholden to appease nature or worship it. Later, as Christianity spread to Western European cultures, particularly the peoples of Ireland and the British Isles, nature came to be viewed as something that allowed us to reflect on God's connection and relation to creation and our connection and relation to Him. With that in mind, I have a reflection here upon the upcoming penumbral lunar eclipse that takes place tomorrow, January 10, 2020.
Tomorrow is a penumbral lunar eclipse. A penumbral lunar eclipse is when the sun, the earth, and the moon are imperfectly aligned. When this happens, the earth blocks some of the sun's light from directly reaching the moon's surface and covers all or part of the Moon with the outer part of its shadow, also known as the penumbra.
There has long been a lot of symbolism and folklore surrounding eclipses, ranging from eclipses being flat-out bad luck to eclipses being a time to contemplate letting go of negative things (symbolised by the blocked moon) and praying for positive things to come into one's life (symbolised by the earth moving out of the moon's shadow when the eclipse is over). All of this is, of course, symbolism and folklore according to various cultures.
From an Orthodox Christian perspective, this is how I think of a lunar eclipse: just as the moon reflects the light of the sun, so the Theotokos reflects the light of her Son Jesus. So, full moons and lunar eclipses are a good time to pray a Paraklesis or Marian Vespers and ask that we, like the Mother of God, might reflect the light of Jesus Christ in our own lives. In the case of a lunar eclipse, the symbolism from my Orthodox Christian perspective would be the formation of a question: is there any way in which I am failing to reflect the light of Christ to others? Is there anything in my own life that I am not giving to Him, or a way in my own life that I am not allowing His grace to heal me because of blockages? These could be psychological, physical, related to behaviour towards others, not taking care of myself as I should. . .any number of situations we encounter as human beings. I therefore think it meet to use the lunar eclipse as a symbolic time for asking Jesus' help in getting rid of anything that is keeping me from loving others as I should, or anything that is keeping me from being totally His. Because of the association I mentioned with the Theotokos concerning lunar symbolism, I can ask Him that I might be more like His mother Mary in following Him. I can also ask her intercession for these things (since that's part of my faith tradition), for healing in my life, and healing in the lives and health of other people.
That, then, is my take on this whole lunar eclipse thing. The things that happen in nature can be a means of symbolically reflecting on our own lives, and how we live that life in God, both within and out in the world. Or, they can just be natural phenomena! But I always take a deeper look at everything, as did the Celts and Anglo-Saxons.
Have a blessed January, and may many blessings come to you all tomorrow, whether you are viewing tomorrow as nothing more than an astronomical event, or as something deeper that warrants reflection. I leave you with this lovely icon of the Mother of God, with the sun and moon on either side of her.
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