Theophany - The Baptism of Our Lord

In memorial of Father Roberto Donato, founder of the Franciscans of Halifax. Palm Sunday, 13 April, 2025.

Throughout the Gospel, Christ speaks in parable, taking an image or representation that is common to every imagination; both practical and real; a medium that is understood by all within human understanding and imposes a Spiritual meaning that transcends time, space, and written word. In a human attempt to express the essence of this heavenly wisdom, Iconography becomes the parable visually expressed in our reality. It takes the story, the written account, the news, the event which is beyond our grasp and brings it into our moment, making it present once again. Icons invoke the memory of Christ, our Holy Mother, the Angelic Hosts, and the Saints, to be present amongst us once again. Icons serve the Holy Mother church, the liturgy of the Word, and the Eucharist as humble mediums for which the Christian pilgrim can approach the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in prayer, mediation, contemplation, and wonder. Using the root ‘Theos’ – meaning ‘God ‘and ‘Phainein’ – meaning ‘showing,’ Theophany is the “revelation of God” in Greek (Θεοφάνεια). The first instance in which the Triune Godhead (Trinity) is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. 

• The Holy Gospel according to St Matthew, Chapter 3, Verse “16 And Jesus being baptized, forthwith came out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened to him: and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him. 17 And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 

Icons of the Baptism of the Lord must be an exact reproduction and visual narration of this Gospel testimony. It is the Word made visual. It becomes sacramental. It becomes the Gospel to the illiterate and to the deaf. It reaches where spoken and written word cannot for it is the visual Liturgy of Word. As such should be a source of purifying fire that quenches the passion of the eye. Filling our eyes with the Holy Scripture takes hold of the light of God. As a lamp in the darkness, Icons navigate us towards the mystery, enlightens our body, reminds us of our own Baptism, and turns us from our fleshly passions. As a stark warning to all, that with which you fill your eyes, you fill your soul. Or as it is said, the eye is the window of the soul, and what you feed your soul is also made manifest in the world by word and deed.  

• The Holy Gospel according to St Matthew, Chapter 6, “[22]The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome. [23] But if thy eye be evil thy whole body shall be darksome. If then the light that is in thee, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be!” and in the Holy Gospel according to St Luke, Chapter 11, “…[36] If then thy whole body be lightsome, having no part of darkness; the whole shall be lightsome; and as a bright lamp, shall enlighten thee.”

Fill your eye with Theophany. 

This Divine service, Holy Festival, and most thorough Epiphany of our Lord is the manifestation of the Divinity of Christ and revelation of perfect Unity within the Most Holy Trinity. 

Jesus, the Messiah is easily identifiable by the nimbus (halo) surrounding the His head bearing a cruciform containing the Greek letters omikron, omega, nu – “I am He who is” the name of God in Ex 3:14. Outside the nimbus (halo) are the Greek letters IC XC – the Christogram.In His Baptism, Christ openly and publicly begins his ministry and service to redeem the world. Our God, the Trinity, has this day revealed Himself to us indivisibly; for the Father bore witness to His parenthood with manifest testimony, the Spirit descended from the heavens, and the Son bowed His most pure head to the Forerunner and was baptised. As creation itself is spoken into being, so too is the title of Father assumed and spoken into our reality at this eternal moment. For those who believe, profess, and repent, the Father adopts us as spiritual sons and daughters in the moment that Christ is referred to as Son and we are Baptised into the same Trinity.| This mystery, which is beyond all understanding, is made manifest plainly, in sensory forms and just as when Christ establishes the Eucharist while celebrating the Old Testament Passover with an act of ablutions, the cleansing of the feet of his Apostles, a confirmation is established as a type and shadow of ritual cleansing and preparation of the High Priests of old before entering into the Holiest of Holies.

• The Holy Gospel according to St John, Chapter 13, “6] He cometh therefore to Simon Peter. And Peter saith to him: Lord, dost thou wash my feet? [7] Jesus answered, and said to him: What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. [8] Peter saith to him: Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him: If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me. [9] Simon Peter saith to him: Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. [10] Jesus saith to him: He that is washed, needeth not but to wash his feet, but is clean wholly. And you are clean, but not all. [11] For he knew who he was that would betray him; therefore he said: You are not all clean.”
  

In entering into the Priestly act of ablutions, prior to His public initiation of His ministry, prior to His passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, Christ initiates our Baptism and spiritual adoption into the new and eternal covenant at this moment of institution, so that in our Baptism, we too may approach the Holiest of Holies through the Most High Priest. In this Theophany, Heaven and Earth are brought into perfect mediation through the Most High Priest entering into the waters of chaos. The same waters over which the Spirit hovered on the advent of Creation in Genesis chapter 1, “when the earth was void, and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” This same chaos or darkness is symbolically the old man, former self, the cave, the death, that each Christian is exhorted to put off. For if that which is without life is dead, Christ enters the waters, the grave, and our fallen state, as the source and fountain of eternal Life; the very source of Light itself, the lamp that fills our eyes and enlightens our dead body. That we may, through Him, have recourse with the Triune Godhead. This is the same pattern that unfolds during the Holy Mass, where the Celebrant Priest completes an act of ablution before the Transubstantiation. 

• The Holy Gospel according to St John, chapter 14: “[6] Jesus saith to him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.”
  

• The Letter of St Paul to the Colossians, chapter 3, “[1] Therefore, if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God: [2] Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. [3] For you are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God. [4] When Christ shall appear, who is your life, then you also shall appear with him in glory. [5] Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is the service of idols. [6] For which things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of unbelief, [7] In which you also walked some time, when you lived in them. [8] But now put you also all away: anger, indignation, malice, blasphemy, filthy speech out of your mouth. [9] Lie not one to another: stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds, [10] And putting on the new, him who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of him that created him.”

Composition - For these reasons the Icon is of vertical composition. We are seeking forever that which is above, our life beyond this mortality. The earth is alien and foreign to the faithful Christian – we are reminded that we are sojourners in this land. The focus of this Icon is the union the occurs within the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. The Holiest of Holies, where the perfect mediation takes place.  

Symbolism within the Icon

MandorlaAccording to tradition and apophatic theology, it is impossible to depict God the Father in iconography, any attempt is merely an expression of human passion. For God the Father is uncreated, immovable, immutable, ineffable, omnipotent, omnipresent, and language cannot begin to approach His divine nature. Cataphatic theology allows us to depict Divinity and Love, but even in these efforts, humanity is limited to his created nature. It is the incarnate God-man, Christ, who fills up this perfect Unity and appeases our sensory desires for depicting the Triune Godhead. For the image of God is fulfilled in Christ. God is transcendent and immanent.Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 240): “[T]hat which is infinite is known only to itself. This it is which gives some notion of God, while yet beyond all our conceptions – our very incapacity of fully grasping Him affords us the idea of what He really is. He is presented to our minds in His transcendent greatness, as at once known and unknown.”Augustine of Hippo (354-430) “If you understand [something], it is not God.”,

• The Holy Gospel according to St John, chapter 1: “[18] No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” And again in chapter 6: “[46] Not that any man hath seen the Father; but he who is of God, he hath seen the Father.” And in chapter 14, “[8] Philip saith to him: Lord, shew us the Father, and it is enough for us. [9] Jesus saith to him: Have I been so long a time with you; and have you not known me? Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also. How sayest thou, shew us the Father? [10] Do you not believe, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I speak not of myself. But the Father who abideth in me, he doth the works.”

The descent of the Holy Spirit occurs at the spoken ascent of the Father which is depicted within the Mandorla; a representation of the Divinity of God, the Divine Darkness, the top of the Mountain of the Lord, where the Father cannot be depicted and remains beyond being, but where only Christ transcends to mediate on our behalf. This Divinity is both reaching through the concentric circles, heavenly spheres, or almonds, of the Cosmos (indicated with stars or the heavenly beings) and Heavens (lighter blue through which the Divinity penetrates) and ascending upwards concurrently. Christ is central, the heavens are opened, and the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove. This transcending movement upwards towards God is also an aspect of the Holy Mass, where the Priest or Deacon transcends the steps to where the Son of God dwells, and brings forth the Eucharist from within the Holy Tabernacle. 

“The Father, using His own pre-eternal and consubstantial and subracelestial Spirit as His finger, crying out and point from heaven, openly declared and proclaimed to all that the one then being baptized by John in the Jordan was His beloved Son, while at the same time manifesting His unity with Him.” (St. Gregory Palamas, Homily 60.15).

The Dove There are many ways of depicting the mystery of the Holy Spirit descending on Christ at Theophany. A common symbol that is used throughout Christian history to represent or depict the essence of the Holy Spirit. However, He is not a dove. He is the Spirit of God. At Mt Tabor, He appeared as a cloud in the Transfiguration, the same cloud that overshadowed Our Blessed Mother at her Fiat, or that which cover the Mountain where the Commandments were given to Moses, at Pentecost He appears as tongues of fire, and at the Tower of Bable as a great destructive wind. In iconography, the Holy Spirit is indicated as a Star within the “beam” of the Mandorla at the Nativity. We are reminded of another symbol of the presence of the Holy Spirit present during the Holy Mass, He is not only there at the invocation of the Holy Spirit in preparation of the Gifts and during the Transubstantiation, but also in the smoke of the incense which encompasses the Sacrifice and Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. It is the very scent of a sacrifice which pleases the Lord. If the image of the dove remains the most used symbol that represents the Holy Spirit and it is during the Baptism of Our Lord that He manifests in this way, why exactly did He manifest like a dove? The symbol of the dove invokes the memory of the same dove that Noah sent forth into the world from the Ark at the first deluge, the great flood which destroyed and covered the earth, deconstructing the fallen nature of the human heart, the structures of tyrannical sin which dominated the ancient world, and demonstrating the hope of a new world or second creation that shows the promise of Gods plan of salvation. This dove is a symbol of the new flood – a spiritual deluge in which the grace of Baptism, destroys or deconstructs the old covenant and establishes the new covenant in Christ Jesus. This new deluge is made available for all of creation and the opportunity and invitation is to be washed from the destruction of our own sin, our former lives, the old man, and to be reborn into the waters of regeneration. We must enter the waters with Christ, we must die to ourselves. 

The Holy Spirit both descends yet faces upwards to show the essence of Agape, the union of perfect Love between the Father and the Son. The dove is not naturalistic, for it has no face, no eyes, no beak, for it is not a corporeal reality but a spiritual reality. It shows the way and enlightens the mind to the invitation that is within the Love of God. In this way, the Icon fights many early church heresies. The icon fights against adoptionism (the error that Christ was made God through adoption at His Baptism), Arianism (the heresy which denies the divinity of Christ), Sabellianism (the error which denies the distinctness of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as three persons in one), and Apollinarianism (the heresy which denies the full humanity of Christ). The Holy Spirt descends, but it is not directional. The white line that surrounds the Halo of Our Lord is the same that encompasses the Holy Spirit and transcends to the Mandorla. Displaying unity and distinction. The Icon fights Blasphemies against the Holy Spirit such as the spirit fighters known as Macedonianism or Pneumatomachian, who attempted to deny the full Divinity of the Holy Spirit or attempted to subjugate the Holy Spirit by numbering the Trinity. Instead, the upwards facing Holy Spirit, while descending, shows full and perfect obedience and completeness in freedom concurrently. In this way, He encourages us to be obedient to Our Lord, that is where true freedom is found. The Theophany takes on the visual essence of the Nicene Creed. 

The Veil

In older Icons of Theophany, Christ is naked. This represents the Architype completing the restoration of the Prototype. God created man and women and clothed them in the glory of the “image” (icon) and “likeness” of God. In the fall, they had sewn together Fig leaves to hide their nakedness, and God provided them garments of skin. The sewn fig leaves is a symbol of technology and man’s own efforts and motivations to defend oneself separate from providence God. In the very moment of our misplaced and sinful tendencies, and despite our desire to become God, he provided the garment of skin as an indication of the salvific plan that was to come. These garments obscure our true nature and distance from God. Where Adam was created naked before God, Christ restores our true nakedness. By stripping himself, he enlightens and clothes the nakedness of Adam with a new garment. The garment of light. The true garments of our salvation. Christ comes in his majesty, as fully God and fully man, in glory and in true nakedness; completely unashamed. He enters the waters and restores the beauty of the undefiled nature that was once obscured by Adam’s descent. He becomes the second Adam, clothing us in Christ, the undefiled nature that God intended in creation made possible only through Him. In this depiction, we include this garment of light in the translucent veil. 

A symbol of our own Baptism or the Wedding Garments and the unexpected guest that Christ speaks of in the Gospel of Matthew in which we are called to adorn. 

• The Holy Gospel according to St Matthew, chapter 22, “[8] Then he saith to his servants: The marriage indeed is ready; but they that were invited were not worthy. [9] Go ye therefore into the highways; and as many as you shall find, call to the marriage. [10] And his servants going forth into the ways, gathered together all that they found, both bad and good: and the marriage was filled with guests. [11] And the king went in to see the guests: and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. [12] And he saith to him: Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? But he was silent. [13] Then the king said to the waiters: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. [14] For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Christ did not need to be cleaned, for he was without sin. We see the beginning of a new creation in Theophany. That is why “creation groans” in eager expectation, awaiting the glorification of the children of God. This is why when we enter a Holy Place and dip our fingers in Holy Water, we remember our Baptism. Ancient Baptismal rites included an outward and physical stripping of our garments, early Christians were baptized naked. Now the common symbolism is the white or purified dress that we dawn at our Baptism as children.

The Waters

The waters are indicative of chaos and our own death, but also what the Baptism of the Lord means to the faithful. The chaos is demonstrated in this Icon in a sensory composition, with large downward swirls and movement that depict a great motion. This great motion is symbolic of the very initiation of the Cosmos, the beginning of creation that is set in motion by the spoken word of the Logos. The waters continue to swirl and move chaotically, like life itself; a constant, unresistant motion, a battle of the senses and the passions, that moves towards its true culmination in the Alpha and Omega of our Faith; the Beginning and the End. Wading or swimming in the waters, requires a great physical effort – an invitation to endure in anticipation of the heavenly rest and peace that originates from the source of life. Our Lord Christ Jesus enters the waters to open the gates of Paradise once again, so that in the same Peace that Christ offers to us during the Liturgy of the Mass can be entered into by all. The peace offered is that which lays within the bosom of the Father, the heavenly divinity beyond Creation itself, the immutable and ineffable God, Our Father. 

• The Holy Gospel according to John, chapter 14 “[26] But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you. [27] Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid.”

You will notice that the light from Christ is direction and enters into the waters, as all of Creation is Baptized into Christ in this moment. As He submits to John’s baptism, it is the Messiah that is sanctifying the world. Note that His hand is in a sign of blessing. Unlike our baptism where the waters cleanse us of our sins, it is Christ Who cleanses and sanctifies the waters. Like Noah as a prefiguration of what Baptism will bring about at the Second Creation (after the flood), now Christ establishes a new creation in which the curse from the Garden is flipped upon itself. The restoration of Creation has come in Christ’s divinity entering our reality and bathing in the created waters of the earth. In the Icon and in the eyes and glance of Christ, we see the exhortation of dying to the old man and promise of the Peace to come which is for those who follow the way of Life. 

The presence of the creatures at the bottom of the icon are personifications of the contrasting way of death. On the left is the River Jordan. The earthly and corporeal source of fresh waters. Depicted as a lower god, and capturing the pre-disposition of the Gentiles, their pagan religions, and their worship of river deities, the old man is a symbol of the death. A progenitor of the consequence to genealogical lines that follow pagan gods. In this instance, the River Jordan is observed with the source of the River in his hand, pouring out the contents of the jar continuously and repetitively offering a lower means; his promises do not lead to peace nor rest, but ensure chaos, change, and motion. Within his offering there is no light. He rides the beasts of the Rivers, the greatest and largest fish, yet he turns and flees at the sight and reality that something much large has entered the Waters of creation. 

The other creature is a personification of the Seas and with her another set of lower deities that captures the imagination and leads people astray. Like a Greek siren of the Odyssey, she seeks to allure and seduce those sailors, explorers, and voyagers, dragging them down into the depths of false and pagan religion for the destruction of their souls. The deep and unclean waters of the seas (salt, brackish, chaotic) that take, rob, and steal from the fresh source of waters originating from the Great Rivers of the Garden of Eden, but do not return with the waters with life, instead they are spoiled and undrinkable. She is a lady adorned in red and symbolises the depths of the Red Sea, the same that the Israelites passed through in their Exodus as a prefiguration of Baptism. The baptism in Moses, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the consequence of death is displayed in the chariot wheel depicted at the bottom. The composition of a chariot being transposed upon the Leviathan from Job is indicative of the same spirit that led the Egyptians down into the waters in pursuit of the Israelites. The Leviathan itself is symbolically the same pattern as the great whale that swallowed the Prophet Jonah. The sign of Jonah is in full display. The prefiguration of the descent of Christ into Hell is displayed by his entering into the waters of Baptism and being buried and the triumphant immerging or coming forth from Death, is symbolic of the same Resurrection that is to come.

• The Holy Gospel according to St Luke, chapter 11, “29 And the multitudes running together, he began to say: This generation is a wicked generation: it asketh a sign, and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.  30 For as Jonas was a sign to the Ninivites; so shall the Son of man also be to this generation.  31 The queen of the south shall rise in the judgment with the men of this generation, and shall condemn them: because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold more than Solomon here.  32 The men of Ninive shall rise in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas; and behold more than Jonas here.”

We are reminded of the book of Revelation and final judgement of Christ where the sea will give up its dead. But we are also reminded of the bitter waters of Mara, whereby the tree being tossed into the waters turned them sweet, a prefiguration of the Passion of Christ’s crucifixion. 

The stones upon which Christ stands in the River Jordan are symbolically the same Gates that hold back Hades from the Anastasis icon (or Christ’s harrowing of Hades) from First Letter of Peter, chapter 3:19. The stones symbolically remind us of those that Joshua instructed to be erected in memory of the Covenant and unity of God, how the Israelites were able to pass over the River Jordan after the third day of encampment at Gilgal. The same stones that the Priests stepped upon to cross the river that miraculously stood still to allow for the Ark of the Covenant to pass over and for the people to possess the land. The land being indicative of our hope, the eternal reward in the new Covenant; the New Jerusalem. The same stones uphold the new Covenant in our Icon, the same twelve stones that the prophet Elijah used to build the altar on Mount Carmel are the same twelve precious stones upon the breastplate of the High Priest in Temple of Solomon, and the same stones upon which the Holy Church is built – the apostles. In standing upon these stones or the gates, the victorious nature of Christ in trampling over the death of Adam, also indicates at his Baptism and initiation of the salvific plan of what must occur, that Christ must pass over and through these same gates of death so that we might have a new death in Christ. This is the Chalice in the Garden of Gethsemane that only Christ can drink but invites use all to participate in during the Holy Mass – the Chalice of His Blood in the Eucharist.  The Serpents surround the gates and are crushed by Christ’s victory over death.

• The Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 2, “[14] Therefore because the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner hath been partaker of the same: that, through death, he might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil: [15] And might deliver them, who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude.”

• Psalm 73 – [12] But God is our king before ages: he hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth. [13] Thou by thy strength didst make the sea firm: thou didst crush the heads of the dragons in the waters.

• Psalm 76 – [15] Thou art the God that dost wonders. Thou hast made thy power known among the nations: [16] With thy arm thou hast redeemed thy people the children of Jacob and of Joseph. [17] The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee: and they were afraid, and the depths were troubled.

• Psalm 113:3 – The sea beheld and fled, [the River] Jordan turned back.

St John, the Forerunner and Baptizer of Christ

The Holy Gospel according to St Matthew, chapter 3, “[1] And in those days cometh John the Baptist preaching in the desert of Judea. [2] And saying: Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. [3] For this is he that was spoken of by Isaias the prophet, saying: A voice of one crying in the desert, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. [4] And the same John had his garment of camels' hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins: and his meat was locusts and wild honey.”

St John stands at the Right Hand of Blessing, the Right Hand of Christ, where the prophet Elijah stands in the icon of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. The theophany points to the transfiguration in the same way that St John and Elijah the Prophet point towards Christ. To revisit the opening Gospel account of Theophany, for the first time since the fall of mankind, the Heavens were opened to us. Our eyes in this moment, collectively symbolized in the upward glance of St John, remind us of that which was once blinded in the garden during the fall, when we hid from God and could no longer see Him; in Christ, the spiritual eyes are now reopened through the pathways of spiritual ascetism and Christian mysticism. St John being symbolic of these forms of spiritual progression; for the revelation of Theophany is revealed to St John, who in turn proclaims the message to others.

St John is Baptizing in the River Jordan and warns of the coming destruction of the Old Covenant and rebuilding of the new Covenant in Christ. That those who die to their sins and seek repentance will inherit the rewards of this new structure, this new life, this new hope. He stands on the edge of the land, the outside, the edge of the system, where the River Jordan is on the border. He acts as the figure that proclaims the coming Kingdom.  

This proclamation is captured in the left hand of St John, who professes the good news:The Holy Gospel according to St John, chapter 1: “[26] John answered them, saying: I baptize with water; but there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not. [27] The same is he that shall come after me, who is preferred before me: the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethania, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. [29] The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him, and he saith: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who taketh away the sin of the world. [30] This is he, of whom I said: After me there cometh a man, who is preferred before me: because he was before me.”

The colour of St John’s Camel hair garment or ‘garment of skin’ is blue and this outward mantle is green (which is the colour of hope and eternal renovation) and enlightened by the moment of Baptism. Green is used to indicate where new life begins and is appropriate for the new life we find in Christ’s baptism. While Blue is usually associated with heaven, majesty, the mystical life, and mystery. It is associated with the sky and thus the infinite and everlasting world. It is often used on Christ's outer garment. It indicates the Divine Light or heavenly wisdom encompassed in prophecy. These colours also indicate the Baptism in water for the forgiveness of Sins for which the Forerunner was commanded to perform ahead of Christ. This is also the posture of St John, who is both proclaiming and also bowing in obedience to the will of God.

• The Holy Gospel according to St John, chapter 1, “And John gave testimony, saying: I saw the Spirit coming down, as a dove from heaven, and he remained upon him. [33] And I knew him not; but he who sent me to baptize with water, said to me: He upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon him, he it is that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. [34] And I saw, and I gave testimony, that this is the Son of God.”  

• The Holy Gospel according to St Matthew, chapter 11, “And when they went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: What went you out into the desert to see? a reed shaken with the wind? [8] But what went you out to see? a man clothed in soft garments? Behold they that are clothed in soft garments, are in the houses of kings. [9] But what went you out to see? a prophet? yea I tell you, and more than a prophet. [10] For this is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee. [11] Amen I say to you, there hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist: yet he that is the lesser in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. [12] And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away. [13] For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John: [14] And if you will receive it, he is Elias that is to come. [15] He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Axe and the Tree

At the feet of St John lays the axe laid to the root from the Proclamation of the Forerunner and Baptizer of Christ. The root or trees being indicative of the lineage and lines of Israel, the twelve tribes, and the families. It is an indication and proclamation of the identity of Christ, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah.  It speaks to the fruit that we are to bring forth in our Christian journey and the consequence of living practicing our Christian faith like the Pharisees and Scribes of the Old Covenant. Following a set of laws rather than living out the greatest commandment of Christ – love. 

• The Holy Gospel according to St Matthew, chapter 3, “[8] Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance. [9] And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I tell you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. [10] For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire.”

• The Prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 11, “[1] And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. [2] And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness.”

• The Holy Gospel according to St Matthew, chapter 10, “[32] Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. [33] But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. [34] Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. [35] For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.”

The baptized are continually called to repentance and to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God. As part of the new covenant, the faithful are not made sons and daughters of God by their ancestral heritage but by their response to God’s calling and the fulfillment of their baptismal promises. Therefore, this feast reminds us of our own baptismal promises and urges us not to become spiritually lazy but to work to fulfill them.

Angelic Hosts & The Two Mountains

We recall that it was the Israelites, in the first crossing of the Jordan River, as they moved into the Promise Land, they were moving from East to West. In the icon, John stands on the west side of the river (earth) and the angels on the east (heaven). In this event, Christ initiates a movement from the west to the east; from the old covenant to the new; from the old, promised land to the new, promised land. The angelic hosts stand ready to clothe the naked Christ but do not stand socializing with the earthly figures. They are full of light and less corporeal than the body of St John. This separation between Heaven and Earth, East and West, are only made possible through Christ the mediator. The mountains are the highest features of the earth, where those who prefigure Christ ascend in to encounter God. These mountains bow in humility but also show the coming together and union of the Old Testament and New Testament (the colors of each being distinct from each other). The mountains stand witness to a divine encounter. It is also a reminder that like the encounter of Jacob and Laban, that all of creation (heaven and earth), even the stones of the mountains and the waters of the seas will stand as witness at our final judgement. This same cardinal direction applies to our lives during the Holy Mass. We participate in a Holy procession. The same union between Heaven and Earth. Christ will be real and present in the sacrifice of the Eucharist. We proceed with our Priests towards the coming Christ by facing the East or the rising Sun. In the tender compassion of our Lord, the dawn from on high shall break upon us. The hope of eternal reward, the second coming of Christ. It is to the east that ancient Christians arose before the dawn and prayed in anticipation of this coming. 

The Cave

Finally, the River itself is composed as a Cave, not as a waterfall, or open-source like in some more modern icons. It is encompassed as a reminder of several icons or a pattern of the same symbolism that is carried on throughout iconography, it is the same cave of the Nativity, the outer darkness at the foot of the table in the icon of the Holy Pentecost, it is the Cave that lays at the place of the skull or‘Golgotha’ and foot of the cross in the Crucifixion, where the blood of Christ reaches downward to touch the Skull of Adam. It is included in the Icon of St Francis inside the church and is captured in the Icon of Theophany – the Baptism of the Lord. The cave is both an exterior reality and reminder of our death and the consequence of living a life without Christ, but also an interior reality, that without Christ entering our interior life or our very own cave or flesh (body), the Soul will not be enlightened and turned towards the source of our Salvation. 

This icon is rich in symbolism and meaning and encourages us in the reminder and pursuit of the true meaning of our own Baptism.  

Biblical Verses

Ezekiel 36:25-26:

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

Deuteronomy 10:16:

“Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.”

Deuteronomy 30:6

“And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”

Mark 16:16:

“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

John 3:3-5:

“Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.'”

Acts 2:38:

“And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'”

Acts 22:16:

“And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.”

Romans 6:3-4:

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

1 Peter 3:21:

“Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

1 Corinthians 15:21-22:

“For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

Church Fathers

Augustine of Hippo 

“There are three ways in which sins are forgiven: in baptism, in prayer, and in the greater humility of penance; yet God does not forgive sins except to the baptized” (Sermons to Catechumens on the Creed 7:15 [A.D. 395]).“I do not hesitate to put the Catholic catechumen, burning with divine love, before a baptized heretic. Even within the Catholic Church herself we put the good catechumen ahead of the wicked baptized person” (On Baptism, Against the Donatists 4:21:28 [A.D. 400]).

Justin Martyr “Whoever are convinced and believe that what they are taught and told by us is the truth, and professes to be able to live accordingly, is instructed to pray and to beseech God in fasting for the remission of their former sins, while we pray and fast with them. Then they are led by us to a place where there is water, and they are reborn in the same kind of rebirth in which we ourselves were reborn: In the name of God, the Lord and Father of all, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they receive the washing of water. For Christ said, ‘Unless you be reborn, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.’…The reason for doing this, we have learned from the Apostles” (The First Apology 61:14-17 [inter A.D. 148-155]).  

Clement of Alexandria “When we are baptized we are enlightened. Being enlightened, we are adopted as sons. Adopted as sons, we are made perfect. Made perfect, we become immortal… ‘and sons of the Most High’ [Ps. 81:6]. This work is variously called grace, illumination, perfection, and washing. It is a washing by which we are cleansed of sins, a gift of grace by which the punishments due our sins are remitted, an illumination by which we behold that holy light of salvation–that is, by which we see God clearly, and we call that perfection which leaves nothing lacking. Indeed, if a man know God, what more does he need? Certainly, it were out of place to call that which is not complete a true gift of God’s grace. Because God is perfect the gifts he bestows are perfect” (The Instructor of Children, 1:6:26:1 [ante A.D. 202]).Jerome“This much you must know, that baptism forgives past sins, but it does not safeguard future justice, which is preserved by labor and industry and diligence and depends always and above all on the mercy of God” (Dialogue Against the Pelagians 3:1 [A.D. 415]).Tertullian“[N]o one can attain salvation without baptism, especially in view of the declaration of the Lord, who says, ‘Unless a man shall be born of water, he shall not have life’” (Baptism 12:1 [A.D. 203]).

Basil the Great “This then is what it means to be ‘born again of water and Spirit’: Just as our dying is effected in the water [Rom. 6:3; Col. 2:12–13], our living is wrought through the Spirit. In three immersions and an equal number of invocations the great mystery of baptism is completed in such a way that the type of death may be shown figuratively, and that by the handing on of divine knowledge the souls of the baptized may be illuminated. If, therefore, there is any grace in the water, it is not from the nature of water, but from the Spirit’s presence there” (The Holy Spirit 15:35 [A.D. 375]).

Gregory of Nyssa “[In] the birth by water and the Spirit, [Jesus] himself led the way in this birth, drawing down upon the water, by his own baptism, the Holy Spirit; so that in all things he became the firstborn of those who are spiritually born again, and gave the name of brethren to those who partook in a birth like to his own by water and the Spirit” (Against Eunomius 2:8 [A.D. 382]).Gregory of Nazianzus

“[Besides the baptisms associated with Moses, John, and Jesus] I know also a fourth baptism, that by martyrdom and blood, by which also Christ himself was baptized. This one is far more august than the others, since it cannot be defiled by later sins” (Oration on the Holy Lights 39:17 [A.D. 381]).

Pope Leo the Great

“And because of the transgression of the first man, the whole stock of the human race was tainted; no one can be set free from the state of the old Adam save through Christ’s sacrament of baptism, in which there are no distinctions between the reborn, as the apostle [Paul] says, ‘For as many of you as were baptized in Christ did put on Christ; there is neither Jew nor Greek . . . ’ [Gal. 3:27–28]” (Letters 15:10[11] [A.D. 445]).

Origen of Alexandria

“It is not possible to receive forgiveness of sins without baptism” (Exhortation to the Martyrs 30 [A.D. 235]).