In the ancient Western Church and in the East, Epiphany was more important than the relative latecomer Christmas. Epiphany is from the Greek word for a divine “manifestation” or “revelation”. There are many “epiphanies” of God in the Scripture. Think, for example, of the burning bush encountered by Moses.
The Latin Church’s antiphons for Vespers reflect the tradition that Epiphany was thought to be not only the day the Magi came to adore Christ, but also the same day years later when He changed water into wine at Cana, and also when He was baptized by St. John in the Jordan. In each mysterious event, Jesus was revealed to be more than a mere man: He is man and God.
The Epiphany Collect was in the 1962 Missale Romanum and in ancient sacramentaries.
Deus, qui hodierna die Unigenitum tuum stella duce revelasti,
concede propitius,
ut qui iam te ex fide cognovimus,
usque ad contemplandam speciem tuae celsitudinis perducamur.
Stella duce is an ablative absolute. The adjective hodiernus means “of this day, today’s”. In older Latin, celsitudo is “lofty carriage of the body”. In later Latin it is used like the title “Highness”. In our liturgical context it is a divine attribute, God’s transcendent grandeur, glory.
SUPER LITERAL VERSION:
O God, who on this very day revealed your Only-begotten, a star as the guide,
graciously grant,
that we, who have already come to know You by faith,
may be led all the way unto the beauty of Your glory to be contemplated.
OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):
Father,
you revealed your Son to the nations
by the guidance of a star.
Lead us to your glory in heaven
by the light of faith.
NEW CORRECTED ICEL (2011):
O God, who on this day
revealed your Only Begotten Son to the nations
by the guidance of a star,
grant in your mercy, that we, who know you already by faith,
may be brought to behold the beauty of your sublime glory.
In Latin prayers species (three syllables) often means “beauty”. It is also a technical, philosophical term about the way the human intellect apprehends things. Species has to do with the relationship between the thing known and our knowing power. A species transforms the mind of the one perceiving a thing. The object we consider acts upon our power of knowing. Simultaneously, the knowing power acts upon the object known. Our knowing power’s active and passive aspects meet in the species and the object of our consideration is known directly, without intermediaries. Easy.
This is what we are praying for, hoping for, living our earthly lives for: to see God face to face, directly and immediately.
In this life we know God only indirectly, by faith, our reason aided by the authority of revelation and by grace. This is St. Paul’s “dark glass” (1 Cor 13:12) through which we peer toward Him in longing.
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He is the Father’s Beauty. He is Truth and Beauty and Glory itself.
St. Hilary of Poitiers (d 367) conceived God’s divine attribute of glory as a transforming power which divinizes us by our contact with it. After Moses talked with God in the tent of the Ark, he wore a veil over his face, which became too bright to look at. We pray today, literally, to be brought “all the way to the beauty of glory (species celsitudinis)” of God “which is to be contemplated”. His beauty will act on us, increase our knowledge of Him and, therefore, our love for Him … for all eternity. We will be, all the more, the images He intended.
Christ could be understood to be the species celsitudinis of this prayer. Contemplate His truth and beauty. Christ is the true speaker and spoken truth of every prayer of every Mass.
If eternal Beauty transforms us, “divinizes” us, then beauty in this life changes us too.
Could a fostering of beauty in our churches help us reach people today in a way that arguments or other appeals may not?
Our liturgical worship of the Most High God must lead us to encounter beauty, truth, transcendent mystery. Holy Mass requires the finest architecture, vestments, music – everything – we can summon from human genius, love and labor. What we sing and say and do in church, and the church itself, ought to presage the liturgy of heaven, where the Church Triumphant enjoys already the Beatific Vision. Liturgy should be “epiphany”, wherein we encounter transforming mystery.
Let us celebrate every Mass in such a way that we become shoeless Moses before the burning bush which is never consumed. Let Mass make us Magi with sight and mind fixed in longing upon the beautiful, true and yet speechless Word, in whom transcendent glory was both hidden and revealed.
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Thank you for that explication.
I am still puzzled by the apparent connection between Quentin Massys and Arthur Szyk.
Szyk: Purim
[Perhaps because they both tend to portray somewhat grotesque figures. Also, Szyk has a kind of "adoration of the magi" in an Americanized setting.]
I too found this a wonderful reflection and it occurs after reading it that just as our human nature is elevated and found beautiful by a God who became man too our human impulse to bring beauty and with that to better adore is also honored, divinized…
Does God think that the details of beauty in worship are important? Since there are multiple chapters devoted to HIS specs for the Ark of the Covenant, it would seem so.
Take, for example, chapters 25-28 of Exodus. Note how detailed the Lord gets about even the decorations and working parts of the Ark of the Covenant and the items pertaining to the altar and worship. Note the detail with which He specifies the varieties of woods, that purest gold be the overlay, that silver be used for sockets (sockets!), the number of stems per flower, the placement of precious stones, the amount of gold in the candlesticks, the number of wings per decorative angel and how they should be arranged, the number of loops on the veils and the fruits with which they should be dyed, the varieties of acceptable incense, etc. etc., etc. Nothing but the finest, a riot of color and richness for every sense — all detailed and forethought. And that is just the setting!
Then ask yourself how the Isrealites could ever be satisfied worshipping a golden calf. Next to the Ark, Baal looks absolutely ridiculous. Left to ourselves, men’s standards are appallingly low. But are we all that different from them? Think of the chunky cement monstrosities called cathedrals and the services that match.
Then ask yourself if the God Who went to such detail in the OT over the first man-made Tabernacle changed and now welcomes the shabby, commonplace, sloppy, barren, or haphazard.
God knew what He was doing then and He’s still patiently peering through the latticework of Creation, waiting for us to “get it.”
Thank you for rhapsodizing on this topic, Fr. Z. I always enjoy it and benefit from it.
“Could a fostering of beauty in our churches help us reach people today in a way that arguments or other appeals may not?”
Absolutely!
To me this echoes the foretelling in the gradual of the 2nd Sunday of Advent: “Ex Sion species decoris eius Deus manifeste veniet” “Out of Sion, the loveliness of his beauty, God will come manifestly.”
Now we behold in the Epiphany “Speciem tuae celsitudinis,” “The beauty of (His) Majesty,” as we were promised.
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In at least some of the Eastern churches, Christmas was indeed a latecomer, and less important than the Epiphany. In the West, however, I’ve never heard of any church celebrating Epiphany before the 5th century, while Christmas was celebrated in Rome in 336. What am I overlooking?
And don’t forget about the Blessing of Epiphany Chalk. Even households which a priest will not visit can at least still use blessed chalk, which the father of the household will use after saying a simple prayer. http://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2012/01/blessing-of-epiphany-chalk.html