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The season of Time after Epiphany 1
-- or "Epiphanytide" -- is more a season set up for liturgical reasons
than spiritual ones, as
it is spiritually a continuation of Christmas's devotion to the Divine
Childhood and Christ's ministry. Because the date of Easter changes
each year, two seasons have variable lengths in order to balance the
calendar. The Season of Time After Pentecost can have as few as 23
Sundays or as many as 28 Sundays depending on the date of Easter. This
season can have anywhere from 4 to 38 days, depending on the date of
Easter. If this season is short, then Time after Pentecost will be
longer; and if this Season is long, Time after Pentecost will be
shorter.
One spiritual focus of the Season is the
continuation of Christmas and contemplation of the Divine Childhood. The other
spiritual focus is on Christ's revealing Himself as God. Dr.
Peter Kwasniewski describes the season beautifully:
Those who attend
the traditional Latin Mass are aware of how beautifully, how tenderly,
how lovingly, the Church basks in the light of the newborn Christ, the
youthful Christ, the Christ of the river Jordan and the miracle of
Cana. Epiphanytide is one of the most poetic and touching of all the
seasons (or “sub-seasons,” as it were). It starts with the feast of the
Epiphany itself, which, in accord with unbroken custom stretching back
for centuries, is celebrated on the “Twelfth Day” after Christmas,
January 6 (and not on the nearest Sunday, to suit the world’s imperious
work schedule). One week later, on the octave day, January 13, the
Church in her usus antiquior celebrates the Baptism of Christ. Then the
2nd Sunday after Epiphany brings us the Gospel of the wedding feast at
Cana. The three great theophanies or divine manifestations honored in
this season—namely, the visit of the Magi, the baptism in the Jordan,
and the wedding of Cana—are given their full individual due, without
haste, without unseemly compression or alternation. Indeed, there is a
leisurely feel to this Epiphany season, a sense of time suspended. It
is as if Holy Mother Church, like a mother watching her children grow
up too fast, cannot quite resign herself to parting from the young
Christ.
Epiphanytide is the afterglow of the revelation of Christ to
the world, Christ who is the true Enlightenment against which the devil
vainly (although at times with considerable temporary success) attempts
to establish his substitutes—most especially the rationalist and
liberal worldview under which Catholics have been living, and which
they have slowly adopted, over the past several centuries, to the near
extinction of their liturgical life.
Footnotes:
1 Like Septuagesima and
Time after Pentecost, this Season is known as "Ordinary Time" to
Catholics using the Novus Ordo calendar.
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