Season after Epiphany (January 14 to Septuagesima Sunday)

THIRD SEASON IN THE CHRISTMAS SECTION OF THE PROPER OF THE SEASON
TIME AFTER EPIPHANY
From January 14 to Saturday before Septuagesima

DOCTRINAL NOTE

As we have seen in the 'Division of the Ecclesiastical Year* (p. xm), the weeks that come between the Octave-Day of the Epiphany (Jan. 13) and the eve of Septuagesima Sunday are a remnant of the original basic cycle of the liturgical year as is shown by the neutral green color of the vestments: but for many centuries past, this period has been strongly influenced by the idea of the 'Epiphany' or 'Theophany', i.e. the manifestation of the Divinity of the Redeemer, the God made man.
These 'Epiphanies' began already in Advent, when the Divinity of Jesus was made known first to Mary (Ember Wednesday, Annunciationtion), then to Elizabeth and John the Baptist (Ember Friday, Visitation), finally to St Joseph (Vigil of Christmas). They constitute the fundamental idea of the Season of Christmas-Epiphany: manifestations to the shepherds (Christmas), to the Wise Men (Epiphany), to Simeon and Anna (Sunday after Christmas and Candlemas), to the Doctors in the Temple (Sunday after Epiphany), to the disciples of John the Baptist (Octave-Day of the Epiphany).



Christmas was too short to describe this manifestation to the bulk of the Jewish nation through Jesus' miracles and teaching. It has therefore been extended to the following Sundays: the Gospels for the second, third and fourth Sundays after Epiphany are extracts from the series of miracles related by St Matthew, and those for the fifth and sixth Sundays from the parables which the same evangelist records to prove that Jesus is the Messias. He commands sickness, the sea, the winds; He changes water into wine; He cures at a distance or by a simple gesture. Surely, then, He is God. Moreover, He speaks as only God can speak.
It is in the Epistles, particularly, taken from St Paul's Epistle to the Romans, that the spirit of this season must be sought. Not only does almighty God, ever faithful to His promises, summon the Jews to enter the Kingdom of His Son, but in the fullness of His mercy He calls all the Gentiles to a place in this same kingdom; so we, in our turn, having become members of the Mystical Body of Christ, must love one another as brethren in Jesus Christ and subject ourselves in all humility to the Son of God, our Head and our King.