A REVELATION

'The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all.’ (Titus 2.11)

I read that verse from St. Paul's Letter to Titus at Night Prayer shortly after watching the attack on the US Capitol by forces unleashed by President Trump. It is set for daily use for during season which began on the same day, the Feast of the Epiphany. ‘Epiphany’ means ‘enlightenment’, or ‘manifestation’ or ‘setting forth’ and it seemed to me that here we saw a revelation which, like the Feast, concerns something for the nations to see. However, unlike the Epiphany of Christ, which concerned the revelation of God for the salvation of all, this was the revelation of something quite different. But both also concern the revelation of what before had been apparent for all, if they had a discerning eye, and now was revealing itself to the world. But here was the opposite of the Epiphany of Christ. Here was the showing forth of darkness.

A similar contradiction occurs on August 6th when the Church celebrates the Transfiguration of Christ – that time on the mountain top when he was revealed in a shining light and enfolded in the Divine cloud. But it is also the day on which the atomic bomb was first dropped (on Hiroshima) when another light flared out and another cloud appeared, except this was the light of death, not life.

Both occasions were about enlightenment, and both show the contrast between the grace-ful revelation of Christ, and the darkness brought by the opposite.

John-Francis Friendship
January 8th, 2021