Third Season in the Christmas Section of the Proper of the Season

TIME AFTER EPIPHANY

From January 14 to Saturday before Septuagésima

Doctrinal Note

As we have seen in the ‘Division of the Ecclesiastical Year’, 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 colour 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, Annunciation), 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). The Season of 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, particulary, 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.

Historical Note

In our Lord’s time Palestine was divided into four provinces: Perea, to the east of the Jordan; Judea to its south-west; Samaria in the centre; Galilee to the north. It was in this latter region that occurred those events related by the Gospels of the Sundays after Epiphany. At Cana our Lord worked His first miracle (2nd Sunday); it was in the synagogue of Nazareth that, after His return from Judea, He made known His sublime teaching which “filled with wonder all who heard it" (Communion, 3rd to 6th Sunday). It was in Galilee, again, that our Lord healed the leper (3rd Sunday), but it was in Capharnaum particularly, a day’s journey from Nazareth, that He preached His doctrine and worked His miracles.

After the Sermon on the Mount, which tradition tells us was Kurn Hattin to the north-east of Tiberias, our Lord went down to Capharnaum where He healed the centurion’s servant (4th Sunday). From a boat by the side of Genesareth ("the valley of flowers”) Jesus preached His parable of the tares (5th Sunday); the fertile hills running from Capharnaum to Corozain supplied Him with the elements for the story. The parabies of the Gospel of the sixth Sunday were spoken shortly afterwards. One evening, following this unbroken course of preaching, our Lord, with no prospect of being able to rest, decided to cross the lake to reach Gergesa, a town of Perea on the opposite shore. The sea of Tiberias, made up of the waters of the Jordan, is subject to sudden and terrific storms; here it was that Jesus miraculously stilled the tempest, thus once again showing His apostles that He was indeed God.

Liturgical Note

The Time after Epiphany is in many ways similar to the Time after Pentecost; the use of green vestments on Sundays and ferial days, the same Additional Prayers, the same rules for the Mass with regard to the Gloria, Creed and Preface of Trinity. At Vespers, too, during both seasons, only the Antiphon to the Magnificat is proper.

These two liturgical seasons are devoted to the teaching, miracles and public fife of our Lord. The Time after Epiphany begins with the account of the first miracle, worked by Jesus at His Mother’s request. The first phase of our Saviour’s public ministry, with its preaching and miracles, falls naturally into place between the Epiphany, which is His manifestation, and the account of the events leading up to the drama of the Passion.

The Time after Epiphany begins on the day following the Octave-Day of the feast (Jan. 14) and lasts until the Saturday preceding Septuage- sima Sunday. There is, however, a "satellite feast" of the Christmas Season, the Purification, occurring invariably 40 days after Christmas (Feb. 2), sometimes in the Time after Epiphany, and sometimes in the Season of Septuagesima. For that reason, it has been placed among the saints’ days, in the Sanctoral Cycle, although its object brings it into close connexion with the Christmas section of the Temporal Cycle.

The movable Sundays after Epiphany or the additional Sundays after Pentecost

The Time after Epiphany provides Masses for six Sundays; all of them are said at this season when Easter comes late (April 17 or after).

When Easter comes early, there are less than six Sundays between Epiphany and Septuagesima. The two first of these six Masses are always celebrated after Epiphany. If there is only one Sunday after Epiphany, the above Mass of the second Sunday is anticipated on the Saturday before Septuagesima.

The four other Sundays may have to be transferred between the 23rd and the last Sunday after Pentecost (hence the name of movable and additional), according to the space that is left at the end of the liturgical year: one of these Sundays may also have to be anticipated on the eve of Septuagesima.