🕯️This liturgical celebration, situated on the threshold of the great solemnity of the Epiphany, summons the faithful to recollection and preparation for the glorious manifestation of the Lord to the nations. Unlike the tranquility of Christmas, the Vigil of the Epiphany carries a tone of solemn expectation and profound mystery, marked by the return of the Holy Family from Egypt, symbolizing the new Exodus and the true liberation of God's people. The liturgy highlights the divinity of Christ that breaks the silence of the night and the divine providence that guides His steps, protecting the Christ Child from the fury of earthly tyrants. It is a moment of transition between concealment and public revelation, where the Church meditates on divine sonship and the eternal inheritance promised to those who, freed from the yoke of the ancient law, embrace the grace brought by the Incarnate Word.
🎼Introit (Wis 18:14-15; Ps 92:1)
Dum médium siléntium tenérent ómnia, et nox in suo cursu médium iter habéret, omnípotens Sermo tuus, Dómine, de cœlis a regálibus sédibus venit. Ps. Dóminus regnávit, decórem indútus est: indutus est Dóminus fortitúdinem, et præcínxit se.
While all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course, Thy almighty Word, O Lord, came down from heaven from Thy royal throne. Ps. The Lord hath reigned, He is clothed with beauty: the Lord is clothed with strength, and hath girded Himself.
📜Epistle (Gal 4:1-7)
Brethren: As long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all: but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the father. So we also, when we were children, were serving under the elements of the world. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law: that He might redeem them who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father. Therefore now he is not a servant, but a son: and if a son, an heir also through God.
✠Gospel (Matt 2:19-23)
At that time: When Herod was dead, behold an Angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt, saying: Arise, and take the Child and His Mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead that sought the life of the Child. Who arose, and took the Child and His Mother, and came into the land of Israel. But hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither: and being warned in sleep retired into the quarters of Galilee. And coming he dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was said by the Prophets: That He shall be called a Nazarene.
🙌Divine Sonship and the Silence of Providence
🌌The liturgy of the Vigil of the Epiphany inserts us into the mystery of God's operative silence, which prepares for the great manifestation of His glory. The Introit, taken from the Book of Wisdom, recalls that it was in the midst of the night and silence that the almighty Word descended from the royal throne. This silence is not empty, but a fullness of presence; it is the necessary condition for the eternal Word to be heard in the soul, contrasting with the noise of the world represented by the agitation of Herod and Archelaus. In the Gospel, we see Divine Providence guiding Saint Joseph through dreams—the silent communication of God—to protect the Incarnate Word. The return from Egypt is not merely a geographical movement, but a theological one: Christ recapitulates the history of Israel, being the true Son whom God calls out of Egypt (Hos 11:1), no longer for the servitude of the Law, but to inaugurate the freedom of grace. The Epistle to the Galatians illuminates this mystery by declaring that, in the "fulness of time," we left the condition of servants to assume that of sons. Saint Augustine teaches us that by assuming our mortal humanity, Christ conferred upon us His immortal divinity, making us co-heirs; He came down that we might ascend, and remained in the bosom of the Father even while coming to us (St. Augustine, Sermon 119). Thus, the hidden life in Nazareth, mentioned at the end of the Gospel, is the flowering of this new reality: the "Nazarene" (the one who flowers) germinates in the silence of daily life to, at the Epiphany, reveal Himself as the Light of the Nations. Our filial adoption, therefore, requires that we live guided by the Spirit, crying "Abba, Father," confident that, even under the threats of the powers of this world, the hand of God conducts the history of salvation.
See English version of the critical articles here.
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