Epiphanytide: 'Ordinary Time' or something much better?
The Sundays after Epiphany aren't 'ordinary': they are our preparation to enter into eternity.

Epiphanytide isn't 'ordinary': it's our preparation to enter into eternity.
In a previous piece, we discussed the significance of Epiphany, and how the events which it commemorates – the coming of the Magi, the baptism of the Lord, and the Wedding at Cana – point towards the consummation of time, and the manifestation of Christ as King.
As the twentieth century liturgical writer Fr Johannes Pinsk writes:
“[Epiphany] brings together, in a single perspective, the promises and their fulfilment and brings them together in a single celebration from Advent to Epiphany. This is what gives the Christmas cycle its unique beauty.”1
He also states that Epiphany “truly contains all the fullness of salvation that the coming of Christ brings”, and writes elsewhere:
“In reality, it is the whole of the ‘epiphanic’ mystery that the Church celebrates, and in this whole, the first coming of the Lord in the humility of the flesh appears to us clothed in all the splendor of his coming in glory and majesty.
“And precisely what gives this feast an unparalleled depth is that it celebrates, in sacramental form, the final manifestation of Christ which will be the crowning of the Redemption.”
We ended the previous piece with some further questions:
Where does this leave the Sundays and the season after Epiphany?
Does Epiphanytide represent a waiting period, of variable length, before Septuagesima and the Easter cycle?
If Epiphany represents the end of a liturgical cycle, then when does the liturgical year start? And what might this tell us about the Septuagesima-Lent-Easter cycle itself?
Epiphanytide as a proper liturgical season
Epiphany (like the other feasts) uses the commemoration of past events in order to point towards what is to be fulfilled in the future—and even now, in the present.
If Epiphany celebrates the fullness and permanence of Christ’s manifestation as King, this continues throughout Epiphanytide. Specifically, the Sundays following Epiphany are filled with the overflow of what Pinsk calls “the whole radiant glory of the festal Mass” of Epiphany, and represent a whole world made new in Christ and in submission to his kingship.2
For example, the various liturgical texts in the Sundays after Epiphany depict a renewed creation worshiping God. Consider the Introits, which all allude to the victory of universal praise offered to God:
First Sunday (usually transferred to the following Monday): “Upon a high throne I saw a man sitting, Whom a multitude of angels adore, singing in unison: Behold Him, the name of Whose empire is forever.
V. Sing joyfully to God, all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness.”Second Sunday: “Let all on earth worship You, O God, and sing praise to You, sing praise to Your name, Most High.
V. Shout joyfully to God, all you on earth, sing praise to the glory of His name; proclaim His glorious praise.”Third to Sixth Sundays: “Adore God, all you His angels: Sion hears and is glad, and the cities of Juda rejoice.
V. The Lord is King; let the earth rejoice; let the many isles be glad.”
These Sundays bring us into a world restored in Christ, in which everything has been finally set right. The repetition of these propers over the weeks presents this world as something final and permanent—a sense of having finally arrived and resting at our destination. This is all the more clear in years with a later date for Easter, in that these propers will be repeated even more.
Across these final weeks of Epiphanytide, we see the following sentiments of definitive victory repeated each week at Mass:
Gradual: The Gentiles shall fear thy name, O LOrd, an all the kings of the earth thy glory.
V. For the Lord hath built up Sion: and he shall be seen in his glory.Alleluia, Alleluia: The Lord hath reigned, let the earth rejoice: let many islands be glad. Alleluia.
Offertory: The right hand of the Lord hath wrought strength: the right hand of the Lord hath exalted me: I shall not die, but live, and shall declare the works of the Lord.
Communion: All wondered at these things which proceeded from the mouth of God.
The parts which change across these Sundays also emphasise the vision of peace and security. For instance, the Gospel on the Fourth Sunday depicts Christ calming the storm; the Fifth depicts him as the sower, serenely waiting for the cockle in his field to be burnt up in the fire; and the Sixth presents the Church, the Kingdom of Heaven, as a great tree in whose branches the birds dwell, and as the leaven leavening the bread of the world.
Many people see Epiphany as little more than a feast marking the end of Christmas, and inaugurating a period of “ordinary time” before something else happens. In such a paradigm, we can see why the reformers renamed the Sundays after Epiphany just that: “ordinary time.”
But far from being a period of “ordinary time”, each of these Sundays after Epiphany present us with a vision of universal praise being rendered to God, by a Creation which has been made new.
If the feast of the Epiphany itself represents the definitive manifestation of Christ in glory, then these Sundays and this period represent the eternal consummation of the marriage feast of the Lamb. As is sung at the Benedictus antiphon for Epiphany itself:
“This day is the Church joined unto the Heavenly Bridegroom, since Christ hath washed away her sins in Jordan; the wise men hasten with gifts to the marriage supper of the King; and they that sit at meat together make merry with water turned into wine. Alleluia.”
The sharp break between the permanent rest of Epiphanytide and the terror of Septuagesima is one reason why some writers see the latter as the beginning of the liturgical year, rather than Advent.
But does this not go against many symbolic interpretations of the liturgical year?
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