Beauty Will Save the World: Theophany

The Blessing of the Water, the Blessing of the Earth

A Theophany Meditation by Fr. Antony Hughes

There is a beautiful quote from Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh of blessed memory that goes like this.

"Unless we look at a person and see the beauty there is in this person, we can contribute nothing to him. One does not help a person by discerning what is wrong, what is ugly, what is distorted. Christ looked at everyone he met, at the prostitute, at the thief, and saw the beauty hidden there. Perhaps it was distorted, perhaps damaged, but it was beauty none the less, and what he did was to call out this beauty."

This conveys the meaning of the service of the Great Blessing of the Waters. We are calling out the beauty of the water, of the world and of the whole of creation. This, in fact, is the mission of Holy Orthodoxy, to bring out the beauty in all things, to bless all things and by doing to participate with God synergetically in the recreation of the universe.

We have no time to meditate on darkness or on the evil that lives in this world. That is the work of the devil. We have the heart only to see goodness and to rejoice in it. This is the meaning of the scripture that says, “To the pure all things are pure.” Impure hearts rejoice in darkness. Let that not be so of us.

Let us participate every moment of our lives in the calling out of the beauty of creation, of our neighbors, of our friends and our enemies and yes, even our own beauty. “How glorious is God’s Name above all the earth!”

H/T Allan Boyd