Homily of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch kyr Porfirije, delivered on 19 January 2026, on the Feast of Theophany, in the Church of Saint Sava on Vračar.
 
Brothers and sisters, we are filled with the grace of God and with joy, because that which the human race throughout history awaited, that for which it prayed, that which the prophets proclaimed and that which the chosen people of God preserved as a covenant, today has found its fulfillment. Today God has been revealed. Today Saint John the Baptist baptized our Lord Jesus Christ, and the day on which the Lord was baptized we celebrate as Theophany. This is the day on which our Lord was proclaimed as the Messiah, the day on which it was revealed and shown that He is the Son of God. This happened precisely on the day of His Baptism.
 
Baptism represents for us as well, brothers and sisters, first of all death and resurrection together with Christ. When we are baptized, we are immersed in water, and this is indeed our dying together with Him; likewise, we emerge from the water together with Him, which means that we participate in the mystery of His victory over death, in the mystery of the Resurrection. Baptism is also a symbol of repentance. It is that moment when, confessing our sins, we receive forgiveness for everything we have done wrongly. And behold, the Lord, who has no sin, takes upon Himself the sins of all of us and frees us from our sins, precisely because through repentance, by confessing our sins, we hand our sin over to Him so that He may free us from it.
 
On this day, on the Feast of Theophany, the sanctification of all creation also takes place. This, among other things, is precisely what the sanctification of water represents. Some people, as with many other details of our church life, associate this with pagan origins. Of course, we know that this is wrong, that it is not correct and that it is not true, because through the sanctification of water, through His Baptism, through His entering into the water, the Lord sanctifies the whole of existence, the whole of creation. There is nothing that is evil in and of itself. Everything that the Lord created is good. It was given as good, but it was also created with the purpose of being sanctified by the grace of God. This then means that on this day, by entering the waters of the Jordan, the Lord renewed everything. He truly is the only new thing under the sun, yet by His grace and by His presence He renews everything. Everything is new: a new creation and a new human being. And the Church, in fact, as the Kingdom of God within history, is the new creation. Everything in the Church is new, a new way of life, to which we are called.
 
Let the rules of this world remain outside the space of the Church; that is, let the spirit of this world with its rules not be the spirit and the manner of our life. Let our mutual relationships, as well as our relationship toward God, toward ourselves, and toward the whole of creation, be completely renewed, new, and founded upon those principles, upon the commandments of God, which the Lord sets before us as the paths of our life. And all the commandments of God and the whole law are contained in the twofold commandment of love. With our entire being we are called to love God, which means to place Him as the axis, the center, the main point and support of our life; and then, from that support, from that point and from that love, to love all people as well.
 
This is that new mode of existence which the Lord establishes by giving His Son for the salvation of the world, thereby showing that God, as the Apostle and Evangelist John bears witness, is by His nature and by His very essence – love. This means that on this day the Lord Jesus Christ is not only proclaimed and confirmed as Savior, but God is revealed as love, as a communion of persons. He is revealed not as a monad, not as a solitary being who is sufficient unto Himself, but as God Who is one in essence and yet a communion of love – the Father who loves His Son and who loves the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father; the Son who loves the Father and the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit who loves the Father and the Son. And all are one in love and through love! This mode of existence has been established to be the mode of our life as well, as individuals, as persons, and as a community.
 
Thus, God gave His Son so that He might identify Himself with us, so that through the Son He might adopt us as His own. He gave His Son to be what we are, in everything except sin. Therefore the Apostle Paul says: Him God the Father gave, Him who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. He therefore took our sin upon Himself, identified Himself with us though He has no sin, so that we might be justified.
 
Thus, today God is manifested and revealed as Trinity. The Son of God is baptized, the heavens are opened, and a voice is heard from heaven confirming it: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” Do what He tells you to do. If you love Him, fulfill His law and His commandments. Hold fast to His word, for that is the path of salvation, the path of joy, the path of fullness, the path of beauty and the path of peace — peace with God, peace within oneself, and peace with other people. For He is the radiance of the Father’s glory and the exact image of His being, as the Apostle Paul says in the Epistle to the Hebrews, while in the Epistle to the Colossians he says that He is the Son of the Father’s love, and that He is before all things and that all things came into being in Him. And the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit who proceeds from the Father, writes the Holy Evangelist John. Thus we hear: This is My beloved Son!, and then the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove and anoints Jesus as man, making Him the Messiah.
 
Therefore, brothers and sisters, may the Lord grant that, just as He identified Himself with us through the Holy Spirit, and thereby God the Father showed immeasurable love toward the human race, so may we as well, by our own will, by our own decision and by a single “yes,” identify ourselves and continually identify ourselves with our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as we identified ourselves with Him in the mystery of Baptism, so may we continually identify ourselves with Him and confirm by our life that we are one with Him, so that, being one with Him, we may become sons of His Father and our God, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Then, being one with Him, may we always be one body, one Church, one with one another, and may we glorify the one God, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen!