In the days of hansom cabs, ocean-liners and gas-light, well-to-do girls became debutantes. They made their first appearance on the social scene and were seen as marriageable assets. Other girls went into service and got to know their place in polite society. Men had no such rite of passage. The well-to-do learned from their fathers how to manage the family farm or how to command troops or maybe enter a profession. Other young men set out to earn their living and better themselves. Debuts were for females only.
But no. There was a group of people, male or female, for whom a debut was a fearsome experience. Artists and composers, for example, had to face an audience that, as likely as not, had a traditional outlook and did not appreciate novelty in a gallery or concert hall. Auguste Rodin had his sculpture ‘Le Baiser’ (the kiss) on show in Lewes in 1914. It was met with outrage and was withdrawn from public viewing. In 1875 Georges Bizet had a similar experience with his opera ‘Carmen’. Its depiction of proletarian life did not go down well with a sophisticated and traditional Paris audience.
When we turn to the New Testament, we find that Jesus, too, had a debut. He appeared in the wilderness and was baptized by John. This is the first mention we find of Jesus in the earliest of the four Gospels and Mark would have us understand that this is the beginning of things for Jesus. It seems to have been an unceremonious beginning. Straightaway Jesus was led into the wilderness and tempted, surrounded by wild beasts and angels.
The early Church looked upon this event as one to remember. Jesus’ baptism and beginning of a public life were marked by a festival. It was called Epiphany, not a word we are accustomed to use a great deal today, though there is a move to reinstate it in terms of a revelation as in ‘I had an epiphany.’ It is cognate with the word ‘phantom’ and basically means ‘appearance’ or ‘manifestation’. (A phantom is all appearance and nothing more substantial.) Think of epiphany as a near neighbour of ‘apocalypse’ and ‘apocalyptic’ meaning a revelation or an unveiling. Think of lifting the bonnet, testing the tyre pressure of a car – or the unwrapping of Christmas presents.
The festival (on 6 January) gained another angle on the meaning of the word when it became associated with the three astrologers who came to see Jesus. The emphasis shifts to making Jesus known to a wider circle. Hence Epiphany becomes a time when the Church reminds itself of the mission of the Church in worldwide terms. Mission is as compelling when times are hard as at any other time. If we think today brings problems with it, we should remind ourselves of the difficulties facing the Church in the days of Paul when mission became a new concept.
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