Epiphany

Christmas III – The Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord

Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72; Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12

The bride’s beloved is standing right before her but what is so often a major concern on the wedding day? The train of the dress!

There is great concern over the health of Buffalo Bills Damar Hamlin. Yet is anyone reflecting on the violent nature of football?

We have identified the root cause of so many of our present day ecclesial issues as the lack of priests.  The one silver bullet with which everything would be fine again. Yet do we enter into the prayerful process of discernment of the Holy Spirit? And are we willing to go where led?

In how many situations of our personal and communal lives do we “miss the forest for the trees” – trip up on the details, avoid the larger more complex issues, reach for the familiar and comfortable because it is comfortable and familiar?

Do we approach the story of the Epiphany in the same way? What are the first things that come to mind when we hear this Gospel? The star? The wise men? Is it the gifts? Do we ever reflect on what is behind the story and its meaning for our spiritual lives?

The star is important, but why? The star stirs up something within these magi; it initiates this trip. But just not any trip, this is not a vacation to the sunny beaches of the Mediterranean. The journey is to search for someone. God’s light always shows the path. Yet do the magi fully understand who they are seeking out? Like the magi all we can do is respond to God’s initiative.

The story is about a journey, a spiritual journey, an inward journey. And spiritual journeys are not always easy. Ask Teresa of Kolkata, Augustine, Theresa of Avila or Oscar Romero. All of them went, like the magi, through their own kinds of desert journeys. Days, weeks, even years filled with hot days and cold nights, thirst and hunger, venomous scorpions and serpents; feelings of being lost and not knowing where they were headed.

Israel, the Hebrew prophets, John the Baptist, and Jesus were all led into the desert. What experience, person, event or word is our star compelling us to enter on the spiritual journey and respond to God’s initiative?

Along the way, there will be questions. Questions of direction – which way? Questions of understanding – how can this be? “Where is the new-born king of the Jews?” Some people may consider questions as a sign of a lack of trust in God, but are they? How do you approach the issue of questioning God expressing the array of strong human emotions? Yet the scriptures are filled with people asking questions.

“How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”

“Am I my brother’s keeper?”

“How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely you cannot reenter your mother’s womb?”

 “Were there no burial places in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness?

“What must I do to be saved?”

“Are you the one to come or do we look for another?”

 “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

I wonder what questions Jesus asked the Father while in the desert.

What questions do you ask of God?

All spiritual journeys will lead us to Jesus Christ where we are invited to offer gifts. And is not the finest gift we have to offer Jesus, each other and the Church ourselves? Our humanity in all our richness, complexity, and beauty?

We may not notice that the story ends with a second journey – a journey back home – but by another route. T. S. Eliot puts it eloquently in his Four Quartets:

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

To encounter Jesus is to never be the same again. It is to journey back home but by another route and to know ourselves for the first time. The journey is called conversion, a change of heart, a revealing of who God desires us to be in the fullness of God’s dream for each of us. And it is stars, honest questions and a willingness to go on an unknown journey at God’s direction that is the path of conversion. It is not always knowing what or who we are seeking but doing so in trust. Then we will experience epiphany, a revealing of Jesus Christ deep within us. We will arrive where we started and know the place, ourselves, for the first time.