EPIPHANY DAY
Let us come and adore the King, High Priest of God
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Today when we celebrate the feast of Epiphany we need to ask ourselves, who actually got to find Jesus? Herod and his scribes who had the scriptures failed to find Jesus but the magi who followed the natural light of the stars were able to find him. Why? Because the Jewish authorities, even though they possessed the shining truth of revealed scriptures, did not follow it. They did not walk in the light of the scriptures. The magi, on the other hand, who enjoyed only a star light followed its guidance. By the fact we are baptized and if we are not practicing the catholic faith we are not going to inherit the Kingdom of God. It is not the possession of the truth that matters, it is how prepared we are to walk in the light of the truth that we possess. It is better to have the dim light of the stars and follow it than to have the bright light of the Holy Scriptures and neglect it.
The word "epiphany" means,"a sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something or the appearance or manifestation of a divine being"
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord Jesus, that is the manifestation of the Divine Son to the nations of the world.
In the Old Testament, the Jewish people believed that they were the exclusive people of God. They divided the whole world into two: Jews who were the people of God, and Gentiles who were not. Some of their prophets and wise men tried to correct this belief by reminding them of the universal love of God for all humankind. This is the message of the gospel that God commissioned Paul to preach: “that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).
Today we remember the Magi who came from faraway lands to worship the baby Jesus. They came guided by a star. Being nature worshippers who had no scriptures, God revealed Himself to them through the means available to them in their own religion. Through the stars they were able to learn of the birth of Jesus and find their way to him. They came as pagans, they worshipped Jesus as pagans, and they went back home as pagans. They did not convert either to Judaism or to Christianity. Their worship was acceptable to God and God directed them in their journey home through a dream. They went back home another way. Whoever meet the Lord can not walk on the same way. The conversion will happen. Those who meet Jesus in their lives will change their way. If not they have not yet met Jesus.
I think that the reason that we call the Magi "wise men" is because they had the wisdom to "return to their own country by a different route." In my own journey, I have to admit that I returned to Herod many times before I was wise enough to take a different route home.
The story of the searching magi serves as a fitting and powerful metaphor for our journey to Christic consciousness. I picture the magi as a caravan--comprising people of all races, genders, colors and orientations, bearing their gifts of self, their gifts of symbols; encouraged and empowered by a deep longing for consciousness and wholeness--a desire that ultimately protects them and us from the unconscious, life-numbing states of being that fear and resist growth and change; states of being that are ultimately egocentric, corrupt and greedy. In today's gospel reading, King Herod serves to illustrate such a state of being and its destructive and life-denying characteristics.
You may remember that the first Christmas Nativity scene, Crib presepio or crèche was made by St Francis of Assisi around 1220 in the town of Greccio near Assisi. He used real animals to create a living scene so that the worshippers could contemplate the birth of the child Jesus in a direct way, making use of the senses, especially sight.
If you pay attention to these magi. There are lot of things to learn. In the late third century Origen gave the kings the names by which we now know them: Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar.
The "Three Kings" comes from two elements: the number of gifts given, and a passage from Psalms 72, which describes three kings (of Tarshish, Sheba, and Seba) offering gifts and giving praise to God.
Often they represented the three continents of the known world: Europe, Asia and Africa. His dark skin identifies the African king, but the Asian king was represented by a complicated hat or turban, often placed on the ground in the front of the painting for emphasis.
The kings frequently were used to represent three ages of man and are painted as a youth, a middle-aged man and an old man with a grey beard.
This understanding of the gifts (as symbols declaring Jesus as king, God, and suffering redeemer) goes back to the second century. Eventually, the gifts also came to symbolize our Christian response: gold represents virtue, incense represents prayer, and myrrh depicts our own suffering for Christ.
In addition to names, we even get physical descriptions of the magi from a treatise that was written around 700. Entitled Excerpta et Collectanea, it hints that the magi represent different races:
"The first is said to have been Melchior, an old man with white hair and a long beard ... who offered gold to the Lord as to a king representing the divinity of Jesus. The second, Gaspar by name, young and beardless and ruddy complexioned ... honored him as God by his gift of incense, an oblation worthy of divinity and prayer and worship. The third, black-skinned and heavily bearded, named Balthazar ... by his gift of myrrh testified to the Son of Man who was to die representing the humanity of Jesus." Jesus the man, having received the ultimate High Priesthood was to both suffer and die to reconcile God to man.
My dear brothers and sisters, let's not forget that just as there is a part of us that yearns to journey as the magi to find and claim Christ, there's also another part of us which, like Herod, wants things forever comfortable, forever under control, forever stagnant. Yet we can and must overcome such desires--within ourselves and within our church--if we are to follow in the example of our brother Jesus and be daily, living epiphanies.
And finally, it is important to note that the journey of the magi doesn't end at the feet of the infant Jesus, but back in their homelands where, gifted with new, deeper insight and with gifts of discernment and creativity, they are called like us, to manifest Christ. To manifest, in other words, the consciousness and love that is gained as a result of our journeying with one another and with the God who walks in our midst.
Let us reflect on this mystery today as we celebrate the Magi coming from pagan lands to worship the new-born Jesus while God’s “chosen people” in Jerusalem sleep unaware that the kingdom of God has come.
With the Magi, let us worship the Lord! With Mary, let us present our offering, that of ourselves to the almighty so that we will go back home with a different way and as a changed person.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Today when we celebrate the feast of Epiphany we need to ask ourselves, who actually got to find Jesus? Herod and his scribes who had the scriptures failed to find Jesus but the magi who followed the natural light of the stars were able to find him. Why? Because the Jewish authorities, even though they possessed the shining truth of revealed scriptures, did not follow it. They did not walk in the light of the scriptures. The magi, on the other hand, who enjoyed only a star light followed its guidance. By the fact we are baptized and if we are not practicing the catholic faith we are not going to inherit the Kingdom of God. It is not the possession of the truth that matters, it is how prepared we are to walk in the light of the truth that we possess. It is better to have the dim light of the stars and follow it than to have the bright light of the Holy Scriptures and neglect it.
The word "epiphany" means,"a sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something or the appearance or manifestation of a divine being"
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord Jesus, that is the manifestation of the Divine Son to the nations of the world.
In the Old Testament, the Jewish people believed that they were the exclusive people of God. They divided the whole world into two: Jews who were the people of God, and Gentiles who were not. Some of their prophets and wise men tried to correct this belief by reminding them of the universal love of God for all humankind. This is the message of the gospel that God commissioned Paul to preach: “that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).
Today we remember the Magi who came from faraway lands to worship the baby Jesus. They came guided by a star. Being nature worshippers who had no scriptures, God revealed Himself to them through the means available to them in their own religion. Through the stars they were able to learn of the birth of Jesus and find their way to him. They came as pagans, they worshipped Jesus as pagans, and they went back home as pagans. They did not convert either to Judaism or to Christianity. Their worship was acceptable to God and God directed them in their journey home through a dream. They went back home another way. Whoever meet the Lord can not walk on the same way. The conversion will happen. Those who meet Jesus in their lives will change their way. If not they have not yet met Jesus.
I think that the reason that we call the Magi "wise men" is because they had the wisdom to "return to their own country by a different route." In my own journey, I have to admit that I returned to Herod many times before I was wise enough to take a different route home.
The story of the searching magi serves as a fitting and powerful metaphor for our journey to Christic consciousness. I picture the magi as a caravan--comprising people of all races, genders, colors and orientations, bearing their gifts of self, their gifts of symbols; encouraged and empowered by a deep longing for consciousness and wholeness--a desire that ultimately protects them and us from the unconscious, life-numbing states of being that fear and resist growth and change; states of being that are ultimately egocentric, corrupt and greedy. In today's gospel reading, King Herod serves to illustrate such a state of being and its destructive and life-denying characteristics.
You may remember that the first Christmas Nativity scene, Crib presepio or crèche was made by St Francis of Assisi around 1220 in the town of Greccio near Assisi. He used real animals to create a living scene so that the worshippers could contemplate the birth of the child Jesus in a direct way, making use of the senses, especially sight.
If you pay attention to these magi. There are lot of things to learn. In the late third century Origen gave the kings the names by which we now know them: Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar.
The "Three Kings" comes from two elements: the number of gifts given, and a passage from Psalms 72, which describes three kings (of Tarshish, Sheba, and Seba) offering gifts and giving praise to God.
Often they represented the three continents of the known world: Europe, Asia and Africa. His dark skin identifies the African king, but the Asian king was represented by a complicated hat or turban, often placed on the ground in the front of the painting for emphasis.
The kings frequently were used to represent three ages of man and are painted as a youth, a middle-aged man and an old man with a grey beard.
This understanding of the gifts (as symbols declaring Jesus as king, God, and suffering redeemer) goes back to the second century. Eventually, the gifts also came to symbolize our Christian response: gold represents virtue, incense represents prayer, and myrrh depicts our own suffering for Christ.
In addition to names, we even get physical descriptions of the magi from a treatise that was written around 700. Entitled Excerpta et Collectanea, it hints that the magi represent different races:
"The first is said to have been Melchior, an old man with white hair and a long beard ... who offered gold to the Lord as to a king representing the divinity of Jesus. The second, Gaspar by name, young and beardless and ruddy complexioned ... honored him as God by his gift of incense, an oblation worthy of divinity and prayer and worship. The third, black-skinned and heavily bearded, named Balthazar ... by his gift of myrrh testified to the Son of Man who was to die representing the humanity of Jesus." Jesus the man, having received the ultimate High Priesthood was to both suffer and die to reconcile God to man.
My dear brothers and sisters, let's not forget that just as there is a part of us that yearns to journey as the magi to find and claim Christ, there's also another part of us which, like Herod, wants things forever comfortable, forever under control, forever stagnant. Yet we can and must overcome such desires--within ourselves and within our church--if we are to follow in the example of our brother Jesus and be daily, living epiphanies.
And finally, it is important to note that the journey of the magi doesn't end at the feet of the infant Jesus, but back in their homelands where, gifted with new, deeper insight and with gifts of discernment and creativity, they are called like us, to manifest Christ. To manifest, in other words, the consciousness and love that is gained as a result of our journeying with one another and with the God who walks in our midst.
Let us reflect on this mystery today as we celebrate the Magi coming from pagan lands to worship the new-born Jesus while God’s “chosen people” in Jerusalem sleep unaware that the kingdom of God has come.
With the Magi, let us worship the Lord! With Mary, let us present our offering, that of ourselves to the almighty so that we will go back home with a different way and as a changed person.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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