THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD
6 JANUARY 2019
We
know very little about the mysterious Magi who appear in the Gospel of Saint
Matthew. We conjecture that they are the
kings mentioned in Psalm 72 (our Responsorial Psalm today) who have traveled
from Persia (modern day Iran). We
presume that they are astrologers, interested in studying the heavenly
bodies. We count them as three
individuals, because they bring three gifts to the newborn King. Over the centuries, artists have been
intrigued by their story and portrayed it in plays, poems, songs, and religious
images.
What we do
know about them is that they are not members of God’s Chosen People. The Jews would regard them as unclean
pagans. They are spiritual seekers who
have seen news of a remarkable birth in the natural signs of the stars. They have traveled far to reach Jerusalem,
where they presume that proper king would be born. They seek advice from the present king,
Herod, who consults the chief priests and scribes. The religious leaders cite Micah's prophesy
pointing to Bethlehem. With this
revealed quote from Scripture, they complete the final seven miles to
Bethlehem, where they find the child.
Their gifts express the truth about this child: gold signifying that he is a king;
frankincense identifying him as God; and myrrh pointing to his role as a
suffering servant who will die for the sake of all. Changed by this encounter, they return home
by a different route, knowing that God had been seeking them all along.
Like the
Magi, there are many spiritual seekers today.
Some of them are probably members of our families. They tend to be sincere young people who see
themselves as spiritual but not religious.
They are seeking to find God through many different means – through
communing with nature, studying world religions, pursuing philosophy, or by
relying on their own instincts. We are
gathered for Mass today, because we know the importance of being religious. We know what the Magi discovered. Despite their efforts to seek God, it was God
who was seeking them all along. Saint
Matthew understood this point in writing his Gospel and emphasizes God’s
universal call to respond to the Good News of the Gospel.
At this
time in our parish, we are finishing the work of our five year plan, which many
of you have helped through responding to our parish survey. We hope that the plan will give practical
guidance to improve our work to help people see the value of being religious. When spiritual seekers come to us, we must avoid
the insecurity of Herod, who was threatened by someone he perceived as a
rival. We cannot dismiss them like the
priests and scribes, who were so smug that they did not follow through with
their own advice in studying Scripture.
The prophet
Isaiah wrote to people living in darkness.
They had just returned from fifty years of exile, and they were living
in the poverty stricken ruins of Jerusalem.
Isaiah challenges them to look beyond the darkness to recognize the
glory of the Lord shining through them.
We must do the same. We too dwell
in darkness: the darkness of a world broken
by war, hatred, and racism; in a nation torn apart and by angry partisan
divisions; and in a Church plunged into darkness by the revelations of failures
by priests who violated the trust of those entrusted to their care and by
bishops who did not address the issue.
Isaiah insisted that his people trust in God’s promise, even when the
results of that promise were not visible.
This Feast is called Epiphany, because that word literally means “to
manifest”. God kept his promise by
manifesting himself in the birth of a child in the manger. Our task is to help those who are seeking God
to understand that God has been seeking them all along. We hope that they can see the value of being
religious. Enlightened by the Word of
God and fed by the Eucharist, all of us can complete the final few miles of the
journey to encounter the Lord dwelling in our midst.
No comments:
Post a Comment