epiphany

January 5, 2008

This Sunday the Church celebrates the solemn feast of the Epiphany. The word means “manifestation” or “appearance”, and the feast commemorates the manifestation of Christ’s glory and divinity to the magi, who came from the East, guided by a star, to find and pay homage to the new born king of the Jews (cf. Matthew 2:1-2).

The magi have traditionally been seen as representatives of the far flung nations of the world and thus as a first manifestation and witness that Christ had come to save all humanity, and that all nations would come to recognize and worship him as divine Lord and Savior.

St. Mathew tells us the star “came and stopped over the place where the child was” (2:9), and that “they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then, they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (2:11).

The gift of gold recognized that the infant Jesus was a king. The frankincense, used to offer worship to God, acknowledged his divinity, and the myrrh, used to anoint the bodies of the deceased, foretold his crucifixion and death.

There are many things we can learn from the Solemnity of the Epiphany. I would like to point out two.

First, we learn the importance of giving gifts, and of giving the best we have to offer. We already know this from giving and receiving presents for Christmas, birthdays, and anniversaries. What I’m talking about, though, is giving gifts to the Lord. This is something that we may never consider beyond our routine offering of time, talent, and treasure in service to the Church, to family, or to society. If it’s hard to find a gift for the man or woman “who has everything,” how can we possibly find something to give to God, who truly lacks nothing.

There are various ways in which to give gifts to the Lord: the first is to recognize him in the least of our brothers and sisters, and include them in our list of gift recipients at Christmas and other great feasts. Another is to give him special spiritual gifts, such as making a personal holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament in quiet prayer and adoration or to read one of the four Gospels in order to know him better. Still another is to give him the gift of a day of special self-renunciation denying ourselves some routine pleasure that we enjoy greatly. These can be powerful ways of expressing our love for the Lord, and they benefit us greatly. .

A second lesson has to do with risk and passion. If we look at our lives, most of us consciously avoid risk, and most of us would confess that our daily existence is not consumed by any burning passion that drives us and, in a sense, dictates how we organize our lives.

What are our current goals? When we’re young we dream of such things as finding a good job in the career field of our choice, and meeting the right person, getting married and “settling down.” Then, we think, we can find self-fulfillment by carrying out our daily routines and enjoying life’s small pleasures – getting together with family and friends on the holidays, eating out once in a while and going to the movies, saving a little for a nice summer vacation each year, occasionally redoing our wardrobe or home interior, buying a new car every few years, following our favorite sports team…

It is entirely reasonable to want a stable and secure life, to fear the unknown, and to avoid situations that we cannot in some way control. But, is this enough to make us happy? Are we not restless for something more? Do we not want to live for something ultimate and pour out ourselves for a dream that is noble and worthy of our best commitment?

We can all identify with St. Augustine oft quoted words, “Our hearts are restless, Lord, and they will not rest until they rest in you.”

Now consider and appreciate the passion of the magi. Look at all they sacrificed to make this one dream come true - to find and know the Savior. They risked following a distant star with no guarantee that it would lead them to the one they sought. They left their families, social positions, comfort, security, and even their own native lands in hopes of finding the Christ. We don’t know how long it took them to find “Jesus with his mother Mary.”

The magi set us an example and they call us, today, to rise above our comforts, securities, and familiar routines, and center our lives on living the Christian faith, the heart of which is always to seek to follow Christ and to draw closer to him. The magi say to us, “It is not enough to know him from afar. It is not enough to know that he is, or that he is savior. Only the one whose heart is fixed totally on him, and seeks him daily, will know peace, joy, and the fully-lived life.

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 05-Jun-2008 9:48 sitemap