Homily for the Feast of the Epiphany

When I was a boy in Parochial School back in the 1960’s, we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany (or “Little Christmas,” as it was called then) on January the 6th, the “twelfth day of Christmas.” With the changes in the liturgical calendar of 1970, the Epiphany became a ‘moveable feast,” landing it on the Sunday following New Year’s Day, the thinking being that more people would be able to attend Mass on this day.

It was not a Holy Day of Obligation, so we were in school that day, though interrupted by Mass and a special party, as the story of the Three Kings was acted out for us on stage, usually by the Third Graders.

I always thought it quizzical that the Greek Orthodox had their celebration of the Lord’s birth on this date, but never questioned it, since we got out of so much classroom time that day. The reason for this discrepancy is that the Eastern Orthodox and others continued to use the Julian Calendar, which differs from the Gregorian calendar that we use, introduced to the Western World in 1752, and has a thirteen-day difference, placing the Epiphany on this date.

There is another difference between our two observances as unfolds in the two stories surrounding the Lord’s Birth in the Gospels of Saints Luke and Matthew: Saint Luke has the Annunciation of the Nativity given by angels to shepherds… Saint Matthew has the Star leading the Magi to the “Newborn King of the Jews.”

There is some symbolic significance in the difference between these two groups of people on the receiving end of the Good News of Christ’s Birth, which suggests some insight into how the message of Christ’s Coming is received, and acted upon.

The Shepherds were close-by; the Kings came from afar. The Shepherds’ geographical proximity suggests, perhaps,  a proximity in the Faith as well. The Kings, being from a distant land, and of a different Faith, would have greater need for guidance and direction, hence the Star in the sky, leading them to discover the Lord who has been beckoning them to Himself.

In addition, shepherds were known to be simple people, of a straightforward, uncomplicated faith, open to an acceptance of mystery. The Kings, well-bred and well-educated, had been formed in different religious, or in non-religious backgrounds, arousing some curiosity about the Star, not knowing where their journey might take them.

What the Shepherds and Kings have in common, however, is that, upon their discovery of Christ, their immediate response is worship. For us today, even, primacy of place in our expression of faith is also worship. Such other elements of the practice of religion as fellowship and works of mercy are the fruit of worship, but not its equal, nor its replacement.

Saint Benedict, in crafting his Monastic rule, wrote: “Place nothing at all before the work of God.” What, then, is this work of God? Jesus, Himself tells us, in the Gospel of John (6:29) “This is the work of God: that you believe in the One He sent.”  This belief forms the heart of the Christmas Mystery, and our openness to receive it.

The angels and the Star lead us to a new discovery: that the transcendent God of the heavens has become the imminent God of love on earth: God has become knowable and approachable in the Christ Child, whose further epiphanies will bring Him ever-closer to His beloved people. What be these?

In addition to the Visit of the Magi, Our Lord’s further epiphanies would include such events as:
+ the Baptism in the Jordan
+ the Wedding Feast at Cana
+ His Transfiguration
+ His post-Resurrection appearances

And now, from heaven, a new and perpetual epiphany is given us through His Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist, which both reveals and conceals His glorious epiphany.

The 19th-century poet and Jesuit priest, Gerard Manley Hopkins, translated Saint Thomas Aquinas’ hymn “Adoro Te Devote” speaking of both the revelation and the concealment of Christ in the Eucharist: Here are the first and last stanzas of this hymn, translated:

“Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore.
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at Thy service, low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder, at the God Thou art.

Jesus, whom I look at shrouded here below,
I beseech Thee, send me what I thirst for so,
Someday to gaze on Thee, face to face in light,
And be blest forever with Thy glorious might.”

Taking into further consideration the Star of Bethlehem leading the Magi then, and us now, as an act of God…in his work, “The Divine Comedy,” Dante describes God as “the love which moves the sun and stars.” Closer to our time, the late G.K. Chesterton wrote: “The sun does not rise in the east because of the rotation of the earth; the sun rises because God says to it, ‘Get up!’”

Speaking of this divine influence of cosmological happenings, Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “The stars, the planets and the whole universe are not governed by a blind force… they do not obey the dynamics of matter alone. Therefore, it is not the cosmic elements that should be divinized. On the contrary, within everything, and at the same time, above everything, there is a personal Will: the Spirit of God who, in Christ, has revealed Himself in love.”

Did the Three Kings know that the stars and the planets, in their orbits are moved, not randomly, nor even in their set paths but by the love of God? Let’s listen to the words of the second verse of the hymn “Let All Things Now Living” describing our belief in God’s activity within Creation:

“His law He enforces, the stars in their courses,
The sun in its orbit obediently shine.

The hills and the mountains, the rivers and fountains
the depths of the ocean proclaim Him divine.

We, too, should be voicing our love and rejoicing,
with glad adoration, a song let us raise,

Till all things now living unite in thanksgiving
to God in the highest, hosanna and praise.”

God is the origin of all things, and governs all things, not as a distant, cold, anonymous engine, but as a loving Father, and as a Brother in Christ: approachable and lovable, even in the act of worship. This means that reason and faith are not at odds with each other, as some people claim: Reason and faith are reciprocal. God’s mysterious design is simultaneously physical and metaphysical. His design for Creation, and especially for mankind is crowned in the birth of Jesus Christ, breaking into Creation, sending forth this Good News by way of angels and stars in ancient days…and now, in our day, in the Sacred Scriptures and the Holy Eucharist.

Jesus, as the Son of God... and the Son of Man, is at the center of:
+ Creation
+ the Universe
+ all of human history.

The Star which guided the Wise Men pales before Christ, who is “light form light.” No shadow, however dark… even that of Mortal Sin, can obscure the Light of Christ:  not…
+ hatred, violence or war
+ political maneuvering and its false promises
+ dangerous distortions of God’s divine plan for:
      - the Sanctity of human life
      - the dignity of the human person 
      - the divine truth attendant to human sexuality 
      - the sacred definition of marriage and family life

In all of this, the Church is meant to be a living epiphany — a manifestation — of Christ in the world. We hear the Prophet Isaiah today, encouraging us to be that new star, that clear light, as he said:
“See, darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds cover the peoples;
but upon you the Lord shines,
and over you appears His glory.”

The Church is humanity illuminated: our Baptism and our frequent reception of the Eucharist empower us, if we choose, to live by their Grace… to reflect the love, the beauty, and the dignity of God dwelling within us.

To be sure, we are human, with our limitations and sinfulness, but, as a human institution of divine origin, the love, the beauty and the dignity of God will make of the Church a “Lumen Gentium” (Vat.II) a light to all humanity.

We close now, with a prayer by Pope Benedict:
“May the Virgin Mary, Star of the New Evangelization, 
help us to bring this mission to completion,
as she intercedes for us from heaven.”