Epiphany January 5th, 2020
Today the Church celebrates the Epiphany or manifestation of the God Child. Jesus, the Eternal Son of God become Man, is manifested and made known to the whole world. Jesus, true God and true Man, the savior of all souls, is revealed, not only to the Jews but to the gentiles as well.
There is much for us to learn from these events. The kings representing the peoples of the entire world go forth to adore the King of all kings. When they saw the star we are told that they were glad beyond measure—is this not a supernatural joy. It is a joy that is beyond what can be measured by human means, which means it is a joy beyond all earthly understanding.
The star led them to a simple little house in a small obscure village, insignificance in the eyes of the world. Three powerful kings, rich beyond compare are filled with such incredible joy when they see the manifestation of their King, their savior, revealed in simplicity and humility. What lessons there are for us in their example. These three kings are also called the three wise men, but why were they wise? It was because they used their natural wisdom to discover supernatural wisdom and joy. True wisdom and our natural common sense lead us to the adoration of God. Aristotle, a pagan, used his human wisdom and common sense to find the truth of the Ten Commandments, including that greatest of all commandments, to Love the Lord your God with your whole soul, mind, body and all of your might, which means to adore Him, to give yourself and all you have in response to what God has given to you, which is everything.
There is a spirit of our present age which is antithetical to the Spirit of God, an anti-spirit if you will, that tries to sell wisdom apart from God. It tries to convince us, that what is important is manifested only in great glamour and noise, only in technological wonders, feats, and riches. It is a spirit that lies and proclaims that God has come to give his peace to all men on earth.
However, the Spirit of God teaches us instead, that God comes only to those who are poor in spirit, to the humble of heart and He manifests Himself in simplicity and silence. God’s Spirit points to the Truth, who is Jesus Christ and who has come to give his peace, not to all men but only to men who are of goodwill; that is right, “peace on earth to men of goodwill!” The Holy Spirit of God teaches that earthly wisdom apart from God and adoration of Him in Spirit and in Truth is a false empty wisdom void of supernatural hope and joy.
This is an important lesson for us moderns who can too easily miss what is the most important among so much glitter and show. Just as the majority of the world missed the incarnation of God--God Himself come into the world in the flesh, as a man and a baby man at that, so too in our day far too many are missing our incredible closeness to this same Jesus.
This is what St John Paul the Second reminded all Catholics during the Year of the Holy Eucharist which he proclaimed during his pontificate. Jesus has not left us alone; He is still here on earth in His true body—He is truly Emmanuel—God with us. As believing Catholics, we can not say, “When Jesus dwelt on earth, for the true faith by the Spirit of God tells us that Jesus, Who is the Truth, still dwells on earth. And by this, I don’t mean in the hearts and minds of believers, but He still dwells on earth in a physical, albeit resurrected, body in the Blessed Sacrament-This is THE great mystery of our faith.
God presents Himself to us under the insignificant appearance of a piece of bread. Perhaps we are in danger of not realizing fully how close Our Lord is to our lives because He doesn’t reveal Himself in His glory, because he does not impose Himself irresistibly, because He slips into our lives in such hidden simplicity and poverty. Instead of wowing us with the riches of His divinity and power Jesus comes hidden to all except those who have the eyes of faith, trust in His words, and love Him with all their hearts by desiring to give their all to Him. How many souls are troubled by doubt because God does not show Himself in the way they expected.
Many of the people in Bethlehem (which by the way means “house of bread”), many of the people in Bethlehem saw in Jesus a child like any other. But the wise kings knew how to see Him as THE CHILD, who from then on would be adored forever by all “men of goodwill.” The kings’ openness to the truth of the Spirit and to the gift of true faith gave them a privileged opportunity, to be the first among the gentile world to adore God become Man. It was not their great learning, or their great riches or even the gifts that they gave, that made them wise, no, it was instead their humble act of adoring God made man, Jesus who really is God Himself. It was their adoration of the unseen God now visible in this child-- it was this act that made them truly wise.
What incredible joy these three wise men must have experience the extraordinary, now manifested in the appearance of an ordinary child. No, the babe did not have a halo around his head; He looked and acted like an ordinary babe, for He was like us in all things except sin. How careful we must be and how easy it is for us to miss the extraordinary in the ordinary of everyday life. And going into the dwelling, they found the child there, with His Mother, Mary, and fell down to worship and adore Him.
Bethlehem itself was a tabernacle of sorts. If every Catholic would come with a strong belief that in just a few moments, Jesus the Son of God who came to be among us, Immanuel, will be reborn on this very Altar during the words of consecration, -would not our churches be bulging at the seams, every single weekend? We can adore Him just like the three wise men, becoming wise ourselves, for Christ is our wisdom. We also kneel down before Jesus, God is hidden in His humanity in our Catholic churches. Jesus present in the tabernacle, the house of the Bread of Life” is the same Jesus the wise men found in Mary’s arms.
Perhaps in light of this wisdom, we should examine ourselves to see how we adore him when he is present on our altar or hidden in our tabernacle in our churches. With what devotion and reverence do we kneel in the moments indicated in the Holy Mass, or each time we pass by those places where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved? We, you and me, are called in a new way at this feast of the Epiphany to manifest Christ to our world by dying to ourselves in order to allow Him to live anew in us and in our lives, this is what adoration means, and those who do so are wise, no others.
The three kings had their star, we have ours-Mary. She is the true star, more brilliant and more beautiful than any other, which lights the way in safety to her Son—Jesus. Let us ask her to help us at this Holy Mass to adore the Father in the Holy Spirit united to Jesus the Truth. She will help us as she helped the three wise men, to offer to our God the gifts of our lives to the Father in union with Jesus’ body, blood, soul, and divinity. Instead of offering God gold, she will help us offer to Him our detachment to all the riches of this world so we can cling to the greatest of all riches, the Gift of His only begotten Son. Instead of offering Him the perfume of costly incense, she will help us to offer as incense our desire to live a noble and virtuous life, one which gives off the ‘aroma of Christ’ as hope to the world. Instead of the myrrh which tries to escape and avoid sacrifice, the Holy Virgin will help us to offer to God in adoration and in true love, the sacrifice of our very lives in union with the sacrifice of Jesus on this altar for our salvation and the salvation of all souls. Stella Maria, Stella Orientis, Sedes sapientiae, Star of the Sea, Star of the East, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us who pray to thee. Amen.
