I do love Epiphany…

I do love Epiphany – it is a very ancient feast, and its celebration is even older in the life of the Church than Christmas! I do love Epiphany because if the meaning of Christmas is about what God gives us – then Epiphany is about what we give God. It’s about our response to the gift of Jesus.

Do you know that the word “Epiphany” literally means “showing” or “revealing” or “manifesting”? Today’s solemnity tells us that Jesus is shown, or revealed, to the pagans, to people who have never heard of him. In our own increasingly secular society today even here in England there are people around us who have never really heard of Jesus and the loving ways of God revealed through him. This feast of Epiphany gives those of us who are privileged to know and love God a multi-faceted challenge: do we give sufficiently of ourselves to God? Is our giving of ourselves – in response to our lavish God – costly? And are we open to those around us – perhaps those who live in our own area – who still may have quite a long way to travel in their search for Love and Truth? Are we open enough to help them as they too travel on their own journey when the ways are “deep” and the weather “sharp”? And, in our own spiritual travelling, do we lay our own hearts bare to the truths God may be seeking to reveal to us each day? The Epiphany is all about this and even more.

I wonder what those magi saw in the sky that first night. What was it that got them thinking? What was it that motivated them to pack and begin a journey to who knew where?

Definitely something had been revealed to them. But what was it? Was it in the sky, in their mind, in their heart?

We don’t have much historical information about these wise men and their journey. St. Matthew says they came from the East. Some have speculated they were from Persia.

We like to think that there were three of them, but St. Matthew doesn’t say that, instead he says simply that they bore three gifts. We call them Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar but those names didn’t come about until the 7th century. And what about “the star?” It has been viewed as a supernatural phenomenon, just a regular star, a comet, or sometimes as a conjunction or grouping of planets.

This anonymity and lack of historical information is a reminder that this story, this Epiphany journey, is not just the wise men’s journey; BUT it is everyone’s journey. The truth of sacred scripture is never limited to or contained only in the past. The truth of Holy Scripture is valid and current in our daily lives.

I don’t know what was in the sky, what they saw, that first night. I don’t know what was in their minds; what they thought, asked, or talked about. I don’t know what was in their hearts; what they felt, dreamed, or longed for. But I know that there have been times when each of us has experienced Epiphany; times when our night sky has been lit brightly, times when our minds have been illumined, times when our hearts have been enlightened. And the proof of this is that you are here today. Those times have revealed to us a life and world bigger than before. They have been moments that gave us the courage to travel beyond the borders and boundaries that usually circumscribe our lives.

Epiphanies are those times when something calls us, moves us, to a new place and we see the face of God in a new way; so human that it almost seems ordinary, maybe too ordinary to believe. And the proof of this is that I am here with you. I don’t know why I left my country, my friends and family, and my diocese. What I do know is that something called me here, moved me here, to this place, to this parish and to you all.

That’s what happened to the wise men, I think. They began to see and hear the stories of their lives. Something stirred within them and they began to wonder and to imagine that their lives were part of a much bigger story. Could it be that the one who created life, who hung the stars in the sky, noticed them, knew them, lived within them, and was calling them? Could it be that the light they saw in the sky was a reflection of the divine light that burned within them, that burns within each one of us?

To give serious consideration to these questions is to begin the journey. That journey took the wise men to the house where they found the answer to their questions in the arms of his mother, Mary.

My dear friends, in our daily lives we may travel a different route than the wise men did but the answer is the same.  Yes, God notices us, knows us, lives within us, and calls us. God is continually revealing himself in and through humanity, in the flesh.

Maybe your epiphany came on the day you bathed your first child or grandchild and saw the beauty of creation and the love of the Creator. Or that day you said or heard – “I love you” – and knew that it was about more than just romance or physical attraction. Perhaps it was the moment you really believed that your life was sacred, holy, and acceptable to God. Maybe it was the time you kept vigil at the bedside of one who was dying and you experienced the joy that death is not the end. You know that, and only you know what that moment was.

These are the stories of our lives, epiphanies that forever change who we are, how we live, and the road we travel. They are moments of ordinary everyday life in which divinity is revealed in humanity and we see God’s glory face to face.

One fact is still certain: the wise men went home by another road, and after our own Epiphany when our minds have been illumined, when our hearts have been enlightened – we too have to walk a different road through the life ahead, a road where we can make the king of kings the living, active centre of everything we are and do. The challenge in front of each of us is to make each breathing moment a gift worth giving to the King.

God gave himself to us because he loves us. May his love be reflected in our lives as we worship him with all that we have and do. That’s our gold, frankincense and myrrh.