The Epiphany       

               (Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12)

                               

In the Eastern Church today’s solemnity of the Epiphany of Our Lord is given precedence over Christmas, whereas for us in the West, Christmas Day is the greater celebration; and the reason for this diversity is that these two solemn celebrations are complementary. 

At Christmas we celebrate God’s gracious humility and merciful goodness whereby His only-begotten Son takes to Himself human nature, puts on human flesh, and involves Himself totally – sin alone excepted because of His unassailable holiness  -- in the mess into which we have got ourselves, the mess publicised daily in the media.   And that Christmas awareness of such amazing humility and goodness on God’s part batters at the foundations of our pride and fills us with humble gratitude and childlike trust.

On Christmas Day we recalled the words of Elizabeth to Mary our Mother:

Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfilment of those things which were told her from the Lord (Lk. 1:45);

and we too, as her true children, likewise renewed at Christmas our belief and trust in all God’s promises for our salvation.

At the Epiphany, on the other hand, we rejoice in the divine glory manifested in the life and being of One like us, Jesus of Nazareth, Our Saviour: as a Infant, like a wondrous loadstone, He draws the heavens (planetary movements quite recently apparently confirmed by computer simulation) and the Magi to His crib; at His baptism, His humility before John opened the very heavens, calling forth a divine witness as the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove, and the Father proclaimed Him to be His beloved Son; at the wedding in Cana, where He changed water into rich and copious new wine, His power was matched and manifested by His supreme generosity and human awareness.  And these signs of His majesty, glory, and power and compassion, give us unshakeable confidence that what He has promised, He can and will fulfil in and for His Church throughout the enduring ages of her public ministry, and in and for all His true disciples, as they try to live their personal lives for the praise and glory of His name. 

As you all are well aware human joy appears most desirable, but experience can show it to be equally unreliable: worldly joy can change some people into louts and hooligans as easily as it makes others into happy and generous companions; moreover, when circumstances change, such joy can quickly disappear, leaving behind it corresponding sadness and gloom. 

For us, therefore, who are disciples of Jesus, there should be a more than worldly, human, joy when we celebrate the birth, the majesty and power, of Jesus, because His Kingdom is not of this world, as He Himself said.  Jesus the Lord has triumphed for us by destroying sin and death in our flesh, and His promise is that He will share His triumph with all who put their faith in Him and become one with Him through baptism and the Eucharist.  His victories are eternally valid for in His Resurrection human flesh is once again restored to heaven and is now, indeed, placed at the right hand of the Father in glory; and He, the Son of Man, is now both willing and able to triumph over the darkness of  sin and ignorance, not only in our minds and hearts, but also in the world around us, as was shown by His bringing to naught the schemes of that cunning and murderous tyrant, Herod.

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people; but the LORD will arise over you and His glory will be seen upon you.

At Christmas we rejoiced and renewed our humble and grateful trust in the promises made to us in Christ, for St. Paul teaches us that:

All the promises of God have their "Yes" in Him.  That is why, when we give glory to God, it is through Christ Jesus that we say "Amen". (2 Cor 1:20)

Now, on this feast of the Epiphany, a word which means the shining-forth, the manifestation, of the glory of Christ, let us stir up anew the confidence which heaven alone gives, as you heard the prophet Isaiah proclaim:

Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.

Grateful trust and sure confidence, humility and power, patience and vigour,  each so necessary to the other for the fulfilment of our personal calling and Christian vocation, just as Christmas and Epiphany are equally essential for our liturgical awareness and appreciation of Jesus, perfect God and perfect Man, our only Saviour.

And so, though the deep darkness of human sin is so evident in the world around, and even though there may be no light in our own soul at times, nevertheless, His glory will appear for those who firmly believe His promises and confidently commit their lives to His most loving, and supremely powerful, Providence.

Therefore, People of God, I urge you in this holy season to experience deeper peace by renewing and deepening your trust in Jesus’ promises, and to renew your confidence and joy as you celebrate His glory and power, for such are the signs given and the blessings offered us in the Christmas season.  We are told that the multitude of angels sang:

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men! 

Meanwhile the shepherds who had told their good tidings to all gathered around the Infant Christ:

Returned (to their sheep in the fields), glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

Let all of us, too, sincerely pray that our celebration of the Epiphany today may give glory to God, and -- through the comforting and strengthening of all who are her true children -- further the exaltation of Holy Mother Church.  Amen.  

Solemnity of Mary,

the Mother of God,

(Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21)

In the second reading we heard St. Paul telling his converts in Galatia:

As proof that you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"

Those words of St. Paul invite us today to consider how wonderfully the Spirit dwelt in the heart of Mary!  Indeed, they show us the magnitude of her blessing when we consider that the Spirit abided in and filled her whole being to such an extent that, whereas we are enabled by the Spirit, Paul tells us, to respond with love to God with the word 'Father', the Spirit dwelling in Mary worked so wondrously in her that she was enabled to respond to God the Father with an intensity of love that enabled her to bring forth not just words of praise for the Father from her lips, but the Divine Word, the Father’s co-eternal Son made Man, from her womb!   And so intense, so complete and unreserved, was this response of Mary to God’s word delivered to her by the angel Gabriel, that Jesus openly praised her for that above all else:

And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!"  But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" (Luke 11:27-28)

When, on another occasion, His teaching of the people was interrupted by a message to the effect that His mother and family members were asking for Him, He expressed His displeasure at such an intrusion by making perfectly clear the priorities that guided and governed His life and work:

"Who is My mother, or My brothers?"  And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers!  For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother." (Mark 3:33-35)

We can also compare and contrast Mary with Moses who, as you heard in the first reading, brought great blessings down on Israel.  There, we were told how God blessed the Chosen People of the Old Testament through the words of priestly blessing He gave to Moses for the use of Aaron, Aaron’s sons, and their descendants:

Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them, 'This is how you shall bless the Israelites.  Say to them: The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace.'  So shall they invoke My name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

Those are truly beautiful words used to confer a treasured blessing.  But consider how, under the New Testament covenant, God the Father blesses us through Mary and her Son: unlike Moses, Mary does not hand down one special form of blessing for one Chosen People; she brings forth the One Eternal Word of God Himself clothed in human flesh, her flesh and blood, God's saving presence in Mother Church and gracious blessing for the whole world!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.  (Eph 1:3-8)

Holy Mary, you are indeed blessed above all women by God the Father, for through you there comes to us the One in Whom and through Whom all the blessings of heaven itself are ours!

Again, in our Gospel reading we learnt that those who searched for the Child found:

            Mary (and Joseph), and the Babe lying in a manger.

So it is for all those disciples whom Jesus has told to take Mary to their hearts as their own Mother: in our search for Jesus, we will find Him, most easily and most surely, with the help and comfort of Mary’s prayerful presence in our lives.  Mary is no mere addition, certainly no complication, for Catholic spirituality.  Indeed, we can readily appreciate the privilege of Mary that enables her to lead each and every one of us to Jesus when we recall that she is not simply the model of the Church, but that, during her pregnancy she was, in all literal truth, the original Church itself, the unique dwelling place on earth of Jesus, God’s Son made flesh, the New Testament Ark of God’s presence among His People; and that she still is the purest essence of the Church, without spot of wrinkle of any sort.  Only in Mother Church can each and every one of us find Jesus truly and love Him fully.

Finally, we need to recognise that Mary is also our model and inspiration for our personal relationship with Jesus, in so far as the Scriptures tell us that she, our Mother, was, and is always, most sublimely one with Jesus:

Mary kept all these things (that she had experienced and heard concerning Jesus) and pondered them in her heart.

There is to be found the supreme example and the surest guidance for anyone seeking the salvation of God, for anyone hoping and longing to find God, as our most perfect Father, in and through Jesus.  Imitate Mary by treasuring the Good News of Jesus handed down to us by Mother Church: in her teaching which forms us as His disciples, and in her Scriptures which not only recount for us the foretelling and forthcoming of the Christ, but also, together with her sacraments, mediate His very presence in our midst and in our hearts today.

People of God, hear the Good News of Jesus with reverence and joy; treasure and nurture His grace in your hearts; and seek, above all, to respond – by the Spirit -- with that wholehearted confidence in, and gratitude to, God, to which Mary gave such perfect expression when she said (Luke 1:38):

Behold the handmaid of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.