The Epiphany 2013

                      The Epiphany (2013)                                           

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

It is commonly thought that the technical language of some Church documents and theological writings makes them not only largely meaningless but can even lead to spiritual indifference for ordinary Catholics.  And yet, because, such doctrinal terminology has been finely tuned over many centuries by some of the greatest minds and the deepest hearts among the disciples of Christ, in many cases it most subtly articulates and protects supremely beautiful truths about God and His great goodness toward men, truths well able to kindle ardent flames of divine love and glowing words of divine praise from faithful men and women still to be found who, in even these most modern times, are able to quieten their multitudinous thoughts and distractions long enough for them to dispassionately hear, thoughtfully appreciate, and gratefully learn from the teaching of Mother Church.

Our God is uniquely transcendent in all His perfections, such is the teaching of both Christian philosophy and Catholic dogma: He cannot be contained within any limits because He is infinite, and infinity is limitless: He is the Almighty and the All Holy, whose sovereign Power sublimely sustains and gives expression to His incomparable Wisdom and supreme Goodness.  

In line with such appreciations of God we find in today’s Gospel reading that the Magi first became aware of the proximate birth of the Christ through the appearance of an extraordinarily bright star in the heavens; whereupon, they set out without delay to follow its lead, taking with them incense for the most holy Being announced by this new heavenly phenomenon.  Their high expectations, were to be super-abundantly confirmed later by certain shepherds who reported an angel having appeared to them -- as they were watching over their sheep in the fields --  proclaiming the birth of a most Holy Child; and, moreover, that a veritable multitude of the heavenly host had thereupon joined the angel, singing the praises of God and the glory of this Child, using words which enabled the Magi  to recognize Him as the Holy One Whose star they had been so diligently following: words speaking of and echoing round the heavens where their guiding star had first appeared:

            Glory to God in the highest.

The Magi, following the lead of the star, expected to find the One they were seeking among the highest on earth, that is, in Jerusalem, the city where the great God of Israel had chosen to dwell; perhaps, indeed, at the court of him who was the present Rome-favoured king of this Chosen People and builder of their glorious Temple which was one of the wonders of the Roman world.  And, in line with such expectancy, they had brought with them a second gift; this time, one of royal gold.

They had been well received by Israel’s king, Herod, who, after having summoned and enquired of his most learned scribes and scholars, priests and sages, encouraged the Magi in their search for the Child with an oracle taken from the age-old Jewish scriptures:

You, Bethlehem, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.

The Magi, therefore, proceeded confidently in their search for the Child by  continuing to follow the heavenly star of great beauty in accordance with the ancient oracle and the royal encouragement given them in the great and holy city of Jerusalem where the One to come was clearly foreknown, anxiously expected, and, it would seem, reverently desired. 

However, since no limits can be set to God’s perfections, although He is indeed limitlessly in majesty, He is also limitless in humility: being greater than all, yet there is none more lowly than He.  Therefore, when the Magi eventually arrived at the spot over which the star itself seemed to have stopped, they saw, to their surprise, that it was nothing more than a house or shelter containing a manger:

They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the young Child with Mary His mother.  They prostrated themselves and did Him homage. 

This was not what they had expected to find, and yet, turning to open up and offer their gifts, they realized how wondrously wise had been the Power that had inspired and brought them thus far.  For, opening their treasures, they revealed the thoughts that had led them to carefully chose their special offerings; not only frankincense for the holy and gold for the great, but also myrrh, essential indeed for the anointing of one specially chosen, but also – and this was not part of their intention -- much appreciated for the weak to be embalmed in their embrace of death, and for the lowly and rejected to be succoured and comforted in their pain and distress:

 They brought Jesus to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.  Then they gave Him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it; and then they crucified Him.  (Mark 15:22-24)

Nicodemus came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. (John 19:39-40)

People of God, today we celebrate the Epiphany, the manifestation of the glory and majesty of Jesus.  I hope that, having now come to some appreciation of the rich content of the technical terminology used in the Church’s teaching at times, you are aware that the glory and the power, the majesty and the beauty, of Jesus in all His perfections, in no way excludes you; because those perfections extend -- so to speak -- down as well as up.   God is the greatest, He is also the least; supremely majestic, and yet there is none so humble.  In the Eucharist here at Mass He offers Himself to be our very own, heavenly food, while on every hand He supports the whole of creation and is worshipped by myriads of angels; He reigns in majesty and bliss and yet none, be they ever so lowly, suffer what He, their Lord and Master cannot, or will not, share for their comfort and saving.  In His omnipotent power, He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end of all things; in His wisdom He pervades the heights and the depths, He surveys all times and seasons, past, present, and to come.  Above all, He knows our minds and hearts in all their twists and turns wherein even we ourselves are frequently at a loss.  This He can do because of His great love, the love whereby He originally made us in His own likeness, and the yet greater love whereby He remade us, when He sacrificed His Son for our salvation, Who subsequently rose on the third day for our glorification, before endowing Mother Church with His Father’s Promise -- His own most Holy Spirit -- for our personal sanctification and gradual re-formation in His likeness as children of the Father.

People of God, let us understand aright the essence of this divine celebration and manifestation which is the Epiphany: our God is unique, infinite, and transcendent, in His perfections; and yet all His perfections are such as to be summed up by these three words of St. John, God is love.

For those still daunted and somewhat put-off by the technological scholarship required for the doctrinal expression and defence of God-given truth as well as its theological understanding and development, let love explain all: because love sustains all, love inspires all.  Love, and love alone – divine love, that is, to be rightly appreciated and appropriately understood -- embraces all that Mother Church teaches, all that the Scriptures contain, and all the human mind can ever aspire to understand and appreciate about Jesus, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and for the supreme glory of Him Who is the God and Father of us all.

                          

Mary Mother of God (YearC)

Mary, the Mother of God (C)  

(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!"

Today, therefore, Mother Church invites us to consider how wonderfully the Spirit dwelt in the heart of Mary: not just for her admiration and praise, but also for our own great good, and thus, indeed, for the supreme glory of God!

St. Paul’s words reveal to us something of the innermost ‘secret’ of Mary: they speak not what she might have been capable of, able – of herself -- to do, but of what the Holy Spirit Himself did in and through her; indeed, they speak also of what Mary allowed the Holy Spirit to do in and through her.  He did ‘great things’, but could not -- could not because He would not – do them without her co-operation; without her giving-up, losing hold of, indeed, total abnegation of, self; without, that is, her most radical and simple self-forgetfulness.  Such self-emptiness before Him, such total openness for Him, such absolute commitment to Him and His purposes; that indeed, is the secret of Mary:

Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to Your Will.

So absolute -- so complete and unreserved -- was the response of Mary to God’s initial words delivered to her by the angel Gabriel, that Jesus openly praised her for that above all else (Luke 11:27-28):

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!"

Blessed are those who hear the word of God, who like Mary let that word freely -- like a threaded needle -- introduce the Spirit of God into their lives, allowing Him to  commence His work in them.  Blessed indeed are those who then keep, hold onto, turning neither heart nor head to the right or to the left, but always, simply and solely, allowing God’s word and God’s Spirit to lead them where He will.

We can recall here another Mary of whom the New Testament speaks most clearly in this same vein, for she is able to help us learn something more about Our Lady’s ‘secret’:

Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed Him.  She had a sister named Mary, who sat beside the Lord at His feet listening to Him speak.  Martha, burdened with much serving came to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me by myself to do all the serving?  The Lord said to her in reply, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing, Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her. (Luke 10:38-42)

Clearly, important choices have to be made, perhaps friends offended and opposition provoked; at times, even good, very good things left aside, behind, for what is better.  ‘Secretum meum, mihi.’

For further guidance we can also recall the experience of Elijah of old:

At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter.   The word of the Lord came to him, ‘Go outside and stand on the mountain before the Lord, the Lord will be passing by.’  A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.  After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake there was fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  After the fire, there was a tiny whispering sound.  When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.  A voice said to him, ‘Elijah, why are you here? ... ‘Go take the road back to the desert near Damascus.  When you arrive you shall anoint Hazael as king of Aram... Then Jehu, as king of Israel, and Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, as prophet to succeed you.’  (1 Kings 9, 11-16)

The voice of God had been ardently desired, long awaited, and carefully listened for, by the prophet in his great need.  Ultimately he recognized it by its unearthly calm and peace-breaking quiet which bespoke of holiness and led him to hide his face in his cloak before it, that thus he might listen closely and understand clearly what the Lord would have him do to achieve his destiny.

In our Gospel reading we learnt that those who searched for the Child found:

            Mary and Joseph, and the Infant 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 or wrinkle of any sort.  Only in Mother Church can each and every one of us find Jesus truly and love Him fully, and that we will do most surely with Mary’s indispensable help.

St. Paul is quite explicit: it is the Spirit within us Who cries out Abba, Father!  It is not that He authorises us, permits us, or even, enables us to cry, Abba, Father!  It is the Spirit Himself, first coming to us as God’s gracious and most gloriously mysterious  GIFT -- the sublimely precious fruit of Christ’s sacrifice -- Who thus speaks in us and for us to the Father.  Thus is Jesus, Mary’s Son, born anew in each of us for the Father.   After that, everything depends on just how much ‘room’ – so to speak -- we give the Spirit of Jesus to work freely and fruitfully in us; and that means that we must appreciate, learn from, and adopt in our own lives something of the ‘secret’ of Mary our mother: for that will ultimately determine our human and Christian development as children of God and children of Mary.

We should recognise that Mary is our model and inspiration for our deepest and most personal relationship with Jesus, in so far as she -- our Mother -- was, and is always, most sublimely one with her Son:

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

She is the supreme example and the surest guide for anyone seeking salvation; for anyone hoping and longing to find God as our true Father in, through, and with Jesus.  First and foremost, we should 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 foreshadowing and forthcoming of the Christ, but also, with her sacraments, mediate His very presence in our midst as members of His Church, and in our individual hearts as His true disciples 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, gratitude and commitment to, God, to which Mary gave such perfect expression when she said:

            Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to Your Will.

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!