Epiphany 2018
Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; but upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears his glory. Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance.
The joy of Christmas continues today, dear friends, as we now celebrate God’s unexpected gift of Christ the Lord to the gentile nations, to all those peoples who dwelt so long in darkness in this world because they were not the chosen to be the blessed people who would be first to receive the self-revelation of God. For God, in his mysterious wisdom, first chose the people who would descend from Abraham to receive his revealed word and promises. And thus it is quite fitting that the angels would announce the good news of the birth of the Savior of mankind to the descendents of Abraham in the persons of the humble shepherds, the little ones so dear to God throughout the history of the Jewish people. They had first received the promise, and they would hear of its fulfillment before any other nation or people.
But, today, we celebrate the manifestation of Christ the Lord and Messiah to the gentile nations, represented this time in the persons of these three magi from the east. Through these chosen men, gentile peoples will receive for the first time their call to enter into the New Israel, as part of God’s new chosen people. For through Jesus Christ, all men and women are now called to become co-heirs with God’s first chosen people in Jesus Christ and to share with them in the light of glory that shines upon the Heavenly Jerusalem, the light emanating from the child whom the three wise men have come to honor and worship in his crib,
Until today, the liturgy surrounding this new-born child and the joy He brings has most fittingly been focused upon his relation to the nation that God first called to be his own special chosen people. Theirs, as Paul says, were the original covenant and promises that generated the faith of Israel, and it was from the loins of Abraham, and ultimately from the womb of the Virgin Mary, herself an offspring of the great patriarch, that God would fulfill the great promise of a redeemer by bringing forth this most perfect offspring in whom all nations will be blessed.
Until today, we have recalled only Joseph and Mary, a son and daughter of David and descendants of Abraham, and the simple shepherds, who represent all the little ones of Israel who had patiently awaited the coming of this Messiah for centuries. We rejoice in seeing these few privileged persons who welcome the Christ child at his very birth. These privileged few have something mysterious in common; they are all the “little ones” whose faith was the source of their readiness to receive this great gift on behalf of God’s people. Indeed, their Jewish faith, itself a gift from God, was in turn the only gift they would bring to the child, the faith that stretched all the way back to Abraham. It was this humble faith that provided the womb in which this child was conceived, and it was this same faith that brought the humble shepherds to the crib and would make them and all others who believed this child’s co-heirs in the Kingdom he has created for them.
From the very beginning of man’s history, long prior to God’s creation of a chosen people from the fertile faith and aged loins of Abraham, God had promised to send a savior for all mankind. For God had promised to our first parents, when they were expelled from Paradise, that the serpent who had misled them into their tragic sin would strike one day at the heel of one of their offspring, and that this child of Adam would crush the head of the serpent. The Chosen One would one day destroy the power that Satan wielded over the whole human family, and He would restore mankind to the destiny that God had first established in the act of creation – that we should be his children for all eternity and would share in his divine nature and happiness forever.
This promise made to Adam and Eve is recorded faithfully in Genesis, but we can also find traces of this ancient promise to mankind in one form or another in the collective memories of all peoples, and it was perhaps this very memory and hope that propelled and accompanied the pagan magi on their way as they followed the star which they trusted was leading them to a heavenly prodigy announced by the appearance of the star in the heavens. These men travelled far not only in geographical terms but in man’s history to at last worship this King of all Kings whom they would surprisingly find in the humble child of Bethlehem.
Likewise, it is surely this ancient promise and prophecy made in Eden that echoes in the words of Isaiah in today’s first reading as he foretells the rising of this new great light from Israel, “your light,” which not only shines upon Israel, but which will shine upon and guide the ways of all the nations. All nations are now called to become parts of the new People of God, and this great light which originates in the Child Himself is wonderfully signified by the new star that guides them into God’s holy city, and then brings them to Bethlehem with their riches, not only gold, frankincense and myrrh, but their greatest riches, the peoples who make up these pagan nations and now will walk, no longer in darkness, but in the light.
And so today we recall and honor these three representatives of the gentile nations, our own representatives, whoso faithfully followed the star that was leading them to the child. Of course, the star was but a secondary light, a light of nature, but nonetheless God leads them mysteriously by this secondary light of the star, as well as the secondary light of their own God-given reason, which enables them to study the heavens and the movements of the stars. What a marvel that the providence of God should use the light of stars, and this new star in particular, to lead these pagans to that divine light, the “light from light” in Christ which is infinitely superior to all created lights, including human reason. Moreover, God chooses to lead them by using their own weak light of human reason toward the very source of all light, the light that has no beginning and no end, the light that is the pure emanation of the Godhead, the light that this child alone possesses together with the Father of lights and the Holy Spirit.
And so these three representatives of mankind will first enter the ancient city of faith, Jerusalem, because the star cannot take them all the way by itself. Here they must seek, at the end of their long journey, the assistance of the heavenly light that first appeared in the revelation made to the children of Abraham. Israel already possesses the greater light of God’s revealed Word, and the light of faith to comprehend that Word, and so their scribes must be consulted to help pinpoint the place in which the Messiah is to be found, and only then can they once again plot the motion of the star and make their way to the city of David to worship the child and make their submission to His divine majesty. But, first, they had to pay their own tribute to what had preceded them in the sacred history of man.
At last, the three wise men will come and present their gifts to the child, gold, frankincense and myrrh. However, once they have made their great submission of faith to the child by the homage they pay to Him, the light they receive from Him will now be the greatest treasure they themselves will ever after possess. And they will make their first use of this gift of enlightenment by the prompt obedience they give to the word revealed to them in a dream to return to their country by another route. And, indeed, they will return to their country not only by a different route geographically, but they will return by another route spiritually, as they take with them the new light they have received from the child, the great light that will enable them to walk no longer in the darkness, but always in the light that in itself cannot be extinguished, for it is a light without beginning or end.
However, in the midst of all this joy, there must be noted one hint of sadness in the account of the magi, the gift of the myrrh. This gift is most mysterious and was not mentioned in the prophecy of Isaiah which speaks only of gold and frankincense. Myrrh is an eastern burial ointment, and this gift was surely, by God’s intention if not that of the magi, a first prophesy of the destiny of this child who will die for the sins of mankind, for the sins of both the gentiles and the children of Abraham. It is again fitting that this sad note should be introduced only when all mankind has been represented before the child. Nonetheless, the joy returns when we recall that myrrh is also used in the east as a form of medicine. That medicinal usage quickly suggests that this death and burial will in fact be the medicine for mankind’s salvation
So, even the gift of myrrh can be a cause of pure joy if the fruit of this death would mean that no one would ever again have to walk in utter darkness in this world and that death would not have to be man’s final destiny. And yet we see all around us the sad truth that not all in fact do discover this light and hope, and that the nations continue to walk in darkness even 2000 years after the coming of the light into the world, and perhaps walk in an even deeper darkness than existed then. How sad to see the suffering and hatred and division that continues to exist because so many people, so many nations, refuse to make their submission to the light of the nations, to Him who came precisely that all mankind could know the true way to peace and justice and be given the grace to walk in that truth.
Today, as we Christians rejoice in the calling of the nations by God to enter His Kingdom, the call that has enabled us to discover the light and walk in that same light of Christ, today we must also pray intensely for the conversion of the nations, including the conversion of our own nation which is sinking into that old pagan darkness. We must pray that all who walk in darkness will at last see the great light of Christ and come to know the truth of Jesus Christ and freely submit themselves to the gentle rule of the Prince of Peace. For only with Him and in Him and through Him can there be a true and lasting peace in this world. And so we pray today, may the experience of the magi be repeated throughout the world in our own day and the light of Christ come to shine on all the peoples who still walk in the darkness of this world. For today also “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (Jn 1:5)
Categories: Homilies
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