This Sunday, we celebrate the magnificent feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation of God in Christ to the world, as represented by the visit of the mysterious Magi from the East.
The celebration of Epiphany is actually older than the honoring of Christmas; the early Church rightly saw the remarkable significance of the full revelation of God in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
What would be the point of God entering the world in human form, if this startling divine visitation was not made known to all people if it was somehow kept a secret?
From His infancy, the Lord makes clear that He has come to save all people, Jew and Gentile alike, shepherds and kings, those near and those far off, revealing the love of the Father and effecting our liberation from sin and death.
The Word is made flesh
In its celebration of the Epiphany, the early Church coupled the Baptism of Jesus at the Jordan and the miracle of the water made wine at Cana with the sudden appearance of the Magi.
In these three distinct events, the same pattern of revelation emerges.
The visitors from the East acknowledge the Christ Child as King, the Holy Spirit anoints Jesus at His Baptism and the voice of the Father reveals His identity as Son, and in the miracle at Cana, Jesus manifests His glory and the disciples come to believe in Him.
Jesus is the “visible form of the invisible God,” as St. Paul says in the first chapter of Colossians.
When we study the New Testament, we can observe how the joyful news of the Word made flesh slowly but consistently spreads out and becomes known.
Mary receives the salutation of Gabriel, giving her fiat to the will of the Father, that she would conceive the Son of God.
She immediately shares this astounding message with Elizabeth and John the Baptist, who is in the womb of his mother. Joseph learns of the secret in a dream.
On Christmas night, the angels reveal the Incarnation to the shepherds who share news of the Child far and wide.
The three kings follow the star, encounter the Christ, and presumably speak of Him when they return home. Jesus’ public ministry, beginning with His Baptism, preaching, miracles, and formation of the apostles makes both His identity and mission profoundly and publicly known to thousands. Word of him spreads through the whole country.
In His public trial and crucifixion, the fullness of God’s love is on display for all who can recognize the mysterious divine mercy being poured forth through such a horrible circumstance.
And then, in the Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost, Jesus definitively saves the human race and equips the early Church to go forth and evangelize the nations, proclaiming this saving Gospel to every creature and making disciples of all peoples.
In the whole Christ event, we can see the nature, plan, and activity of God take on greater clarity for us, rather like the gradual spread of the light at sunrise.
Sharing the Word
St. John of the Cross reminds us that, in the person of Jesus Christ, God has uttered His definitive Word; the Lord has nothing more to say that is not an extension and a deepening of what has already been revealed in the Son.
This Word has been entrusted to us to embrace, live, proclaim, and make known.
Like Mary hastening to visit Elizabeth, the shepherds telling everyone they met about the Child, the apostles proclaiming the Resurrection on Pentecost morning, and like all the saints and missionaries throughout history, we too are called by Christ to grow in our relationship with Him, and then we are sent to make this saving Gospel known and to help the Lord to be loved by all people we encounter.
Our Go Make Disciples evangelizing initiative is precisely our coherent effort to continue the meaning of Epiphany, to be that star in the night sky which points the world to Christ, to be the voice which points out the saving presence of the Lord, to make God known and loved through the faith, hope, and charity exemplified in our daily lives.
When we study the lives of the saints and discover their extraordinary holiness, do they not become signposts for us along the pilgrim route to Heaven, pointing out the way of sanctity and salvation?
Without markers, signs, maps, and GPS, we would lose our way to any earthly destination.
The Lord is calling us to be that guiding and welcoming presence so that those who are lost, weary, broken, and despairing can find the spiritual road that leads to life.
As Isaiah says in 30:21, “And your ears shall hear a word behind you: ‘This is the way; walk in it’ when you would turn to the right or the left.” We are that voice; we utter that word.
As 2022 is upon us, I encourage all of us to embrace the four holy habits which the Go Make Disciples plan offers: To reclaim Sunday as Sabbath with the celebration of Mass as the center of the day, to pray at least 15 minutes a day, to confess our sins in the Sacraments of Penance monthly, and to embrace some form of penance on Fridays throughout the year.
As we drink deeply of the Holy Spirit, we will be increasingly equipped to be servants of the Epiphany, the unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer.