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^{^{^{^{Feast of the
Epiphany}}
Isaiah 60: 1-6

The splendour of Jerusalem

Arise, shine out,
  for your light has come,
and the glory of Yahweh has risen on you.
Look! though night still covers the earth
and darkness the peoples,
on you Yahweh is rising
and over you his glory can be seen.
The nations will come to your light
and kings to your dawning brightness.
Lift up your eyes and look around:
all are assembling
  and coming towards you,
your sons coming from far away
and your daughters
  being carried on the hip.
At this sight you will grow radiant,
your heart will throb and dilate,
since the riches of the sea will flow to you,
the wealth of the nations come to you;
camels in throngs will fill your streets,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
everyone in Saba will come,
bringing gold and incense
and proclaiming Yahweh's praises.}}

Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13

The promised king

God, endow the king with your own fair judgement,
  the son of the king with your own saving justice,
that he may rule your people with justice,
  and your poor with fair judgement.

In his days uprightness shall flourish,
  and peace in plenty till the moon is no more.
His empire shall stretch from sea to sea,
  from the river to the limits of the earth.

the kings of Tarshish and the islands
  will pay him tribute.

The kings of Sheba and Saba
  will offer gifts;
all kings will do him homage,
  all nations become his servants.

For he rescues the needy who calls to him,
  and the poor who has no one to help.
He has pity on the weak and the needy,
  and saves the needy from death.

Ephesians 3: 2-3a, 5-6

You have surely heard the way in which God entrusted me with the grace he gave me for your sake; he made known to me by a revelation the mystery I have just described briefly—

This mystery, as it is now revealed in the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, was unknown to humanity in previous generations: that the gentiles now have the same inheritance and form the same Body and enjoy the same promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Matthew 2: 1-12

After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east asking, ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, ‘At Bethlehem in Judaea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

And you, Bethlehem,
in the land of Judah,
you are by no means the least
among the leaders of Judah,
for from you will come a leader
who will shepherd my people Israel.’

Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared and sent them on to Bethlehem with the words, ‘Go and find out all about the child, and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.’ Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And suddenly the star they had seen rising went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they were given a warning in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way.

^{^{Feast of the Epiphany

January 6, 2016

INTRODUCTION

– (Isaiah
60, 1-6; Ephesians 3, 2-3a; Matthew 2, 1-12)
Five hundred eighty-seven years before Christ,
Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians (a people
who lived in modern day Iraq). Most of the Jews who
had not been killed when the Babylonians invaded
Israel were taken to Babylon as exiles and slaves.
Fifty years later, the Persians (people living in
modern day Iran) conquered the Babylonians, and they
allowed the Jews to return home. It’s hard to
imagine the task that the Jewish people faced as
they tried to rebuild their homes, their Temple,
their farms after the Babylonians destroyed
everything 50 years earlier. The prophet in today’s
first reading tries to encourage God’s people and
assure them Jerusalem would again be a great city.
He sees Jerusalem becoming a light for the whole
world. His vision is that the Jews would no longer
be the only people to learn
about God and to
worship God, but people would come from all nations
to visit Jerusalem to be nourished by God’s word and
to worship at God’s holy temple. St. Matthew, in
today’s gospel, sees the visit of the magi to the
infant Jesus as the fulfillment of the words of the
prophet.

HOMILY
– The
word Epiphany comes from the Greek and in general
means an “appearing” or an “appearance.” Generally
it referred to a divine appearance. Our gospels for
the next three weeks will carry this theme. Let me
explain. At his birth Jesus made his appearance
through the intense brightness of an unusual star.
Micah, the prophet, who lived over 700 years before
Christ, foretold the Messiah would be born in
Bethlehem, but it was left to a few pagan wise men
to search for him and honor him. Next Sunday, we
hear about the baptism of Jesus, and it is through a
voice from heaven and the appearance of the Holy
Spirit as a dove who revealed Jesus as God’s beloved
Son. The third time Jesus is revealed is at the
wedding feast of Cana where he performs his first
miracle which helped his disciples to begin to
believe in him.

    The focus on all
three of these gospels is on Jesus’ being revealed
as divine. But what good will it bring to anyone
whose mind and heart is closed to such an appearance
or a revelation of God’s presence. In today’s
gospel, it was magi who recognized that someone
great had been born and they believed the word of
the prophet that told where he could be found. The
others (except for King Herod) were unmoved about
the heavenly sign and the message the prophet
revealed. His appearance meant nothing to them. It
did mean something to Herod – it meant he could be
replaced by someone else which did not please Herod
at all. I guess he must have thought he was destined
to be a king forever. As
it turned out, the king who would reign forever was
still a baby or a toddler when the Great Herod died
suddenly during a public function.

    So this leads us
to ask ourselves what am I looking for? If God is
making himself known to me, am I seeking to know
him. Herod was always looking for anyone who might
be a threat to his power, and if he even suspected
someone, they would be executed. The chief priests
and scribes of the Jewish people, who had the answer
as to where the Messiah was to be born, could not
bother searching for him. They had their prayers to
say, their sacrifices to offer, their scriptures to
study. They had important jobs to finish up so they
could go home for their evening meal. They didn’t
have a couple of hours to travel seven miles down
the road to Bethlehem to find their newborn king.
The rest of Jerusalem who learned about the king of
the Jews from the magi, well, they were busy too.
Just a few dirty, smelly shepherds dropped in every
now and then.
    Surprisingly magi
come looking for him. The magi probably came from
Persia (about 1000 miles from Jerusalem). They were
the scholars of that day, seeking to learn all they
could about the world, about the stars, about people
and about God. And what did they find: a mother with
a baby or small child. Yet, in their wisdom, they
could see beyond a little child, they could see
through the sign God had given them and through the
word of the prophet this child was destined to do
great things.
    Isn’t that
somewhat like us today when we come to Mass. We
gather in prayer, we sing a few songs, we listen to
God’s word and we receive a small wafer and a sip
from a cup and once again Jesus is making himself
known to us. We don’t see visions or fireworks. Yet
we believe, that with his grace, great things are
waiting for us down the road, greater than we can
imagine right now. We came here today to ask Jesus
to make himself known to us as we offer him our love
and our praise and our treasure.}}