Living Epiphanies

Reflection presented at Epiphany Concert of St. Joseph Church 
Music Ministry, Kingston, NY, January 6, 2019

As we close this season celebrating the mystery of the Incarnation – God becoming flesh; coming to live among us;  God coming to experience all of human life; Jesus coming to reveal the face of the Father ----- what nugget of inspiration can we underscore in our memory and carry into ordinary time?

Today we mark Epiphany but not merely the single incident of a few wise men or philosophers or seekers we call Magi  who complete their pilgrimage by finding the child Jesus and knowing in their hearts that he was the Messiah; the Messiah foretold by the prophet Isaiah who wrote: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light – for a child is born to us – They shall call Him Wonder Counselor, Father Forever, Prince of Peace.”

Epiphany means manifestation – an experience or event that makes something absolutely clear to the mind or to eye. In our Church tradition the Magi event is only the first of a number of events revealing the identity of Jesus. Soon we will celebrate the presentation of the child Jesus in the temple when it becomes manifest – absolutely clear – to Simeon and Anna that in this child was their salvation. Another is his baptism by John in the Jordan when the voice of God is heard saying, “This is my beloved Son.” Also the wedding feast at Cana when Jesus, by performing his first public miracle, makes perfectly clear his nature and his mission.

The nugget of inspiration we can carry away today is that the time of such Epiphanies need not be over. In fact, we need them more and more every day – moments in which the love of our God is made manifest in our world; when eyes plainly see and minds clearly apprehend the nature and work of God. 

It has been said that Jesus came into the midst of human kind to reveal the Face of a loving Father. Jesus is no longer physically present in this world reveal God’s love. But by virtue of our baptism, participating in his life as priest, prophet and king, we can and must reflect, in His Name, the face of God. In this way WE – how we act and react; what we choose to do and not to do; how we talk to people and not talk to them can be today’s epiphanies. Today and every day, we can make manifest the Loving Heart of God in the world. How do we do it? Didn’t Jesus give us lessons when he said:

       I came to serve, not to be served.

       Let those without sin cast the first stone.

       I give you a new commandment, love one another.

We cannot say that we do not know how to make manifest in this world the nature of a loving God. As Christians we can act out of the conviction that we are to become living memories, living epiphanies, affirming the presence Jesus in the world.

In the Letter to the Colossians it is made clear (3:12-21)

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,bearing with one another and forgiving one another,  as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.And over all these put on love, which is, the bond of perfection. 

      And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, 

      the peace into which you were also called in 

      one body. And be thankful.

      Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in

      all wisdom you teach and admonish one 

      another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs 

      with gratitude in your hearts to God.And whatever 

      you do, in word or in deed, do everything in 

      the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to 

      God the Father through him.

Today we can go forward with this nugget from St. Francis in mind: “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words”. Carry that golden nugget in your pocket as a reminder because “what the world needs now is love, sweet love.”

Epiphany Reflection 2018

"By Another Way"

Brother Max Schmalzl, CSsR
1850-1930

Reflection offered at Epiphany Concert of St. Joseph's Church, Kingston, NY - January 7, 2018

Today we mark the end of the Christmas season by remembering the Three Kings, Wise men from afar. Guided by the light of a star and following the suggestion of a brutal scheming King, they arrived at Bethlehem of Judea and offered homage to the one they immediately recognized as a Holy Child of God. “And having been warned in a dream not to return to King Herod, they departed to their country by another way.” While knowing the story by heart I was struck this time around by the repeated mention of light in what are called the Infancy Narratives of the Gospels. I was also struck by the very last words of the account; they ‘returned home by another way’. The act of going another way took on new meaning.

Ephipany is one of those fancy church words that comes from the language of ancient Greece. Today we commonly use the word to describe a Eureka moment when suddenly it is as if a light bulb goes on in the brain and we can finally say, “I got it.” Suddenly you fully ‘get’ a new concept or know how to use that new app on your I-phone just plain get a great idea. This common use is not off the mark. In Greek the word indicates a manifestation - a great reveal – an occasion when it seems a great light has been focused on a new truth.

Today we are thinking about those three wisdom figures who traveled from afar and following a star, came to a stable where God revealed the divine nature of an otherwise totally unremarkable child. But this event is only the first in a trio of Eureka moments in which the Messiah was revealed.  The next is the baptism of Jesus when Luke tells us the voice of God was heard saying “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” The third is the wedding feast in the town of Cana told in the Gospel of John where Jesus turned water into wine to save a family from embarrassment. Scripture says, “Jesus did the first of his signs in Cana of Galilee and revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him.”

Christians have tied together these three revelations of Jesus’ identity from the earliest days. Our Episcopalian sisters and brothers call the whole length of time from today to Ash Wednesday Epiphany-tide. That designation prolongs the period in which we are invited to meditate on our personal response to the Christmas revelation of Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah of our ancient longing.

It is interesting that we use the image of a light bulb coming to life to describe our Eureka moments. Light imagery so often appears in Scripture to explain what the revelation of the Messiah will mean for us. The three Kings were led by the light of a star. The last lines of the great prayer of the father of John the Baptist tell us that when the Messiah reveals himself, “The dawn from on high will break upon us to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death and to guide our feet in the way of peace.” Much earlier in Hebrew scripture the prophet Isaiah declared:

The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

Upon those who lived in a land of gloom

a light has shone…

For the yoke that burdened them,

the pole on their shoulder,

The rod of their taskmaster,

you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us;

upon his shoulder dominion rests.

They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero,

Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.                                  Isaiah 9:1,3,5

Even today we harken back to the light metaphor in our Christmas candles, our brilliantly lit homes, and sparkling decorations on evergreen trees. The real significance of these lights is that they draw attention to and underscore the central spot light focused on the child lying in the food trough of barnyard animals behind an inn with a no vacancy sign.

If that is the Epiphany moment; if seeing the new born child reveals his identity as our Messiah what, if anything is that supposed to do to us? I propose that these Epiphany revelations of Jesus as Lord and Savior have to become conversion moments; bringing us to a new path in our daily pilgrimage journey to God, giving us the choice to go home by another way.

We are told by Isaiah the Prophet that the Messiah will bring this message:

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,

because the LORD has anointed me;

He has sent me to bring good news to the afflicted,

to bind up the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives,

release to the prisoners;

To announce a year of favor

and a day of vindication by our God;

To comfort all who mourn;

To give them oil of gladness instead of mourning,

a glorious mantle instead of a faint spirit.               Isaiah 61

Like the Kings we came to the manager at Christmas. We are told that after their Epiphany moment the visitors offered their gifts to the babe before them and then “return home by another way.” I know they are trying to avoid the evil Herod. But “going home by another way” suggested to me that they went home changed by the light, changed by their Eureka moment.

Our Epiphany moment must bring us to conversion, a commitment that invites us to follow another way; the way of bringing good news, binding broken hearts, releasing those imprisoned by any circumstance, comforting those in sorrow, and spreading the oil of gladness far and near. The other way may lead us into our various communities or most especially to those with whom we share the dinner table at home. This other way is marked by an increase of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; all under the mantle of love which we are told is the bond of perfection.

Robert Frost poetically described the moment of choice and consequences unimagined.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Manifestations of the Lord Jesus Christ

Epiphany of the Lord

In our monastery the three kings and a trusty camel have gradually made their way, day by day, through the public space outside our chapel. This morning we found them integrated into the manger scene so lovingly and artistically created by our Sr. Moira Quinn. She incorporated a back drop originally painted for an outdoor Bethlehem in our garden. Redemptorist seminarians offered that generous work over thirty years ago.

The Three Kings at the Creche
Redemptoristine Monastery, Esopus, New York 2011

While we most commonly associateEpiphany with the arrival of the magi at the stable in Bethlehem, the Church presents this feast as a celebration of multiple 'manifestations' of the Kingship of Christ. The word 'epiphany' is ordinarily defined as a sudden realization or a  sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence. It is also defined as an appearance of God or a manifestation of a divine being.

Not one but three manifestations of Jesus the Lord are referenced in the liturgies of the Church today. The first is the revelation of the divine indentity of Jesus to the shepherds by a host of angels. The second is the revelation to the three kings who steadfastly followed the star to Bethlehem. The third requires a counter intuitive leap because our minds are focused on a little babe. It is the manifestation of the divinity of Jesus which took place at the wedding feast of Cana. Following our Mass today, we gathered around the refectory table, complete with its centerpiece depicting the the magi in adoration before the child Jesus. But at that moment we re-enacted the Cana story in parts complete with waiters pouring wine into our glasses. There was prayer and then a toast too.