What can we learn from Epiphany?

Epiphany - An epiphany is a manifestation.  From the Greek - To show, and Epi - upon/to, but when it is added it could also mean, “Super!” Like we say in the Our Father, Give us this day our “arton epiousion” - Superessence bread!

1. Mary and Joseph lingered with the child.

I think often times when we have a big event, we like it, and then we move on, “back to the ol’ grindstone.”

This was the job of St. Joseph and Mary, to be with the child.  And so, when we go to Joseph and Mary, like praying the litany of St. Joseph and the Rosary, we will be introduced to the child, Jesus, waiting for us.

In Isaiah 1:3 it is stated: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand.

2. We must seek God like the Magi.

"I realize more and more why Saint Augustine regarded “humilitas”, humility, as the core of Christ’s mystery. Our hearts are not watchful, are not free. And yet, we can still find comfort in the fact that there is a way for aristocrats too: that they, too, can become shepherds if they have one thing in common with them: if they are watchful and free." https://ref.ly/o/cowrkrtruth/17045?length=351Benny xvi

Unless we seek we generally won’t accidentally do Right.

3. Despair is the vice when we have no hope, which is a theological virtue, but rather, when we snub God His due because we think we know what’s going to happen already!

“This, then, is the question: Are we truly watchful? Are we free; are we adaptable? Are we not, all of us, suffering from snobbishness, from an arrogant skepticism? How can a person hear the voice of an angel if he is convinced in advance that there are no angels?”

From: Ordinariatskorrespondenz, December 25, 1979 found in Co-workers of the Truth, Page.p_15

4. The priests and the scribes were aligned with Herod!

WE must go back a different route than the way we came

Mt 2:12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.

This might mean breaking up old friendships for the sake of our new life.

Mt2:3 When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.*

One of those who did not “see” was Herod, who did not understand anything even when they told him about the Child, who on the contrary became ever more blinded by his own power and the hysterical fear of being challenged that went with it (Mt 2:3). Those who did not see were “all Jerusalem with him” (Mt 2:3). Those who did not see were all those “dressed in fine clothing”—the refined people (Mt 11:8), From: Licht, das uns leuchtet, pp. 35ff. in Co-workers of the Truth, Dec. 27

Are we so far away from the stable because we are much too refined and too smart for that? Do we not get all entangled in scholarly exegesis, in the proof or disproof of historical authenticity to the extent that we have become blind and deaf to the Child himself? Do we not really all too intensely dwell in “Jerusalem”, in a palace, withdrawn within ourselves, in our self-sufficiency, our fear of being challenged, too much so to be able to hear the voice of the angels, to set out to worship? Thus, in this holy night, the faces of ox and ass are turned toward us questioningly: My people does not understand, do you recognize the voice of your Lord?

5. We too bring gifts to the Christ Child.  We give gifts to each other on Christmas.  Thanks for having another birthday, Lord, I had a lot of fun, and a lot of stress! But epiphany invites us to two things.

1 - What are the epiphanies in our life where we came to know Christ as our Lord and when we knew to follow Him and how to follow Him.

2 - What are the gifts that I can lay before the King of Kings? Where’s my gold? Where’s my myrrh? (What’s myrrh?like oil lotion and scented) Where’s my gift of Frankincense (incense).

Ending: I had some epiphanies this last week. (We have big ones, and little ones happening all the time)  I went to the FOCUS conference in St. Louis.

I got chills when I walked into the stadium for the first time as a priest and heard the thousands of voices singing at Mass and smiling at the 200-300 priests that I was walking in with.   This gave me chills.  This is a moment when I recognized the grandeur of what our Church is and what  we are a part of, that we don’t always get to see here.

And what can I give my Lord? As I said, I saw all these priests, young holy, old and holy, and nuns running all over the place.  When was the last time you saw a nun in person? Well there were hundreds of nuns, young and holy, old and holy… and around all these college students who want to figure out how to love Christ by offering their lives to Him.

So the greatest treasure you possess is your soul.  And this is what Christ became incarnate for, and Holy Mother Church provides you with means and directions for ways and THE WAY for you to offer this most precious treasure you possess, to the King, the King before whom Kings and Princesses bow down to.

Is 49:22 Thus says the Lord God:

See, I will lift up my hand to the nations,

and to the peoples raise my signal;

They shall bring your sons in their arms,

your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.l

23 Kings shall be your guardians,

their princesses your nursemaids;

Face to the ground, they shall bow down before you

and lick the dust at your feet.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord,

none who hope in me shall be ashamed.

24 Can plunder be taken from a warrior,

or captives rescued from a tyrant?

25 Thus says the Lord:

Yes, captives can be taken from a warrior,

and plunder rescued from a tyrant;

Those who oppose you I will oppose,

and your sons I will save.

26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,

and they shall be drunk with their own blood

as though with new wine.

All flesh shall know

that I, the Lord, am your savior,

your redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.m