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The Epiphany of the Lord
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.
Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you:
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.
Then you shall be radiant at what you see,
your heart shall throb and overflow,
for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you,
the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba shall come
bearing gold and frankincense,
and proclaiming the praises of the Lord.
From Psalm 72
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
All kings shall pay him homage,
all nations shall serve him.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
Brothers and sisters:
You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace
that was given to me for your benefit,
namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation.
It was not made known to people in other generations
as it has now been revealed
to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod,
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage.”
When King Herod heard this,
he was greatly troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people,
he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea,
for thus it has been written through the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel.”
Then Herod called the magi secretly
and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said,
“Go and search diligently for the child.
When you have found him, bring me word,
that I too may go and do him homage.”
After their audience with the king they set out.
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed for their country by another way.
There are two parts to Matthew's account of Jeshua's birth. The Immanuel - "God with us" - theme:
...an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). (Mt 1:20-23)
and the opening of the work of salvation/liberation to all the peoples of the earth, which we celebrate separately in Epiphany. The word means 'manifestation' - show-time, and Matthew's gospel has this clearly mythical story about three 'magi' - philosopher-scientists - coming out of the mysterious East, following a star! Their purpose is to pay their respects to a future leader of the Judeans. The star is a symbol still popular today. The song from Man of la Mancha takes it to its extreme:
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
And to run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
And to love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
The idea of following a star is about striving for an ideal that is always beyond our reach. This is the first lesson the community of Christians must learn today: the goal of evangelisation will never be reached; the work of sharing the message of the Father's liberating love will go on to the end and still not be complete. In other words, the Church will never be the one and only universal religion. I do not think the goal is to have humankind's magnificent diversity reduced to a uniform idea of the Divine. We are to be a leaven challenging the heavy dough to rise and open up and become fresh, refreshed.
All peoples are called to this freshening up. Our borders must never be closed. Metanoia will go on to the end, as it is our personal daily experience, no matter how long we live. The sun always rises on new dimensions and new opportunities. The star always going ahead, hope leading us on, as the hymn, We three kings of Orient are, has it:
O star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.
What, today, is the path to refreshment? The Churches have called it ecumenism; the economists have called it globalisation; those who place their hope in the UN might see world government as the ultimate goal. I think, for everyone, it is realised in respect and sharing. For us, it's a shame we know so little about the culture of other peoples, especialy since their way of thinking is in many cases more open to the spiritual than is ours. Are we learning from them? Do we respect their traditional beliefs and find inspiration in their attitudes to the Divine? Do we know enough about them: it should be easy as they live amongst us?
Much of the uncompromising material in the gospels is aimed at first generation Jewish Christians who were still in two minds about Jeshua and the new way he offered. Unfortunately we have come to see it as defining our universal superiority. When we say Jesus is the only way to God too often this contains a judgement that other religions are just wrong and need to be eradicated. Perhaps we have not even begun to understand what it means to say, as Paul does, that Christ will be all in all. Perhaps the idea of a Cosmic Christ can tackle this issue in some concrrete way that will be to everyone's benefit.