This Sunday we celebrate the feast (Solemnity) of the Epiphany of the Lord which is one of the oldest Christian feasts, though, throughout the centuries, it has celebrated a variety of ways. Epiphany comes from a Greek verb meaning "to reveal," and all of the various events celebrated by the Feast of the Epiphany are revelations of Christ to man. In the Dioceses of the United States it is celebrated between January 2 and 8, and is considered a Solemnity, which is a type of Feast in the Church. Another name for this feast is Theophany or Three Kings Day.
Originally our Epiphany has a fourfold celebration to it: the Baptism of the Lord; Christ's first miracle, the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana; the Nativity of Christ; and the visitation of the Wise Men or Magi. Each of these is a revelation of God to man: At Christ's Baptism, the Holy Spirit descends and the voice of God the Father is heard, declaring that Jesus is His Son; at the wedding in Cana, the miracle reveals Christ's divinity; at the Nativity, the angels bear witness to Christ, and the shepherds, representing the people of Israel, bow down before Him; and at the visitation of the Magi, Christ's divinity is revealed to the Gentiles—the other nations of the earth.
Today we continue this Solemnity as a celebration of Christ being revealed to the world, and are commanded by Christ—as His disciples—to become part of this ongoing revelation of Christ to the world by the way we, His Church, reveal His comfort and compassion, His forgiveness and love to our world through the Church’s corporal and spiritual works of Mercy. Certainly we are called to reveal Christ in the feeding of the poor and in the housing of the homeless, especially in these brutally cold days of winter—can anyone of us imagine what it would be like to spend one of these subzero nights on the city streets of Hartford or a rural backroad in West Simsbury, Canton or New Hartford? Could we imagine the fear and the anger in an elderly woman or man’s eyes when they cannot afford prescription drugs or a co-pay for a doctor’s visit, when they’ve worked all their lives? The Church must become the arms and heart of Christ in the world—
in-and-through the Church’s many ministries.
Enter the Knights of Malta! Enter the parishes that feed and house the homeless! Enter the youth ministries that bring new energy, excitement and righteousness to the ongoing legacy of the Church! Enter the prayers of many individual rosaries and adoration services! Enter the Men’s and Women’s Clubs who revamp homes, rake leaves for neighbors and much more! Enter the many, many individual’s whose gifts of charity and love have striped the Advent Giving Trees of their envelopes and filled the medicine cabinets of the Knights of Malta Mobile House of Care or helped the St. Catherine of Siena Parishioner in need of heat, food or winter clothing! These varied and sometimes simple acts of kindness and charity are complete with the same meaning with which Christ’s own words fed the thousands of hungry people or healed the lepers of His time, and welcomed hone the ones who felt forgotten.
Today we are called to be the Catholic Church of this time and place and to reveal the hands and heart of Christ in the world around us—and in our part of that Epiphany--, we are called to light up the darkness of despair in our world and to soften what seems to be the new cruelty of this life. Like the turning of water into wine—the first miracle of Jesus—or the voice of God heard at Jesus’ own baptism declaring Him as His Only Begotten Son in whom He was well pleased, we must now be the comfort and love of Christ while carrying the gifts of the Magi: Gold which represents royalty or the Kingship of Christ, and carries with it the ability of money to change for the good the injustices of our culture; Frankincense represents the prayers of all raising up to the Father in heaven and is used in the Temple; Myrrh which symbolizes His sacrifice and death on the Cross and His gift to us of Eternal Salvation, which carries with it the ultimate healing power—as Myrrh had medicinal purposes to it.
In our discipleship we are commanded by Christ to become, as Paul Harvey noted as he signed off his national news cast, “Now you know the rest of the story,” and so we are called to be the rest of the story of salvation—to be another Christ in this world and to share our love of God, our hope in Eternal Salvation, through the very practical applications of our faith: praise and worship of God and good works. This Epiphany has been revealed to us by Christ, His Church on earth, and the many Catholic practitioners who have come before us. May we continue to be His Epiphany to our own world.