"Epiphany of God" - Feast of the Epiphany Homily

We are through the holidays, the fun, good time.

We've got a few extra pounds to show for it.

lot of festivities.

I think getting through Christmas and New Years, it's kind of like putting on a big event, like a big social event.

It's fun, exciting, stressful, it's anxious, and you're happy when it's done.

I think there's a sense of relief today that we're through it.

given all the activities and all the family gatherings and all that goes with it, there's a sense of relief.

Okay, we're through that.

And I don't know where you stand about getting back to normal.

uh Some people I'm like, you know, ready to get back to normal schedule.

And they're like, don't talk about it, okay?

Back to school, back to work.

But thinking about the situation, having gone through some different, different schedule, different events, a lot of stuff.

Back to normal.

Sorry to remind you.

Well think about, if something happened over Christmas and New Year's that was different, was big, that was really good, and there was no getting back to normal.

Like you're new normal.

Your life has been changed by what you saw.

That was the experience of the Magi.

The first Christmas.

When we come to this piece of epiphany, think when it's like small e-epiphany, we get it.

People have an epiphany.

It's this awareness or revelation or aha moment.

But related to Christmas, capital E epiphany, what exactly is that?

It's a little more vague.

Capital E epiphany is related to capital G God, where the wise men among the first to see God in the Christ child.

And considering how their whole journey went, now we place them at the nativity scene, but if you listen to the story closely, this is after the birth.

They find him in the house, and it's referred to as the child.

When exactly it started, their journey with the star, how long did it last?

It wasn't two weeks, it was closer to two months or longer.

So I think the whole epiphany for them starts

with a star and leads them on this trip with a caravan and camels and all these beautiful gifts.

How they're following a star.

I went through the mileage, you know, the moon is like 200,000 miles away from Earth and stars are like millions of miles away.

How is it that a star would lead them to particular place like a house?

Anyway, miraculous.

This whole experience they're led

and then the spot of the epiphany of capital G, God, in the baby and the child Jesus.

Now these are not Jewish men.

They are from the East, they are Gentiles, and yet they're thrust in the center of a major prophecy by Isaiah, we heard in the first reading, about the light coming to Jerusalem,

the glory of the Lord.

You, Jerusalem, shall be radiant in what you see.

These are wise men, these are not Jews, but they are radiant in what they see.

And who they represent, which is the whole world.

So this is promised to Israel, but the wise men represent the whole world having an epiphany of God in Christ.

You shall be radiant in what you see.

Your heart shall thrive and overflow.

And the gospel, they are overjoyed at the epiphany of Christ.

They're radiant, they're overjoyed, and they get on their knees and they do him homage This is capital G, the true God.

They've been led to, from where they came it's significant, because they were magi, like magicians, astrologers, and all that stuff, false gods.

And then God used that to bring them to Himself.

And then you notice a very small detail that's huge.

Well, they drop on their knees, they do him homage they give these beautiful gifts.

They're overcome, overwhelmed with goodness and they want to give something back.

And as expensive and valuable as these gifts are, they all pale in comparison to what they're receiving.

But yet, the goodness, trying to

give back some goodness to God but the small detail is they departed for the country by another way.

Like they were changed men, they lived different lives after this.

They followed false gods before this, and they encountered the true God in the epiphany, and then they went back and lived their lives following Him the rest of their lives.

So a new way, a new life, these are new men from the epiphany.

Now imagine the lives they changed when they went home.

Tell them the whole story.

But the caravan and the journey and the star and the Christ child and the radiance and people like almost like saying people from Moses in the Old Testament like having come out

of the clouds saying God where were you what happened to you?

There are radiance from the epiphany.

That changed lives with the people in their country and then the people in all the countries since then.

This is how it works.

In our tradition, the epiphany of another leads to epiphany for their neighbors or friends.

And that leads to other epiphanies, other experiences because we're intrigued by it.

We're made for the radiance.

We're made for the glory.

We're made for the joy.

And when we see it, we want it.

And it's happened many times here.

So the Magi are among the first to start the process.

What we celebrate here is the joy of Christians.

That leads to the joy of other Christians.

So when we see someone who's had an encounter with Christ, had an epiphany, capital E, they've seen Christ in the poor, in the Eucharist, they've heard Him in prayer, and they

are beaming, they're radiant from that.

Like the wise men leaving the scene, and friends like us ask, what's going on with you?

What happened?

You're different.

And when they tell us they've had an experience with the Lord, the true God, capital G, that leads us

to want the same thing and to experience the same thing.

Do we have that radiance?

Because we encounter Him here.

Capital G, God, like they did.

Do we go out from here?

Do people notice something different about us?

When Jesus talks about our love, said there should something that should stand out about your love.

Stand out about your joy, your forgiveness, your kindness, your thoughtfulness, your generosity, your sacrifice.

People should see that in us and inquire and ultimately to their epiphany.

Capital E with a capital G, true God.