The Manifestation of the Glory of God

"Arise, Jerusalem, shine! Your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. This is the Good News that rings in our ears. It is amazing that it is the strangers who announce it to us. The feast of the Epiphany helps us to understand our God, a God who loves us, a God who works in all discretion, leading the whole world, with its diversity, once again forming one people, his people, his beloved. Today we are witnesses to this marvellous event.

We rejoice because God has chosen this day for the world to discover this God in this child. It is no longer a chosen race, but in it all races have been unified. We are no longer Greek or Roman, we are Christians, a new race has been born which has received a new identity, an identity in love and forgiveness. Love one another as I have loved you. We now become bearers of the radiant light, the Light of Christ, through our life of witness.

St. Paul in the second reading reveals this truth to us in the light of his own conversion, of his encounter with Christ, and through Christ, the Church of the Lord, for whom he became the ambassador, to the Gentile people. "This mystery is that all nations are associated with the same inheritance, the same body, the sharing of the same promise, in Christ Jesus, through the proclamation of the Gospel.

The Church invites us to discover the Magi, who are the seekers of truth, by interpreting the signs of heaven that they saw. They were intelligent men, and also men of wisdom. Looking at these men we can easily understand the basis of Pope Francis' Encyclical, 'Laudato Si', where the whole world is invited to see and look at creation. Looking at the Lord's creation, it is invited to discern and judge. In his discernment and decision, we must commit ourselves, so that Creation may regain its beauty and majesty. There we can celebrate. Life must be a celebration.

In this celebration, we can easily make mistakes, especially in our discernment, like those of Magi, who went to knock on the palace door. All was well, and in the end they missed the point, because they thought that their journey to worship the Saviour ended in the palace. How many of us end our journey in the middle of the road, without being able to reach and enjoy the years of work? Let us not lose confidence, they teach us to start all over again, and they will restart, fully guided by the stars, seeking now on a new path, strangely without the stars which accompanied them, after knowing how to worship the Lord. For the living and for people of faith, life is always a new beginning. Everyday is a new life. Let’s not be blocked in our past mistakes. We should keep going, giving the same hope to all those who search this living God.  

What are they seeing in this child, the men of wisdom and understanding, that they fall to their knees, fall at His feet, prostrate themselves before Him? What a wonderful gesture! Surrendering themselves, before this Holy Child, and adore the God of creation. Shouldn’t we learn to repeat the same with our brothers and sisters, where God is actively and sometime passively present and manifest? Have we had this experience of prostrating ourselves before our Lord, Jesus Christ, dead and risen, in the Blessed Sacrament? As I have already mentioned, that life is a celebration. We celebrate the manifestation of the Lord and let the world discover and celebrate it in us. God bless you all.