The Epiphany
of the Lord – January 7, 2018
I
–The glory of the Lord shine upon you.
R
–Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
II
– Now it has been revealed that the Gentiles are coheirs of the promise.
A
– We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.
G –We
saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.
+ Today we celebrate the arrival of the Magi, bearing their gifts
of gold, frankincense and myrrh. This presentation of gifts to
the Christ Child is an obvious reference to the gift-giving nature of this
Season of the year. Just as the gifts we give, these gifts were not arbitrary,
something they picked up on their way out the door; they were carefully chosen
and prophetic in origin and nature: gold for Christ the King, who came from obvious royal lineage; frankincense,
for Christ the Priest, who would
offer his life on the altar of the Cross; and myrrh, (an embalming ointment)
that signified the death of Christ the
Savior of the World.
These
three Kings,
these three Wise Men, these three Magi followed the Star of Bethlehem to find him resting in the arms of his adoring
mother, Mary; and guarded by his foster-father, Joseph. And what they found was
that the Light that was the Child
shone brighter than any star, and they message they got was that this Child would illumine the entire world from that moment on:
not just the insular surroundings of Bethlehem, but the entire world: this
Child is indeed the Desire of the Nations:
all of them: he is Light of all Nations, and the glory of His people Israel: he
has come to change nothing, he has
come to change everything.
What
a magnificent feast this is, both in its revelation of
Christ as the one true, awaited Messiah; but as Savior for any in the whole world who would simply believe in Him, and commit
themselves to living their whole lives long like they did believe in Him,
following his words and ways, as members of his Body, as members of his Church.
The
task henceforth for his own people would be to accept him, and believe; for
everyone else: the entire Gentile (non-Jewish) world, it would be in gradual
stages to get to know about him, by first hearing about him, listening to
preaching about him, and then by allowing themselves to be drawn into the life
of his Body, the life of his Church, where he and his Father, eventually wants
all to be. This would be a long process because the darkness of the human mind
is not only very dark, but deceptively so: it tells so many that there is no
other way, and that “false lights” are the best hope, as a poor substitute for
what hearts deeply long for.
This, of course, is not true;
there is another way, a way of Light and Blessed Assurance; a way of truth, and
a way of peace. It just takes an initial
“leap of faith” – which itself is God’s gift: we really don’t have to do
anything at all, except use our precious gift of free-will to acknowledge its
Creator, its Sustainer and its Redeemer.
Lord,
every nation on earth will adore you; let our nation soon be among
the first to make significant inroads
in realizing this prophecy; let the people of our land be among the first to truly love and serve God as he
would be loved and served, if only by following
the guiding star of the perfect natural law that is within every human
heart!
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