08 January 2008

Epiphany...

Maybe the word "manifestation" is better. Or maybe we should say something like "the appearing" or "the revealing." I think we sometimes miss the importance of this past Sunday's festival (The Day of Epiphany) because we can't quite grasp the weight which this word carries. After all...this is just a child who receives the homage of the magi. What's so revealing or portentious or manifest about that...especially in a society that is used to adoring its infants.

Ah...but how shallow our adoration when compared to theirs. The gifts we bring are ordinary and utilitarian. Diapers and even savings bonds or brokerage accounts hardly stack up to gold, frankincense and myrrh. And seldom do we come with such mighty expectations for the child. We might indulge them like material royalty, but we don't imagine that they'll give their lives for the sake of the world. And even weird Aunt Edna (doesn't every family have one of those?) can't hold a candle to these strange and mystical seers who come with offerings and warnings for Mary and her child.

Something special is, indeed, going on here. Something extraordinary is being revealed among us...so unusual that the stars themselves brighten and bend. For here is not just a child, but a scandal of cosmic proportions...God takes up human flesh that human flesh might some day take up God's own full intent for itself. And the child...this Jesus...is the first, the One, the pioneer and perfecter of a faith which will open every human heart to the power and presence of the Divine.

Epiphany. It has been revealed. O come; let us adore him!