The Solemn Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord (Years ABC)
Epiphany is a feast regularly overshadowed among Latin Rite Catholics by the Christmas Season, and thus generally ignored by so many Western Christians. This year, 2012, the feast falls on the Sunday following the traditional date of Epiphiany of January 6th. Some purist musicians among us might encounter a quandary since this year allows “14 Days of Christmas” extending the season. Has anyone two extra verses for the popular carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”?! Nonetheless, this liturgical festival reminds us of, and tries to focus us on, what was arguably one of the most controversial assertions of the kerygmatic Gospel (i.e., the audibly preached Gospel message) among the first and second generation Christians. It was that the Gospel is universal, i.e., the Gospel is an invitation to every person on Earth, Jew and Gentile alike! St. Paul (see Galatians and Acts) and St. Peter (see Acts 10) held that the Risen Jesus, the Messiah, was Savior of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews, so Gentiles (i.e., non-Jews) should be admitted to the Gospel fellowship without first becoming Jewish! Luke’s Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s letter to the Galatians witness to some of the theological debate that occurred which was to determine the long term nature of the Church itself, i.e. would the Church evolve to be a fundamentally inclusive Gospel fellowship OR would it become an exclusive, limited religious society of the saved? The texts used on today’s feast show that the issue was fundamental to the very Gospel itself and to the Church(-es) which would evolved from it, and to us today, since most of us descend from Gentile ancestry and would have been excluded from the Church! To be clear, the Gospel message is for all people, of every time and place! It is universal! And the offer of eternal Salvation (the Paschal Mystery of Jesus’ saving death and resurrection) is also for each and every human person of all times and places, without exception!!! The second paragraph of today’s Ephesians reading is clear: “... the Gentiles are co-heirs, members of the same body, and co-partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.” Simply put (unless you yourself are of Jewish background) this text is talking about our non-Jewish ancestors, and thus, about you and me. We are the Gentiles. In the Old Covenant – made with Abraham, and then again with Moses and the Israelites – our Gentile ancestors had no claim to be included in the chosen-ness of God’s people. Some would argue that God’s love was not for them in those days precisely because God had chosen the Jews, i.e., that by choosing the Jews God rejected the Gentiles! Today’s text says that while that situation had once been the case (arguably according to God’s Will), a profound change had come about with the Divine Mystery through the Mystery of the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery. We ought not underestimate the complex scope and scale of this divinely ordained and happy shift towards limitless compassion on God’s part, what Christians call Perfect Love. That separation, however, contributed greatly to the unfortunate, permanent, and destructive separation between Judaism and Christianity around the time of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD. But, this message of God’s superlative love, compassion, forgiveness, and mercy towards all peoples really goes far to negate and to correct any and all anti-Semitism on the part of genuine, faith-filled Christians. The message in Ephesians is fundamental to the good news of the Incarnation Gospel and Paschal Mystery. Salvation by Christ is meant by God to be universal, that is, Salvation is truly for everyone! Logically and theologically we now embrace the idea that while God indeed had chosen the ancient Jews, it no longer follows necessarily that God had rejected the rest of humanity with a permanence more enduring than the Old Covenant itself. Our limited human religious frames of reference and our human biases, fears, and prejudices can certainly negatively influence (even impede!) our ability at insight when reflecting on the topic of Divine Salvation! Maybe that’s why God’s Holy Spirit has so often in history found it necessary to reform and revise even our sacred religious status quo! We need and deserve such reform and renewal at all times and in all eras! The text of Epiphany’s first reading’s prophetic voice (known as Trito-Isaiah or 3rd Isaiah) artistically describes a restored Jerusalem (ca. 500 BC) as the personification of God’s Salvation even (if only very imaginatively at first) for the Gentiles. Written in the era of rebuilding and reestablishing the Jerusalem temple in the very late 6th Century BC, the restoration of Temple worship was a sign to the ancient Jews that God’s power and Grace towards them had been restored. They expected in that era that things would only get better from that point onward. And, what could be better? Nothing less than that the Gentiles, i.e, the world’s non-believers, would come to acknowledge and follow the ways of the God of Israel! Later, in the Christian imagination, the Jerusalem metaphor was reinterpreted to describe the heavenly Jerusalem, the ideal perfection of God’s presence in the next life for which all of humanity has become eligible through Christ’s saving Paschal Mystery. The Gospel of Christ is the universal invitation to that Salvation. We hear the beginnings of this in Luke’s very incomplete description in Acts 10 where Peter preaches to, witnesses the power of the Holy Spirit upon, and finally baptizes the household of the Roman Gentile named Cornelius. This bold and radical deed of evangelization was criticized by other, more conservative Jewish Christians (read: Jewish Christians very limited by and defensive of their Jewish religious culture). This was the Church’s first major internal controversy. Today’s Gospel is the story of the Magi (from the word magoi in Greek, from which derive the English words like “magic” and “magician”). In Luke’s story of Jesus’ infancy, it was important that the Divine Incarnation be announced to the Jews since the messiah came originally for them. Luke especially included the least important Jews among them, i.e., the Jewish shepherds in the fields. The Magi story, however, appears only in Matthew’s Gospel narrative and he takes great care to make sure that the Divine Incarnation is announced to the most important among the Gentiles, i.e., the Magi sometimes called the Three Kings or the Three Wise Men. The Magi are idealized personalities representing the best the Gentiles have to offer. Their skills with astrology and astronomy indicated their great education as well as their skill at seeking and interpreting divine revelation! That they were wealthy was shown in that they were gift-bearers. Their great political importance was shown in King Herod’s respectful reception of them. It was because of their wisdom and insight that Herod logically asked them to report back to him on the child’s whereabouts. However, Matthew has an angel of God countermand Herod’s order to them in a dream to change their agreed-to plans, just like he had Joseph guided by an angelic messenger by means of dreams. The Magi are personalities of mythic proportion in Matthew’s Gospel much like the impossibly long-lived heroes in Genesis 5. But any perceived details aside, the real point of this text is that the new born King of the Jews – the Savior, the Messiah, the Christ – was announced to and recognized by the best of the Gentiles as well as by the Chosen People. The result is that Gentiles can indeed become Church members and even, yes!, without becoming Jewish first! The feast’s title, Epiphany, comes from a Greek word for “the showing” or “to make manifest.” The Gospel’s Epiphany is the showing of the infant Christ to the Gentiles. The Orthodox Churches (the religious counterparts to the Catholic West) consider this festival to have the theological importance that Catholic and other Western Christians place upon the Nativity festival. For Western Christians the birth of the Messiah and for Eastern Christians the showing of the Messiah both together describe the fundamental Gospel Mystery of the Incarnation. Where is the (not so newly born) King of the Jews in your life? Are you still greeting each other with “Merry Christmas!”? Is the Real Presence of the Christ revealed through your words and deeds? Blessed Epiphany to you! May Christ and his Gospel be made manifest in you!