Make Known
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I pray that you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s celebration. We continue our celebration of Christmas today with the Feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany marks the last of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” and has traditionally been celebrated on January 6th. In recent decades, the Church has allowed local conferences of bishops to move Epiphany to the Sunday that falls between January 2nd and January 8th. The liturgical season of Christmas actually runs until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which this year has been transferred to Monday, January 8th.
The word Epiphany is from a Greek word meaning, “to shine upon,” “to manifest” or “to make known.” While Christmas marked the birth of Jesus and his revelation to Israel, Epiphany marks the revelation of Jesus as the newborn “King of Kings” to the Gentiles. The star that appeared to the Magi in Matthew’s Gospel is reflective of the “Light to the Nations” that Jesus is. The Magi, wise men from the East, are representative of the non-Israelite nations, the Gentiles.
The Feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation of Jesus’ true identity, is closely associated with the baptism of the Lord, when the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus and also with the wedding at Cana, where Jesus first revealed his divine power by changing water into wine. All these events reveal that Jesus is more than just a Jewish kid from Nazareth. In Jesus, born of Mary, God has taken on human flesh, the prophecy of Emmanuel, God with us, has been fulfilled and, in Him, the human and divine are wed.
As we reflect on the scriptures about the star and the visitation by the Magi, may we not forget how much our present-day world continues to need the light of Christ. We live in a world shrouded in darkness and confusion, a world that is longing to be delivered into the light of truth. As disciples of Jesus, united with Him through our baptism, we too are capable of bringing the light of Christ into the darkness of our world. We bring that light into the lives of others by first living as children of the light ourselves.
As we near the end of the Christmas Season and begin a new year, let us all be committed to bringing the light of Christ into our marriages, our homes, our friendships, our workplaces, and our social lives. May the love of God, revealed in Christ Jesus, be made known through each of us.
Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life,
