Father Thomas Welbers' Homily	Jump back to Homily Index
Solemnity of the Epiphany, January 4, 2004 Isaiah 60:1-6 Ephesians 3: 2-3a Matthew 2:1-12	Listen to Audio

We have just passed the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. In northern Europe, where most our Christmas traditions originated, the darkness of this moment of the year is striking and even depressing. And so we see the need, now that we enjoy a little more light each day, to celebrate that light. Christmas itself has its origins at this time of year, baptizing a pagan feast of the rebirth of the unconquered sun. It symbolizes the true light that has come into the world – it is truly a feast of lights. To celebrate Christmas, trees are brought into homes and made radiant with brilliant lights; yards are also illuminated. In other ways too, our lives are aglow with light. Often families are reunited; bonds of love and friendship are strengthened, and memories are brought to birth. These events of grace truly light up our lives. Even if it’s cold and dark outside, Christmas is a time of inner light and warmth.

Our readings for today speak of two kinds of light. Isaiah promises a light full of hope. Five centuries before Christ, Jerusalem had gone through destruction and forced migration into exile. Those returning from exile faced a city that was in desperate need of rebuilding. Patterns of conquest, destruction, and rebuilding have been repeated throughout the ages, even into our own day. The prophet proclaims that the darkness of despair has been lifted, and a new day of restoration has dawned. At last, the light has come!

In the Gospel, the magi – wise men who were attentive to the signs of nature, from a far distant country, probably Persia, present day Iran – are led to the child by the light of a star. Whether this was an actual celestial phenomenon, or a reading of the natural movements of the heavens, or a metaphor for some other kind of enlightenment, it was by divine guidance that they found the child.

The children’s version of the Gospel story, which is typified in the manger scene and in the popular carol, is well known. But the adult version, the actual story of St. Matthew’s Gospel, contains the real challenge. It maintains that God, not the social or political structures of the day, is the true source of our light. This story teaches that openness and humility are necessary if we wish to read correctly the “signs of the times.” The people of power, typified by Herod on the one hand in the political realm, and by the chief priests and the elders on the other hand in the religious realm, failed to read the signs of the times, because they were too filled with their own anxieties and goals and ambitions. The Magi, on the other, pagan foreigners, were open to the newness of God’s revealing light.

This story insists that when we discover the “promised one,” we must be open to see him in the unexpected, and willing to offer him all that we have. The light has come, and we are invited to live in it. Our question for us now is, how do we daily respond to this invitation to live in the Lord’s light?

© Thomas Welbers 2004