Epiphany January 5, 2025
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
Glory! Splendor! Radiance! Majesty! Magnificence! Awesomeness! We have a lot of words to describe greatness and the bible uses most of them to describe God, though I don’t think “awesomeness” shows up in any mainstream translation…
Today’s feast of the Epiphany celebrates the fact that God has indeed revealed his splendor to the world. Perhaps, sitting in this incredible church with hundreds of other people, hearing beautiful music, and being familiar with our Catholic faith all make it easy for us to simply accept that claim: that God has revealed his glory to the world.
But if we polled the whole earth, how many people would agree that his glory has really been “revealed.” How many people would instead ask “where is it? I don’t see it?” Probably a fair percentage of the people here now, much less those who’ve never once been exposed to the many things we probably take for granted.
And you know what? That’s kind of fitting. I mean, it’s also a problem and a challenge to us – I’ll get to that in a moment – but there is some sense in which it makes sense that God’s glory isn’t obvious to everyone. The very name of today’s feast means “revelation,” but in the readings we hear that most people – especially those who really should know better – actually miss out on his glory entirely. They even had multiple chances to get it right!
First, it’s sad that none of the priests, scribes, and scholars of Jerusalem even suspected the messiah was to be born soon. None of them knew to watch for the star. It took foreigners showing up on their doorstep looking for a king before they to realized God was up to something. To their credit, they were able to research the right answer to the question of the Magi – the king was born in Bethlehem – but to their shame, they didn’t even bother to go look for themselves. I mean, it’s like 6 miles away – less than one day’s walk. But no, they were too busy living in luxury and doing politics to bother with a day trip to pay respects the newborn king of the universe. Then Herod fails even harder, not just missing the boat but trying to sink it, to kill God’s glory!
This is not the only epiphany where God’s chosen people fail to recognize His glory at work. Although we focus on the Wise Men and the baby Jesus in our readings, this feast actually celebrates three times God reveals himself: the Wise Men, Jesus being baptized by John in the Jordan, and Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana.
At the baptism, the Holy Spirit manifests in the form of a dove and descends on Jesus. But what to the scribes and pharisees do? Shrug. Forget about it. And when he shows up again after fasting in the desert, they almost immediately start persecuting him. Then, at the wedding feast, Jesus turns water into wine and who knows about it? A few disciples and some servers. The headwaiter – who should have realized something was up when hundreds of gallons of wine were suddenly there – didn’t even bother to ask where it came from. He just thought “wow, this is good wine,” and carried on as usual.
In this life, this is the fate of God’s glory: recognized by a few, but ignored or rejected by most, especially by those caught up in their own glory and power. The challenge to us should be obvious. Then again, the whole point here is that we tend to miss what God is doing. So, that is the challenge: how have you missed God’s glory? Where in your life are you distracted by wealth, reputation, success, political power, or pleasure from what God is doing? How often do you miss the fact that God’s glory is right there in the midst of humble circumstances: born in a manger, baptized in a river in the middle of nowhere, just another guest at an unimportant wedding. Does the fact that poverty and ignorance and suffering all exist in your life blind you to his presence in the midst of all of that? That his glory is greatest on the cross?
Yes. I certainly do miss it at least some of the time. I, like anyone, sometimes wish God’s glory were as obvious as the sun in the sky. Once in a while, in my life at least, it is. More often than not, however, it’s hidden and humble. So, how can you or I turn to the world and with a straight face say God’s glory has been revealed? Revealed how? Where? If it’s so revealed, why do so many people never seem to see it?
There are two things we need to do in response to that. The first is to accept the mystery, but do what’s right anyway. I get it. We should all be sympathetic to people who struggle to accept God’s way of offering salvation. Many people have looked at Christianity, at Catholicism and thought “if it is true, then why doesn’t God make it more obvious?” They wrestle with questions about people who, through no fault of their own, die without hearing about Jesus. If Catholicism is the one, true religion we claim to be, then why have so many people in history never had an honest chance to become Catholic?
When potential converts raise those questions, we should acknowledge them honestly. There are some explanations we can give, some teachings on Baptism by Desire that might help, but we should be honest that part of the answer is “God’s ways are beyond us.” Still, the fact that some people don’t see the truth of Catholicism is not a good reason for us who do see it to pretend we don’t. Just because we don’t know how other people will be saved, it doesn’t mean we should ignore what Jesus told us to do to be saved.
The Magi probably wondered at the fate of King Herod and the Jerusalem scholars. But they didn’t stop their pilgrimage. They followed the truth as they saw it. They knew they couldn’t answer for others but that they would answer for themselves. We must do likewise. Catechumens and faith-curious people should do likewise. By all means, look for answers, but also accept that there will always be some mystery to God’s will and that, regardless of what others do, we have to follow the truth wherever it leads. And Catholicism is true.
The second thing we should do is get better at revealing God’s glory. So many people who don’t see God’s glory would see it if we were better Catholics. We have to be careful not to shame spiral here – we can’t be saints right now – but we should also let the Holy Spirit really convict us here. There are lots of holy things we just aren’t capable of yet, but the real challenge is to step up to the holiness we are capable of. Maybe you can’t sell everything, beg for alms, and preach in the streets like St. Francis, but perhaps you can start praying every day, cut back some luxury, start being kinder to your annoying coworker, and stop trying so hard to make yourself look good. Perhaps you can start paying attention to parishioners who are struggling or visitors who feel left out. Perhaps you can finally take some real, practical steps to breaking your sinful habits and addictions.
God’s glory is manifold and expansive, but we are part of it. Even in our sinful weakness, our unique souls reflect his image. As we turn from sin, draw near to grace, and practice sacrificial love for each other, that glory shines brighter, like a star in the sky. And the brighter we stars shine, the closer we draw to our God, our King, our Savior, the more of God’s glory people will see.
So, come now to do him homage. Offer him the gold of your love, the frankincense of your worship, the myrrh of your repentance, and let the splendor of his glory become the joy of your hearts.