Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord
Of all the gifts you received this Christmas, was there one gift that pulled at your heart string? This Christmas, I had requested that instead of buying gifts for me, people make a donation to the recovery efforts in The Philippines. The response has been overwhelming. But there was one that is my favorite. Little Isabelle George, a seven year old in the parish religion class, broke her piggy-bank. She had all of $50 in it. She gave it all to me to send it the Philippines. Now, that was more than a donation! That was more than a gift! This girl transformed me. That one gift has had the most impact on me this Christmas.
Today is the feast of the Epiphany. On this feast we think about the star that appeared, about the magi, about the gifts they offered, and about Herod who felt threatened by the Christ Child. In three points I want to reflect upon this feast and its meaning for us.
a) The best gift is a relationship. One of the things we know about God is that God is ‘relational.’ In other words, God created us so that God could enter into a relationship with us. God spoke through the prophets in the Old Testament because conversations are relational. God gradually revealed more and more to us because God’s wanted to enter into deeper relationship with us. If there is anything the Christmas story tell us, it is this - that God enters into the depth of God’s relationship with us. God became like us so that God can relate us – as one person to another. More than anything else, Christmas is God’s self-gift to us. And today, on the feast of the Epiphany we must think of our relationship with God. If Christmas is God’s self-gift to us then what can we give in return? The best gift we can give God is a meaningful relationship. Just like the gift of that little girl changed me, the gift of a deep relationship with God will also change us. It will transform us. There is nothing more precious to God than our self-gift to God.
b) Every gift must match the receiver of Gifts. Have you ever re-gifted gifts? Most of the time I re-gift things because the gift does not suit me. When the wise men came to the manger, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Scripture scholars tell us that these gifts were not random gifts. The gold was fit for the King of kings, the frankincense was fit for the God-child, and myrrh was to anoint and embalm his crucified body which brought human redemption. The gifts offered by the magi matched the One to whom it is offered - King, God, and Redeemer. What about you and I? I think about this girl who offered everything from her piggy-bank to the people in the Philippines. She was not just giving a gift. She was giving all she had. Her gift matched the tragedy in the Philippines. On the feast of the Epiphany, if we truly believe that Christ is King, God & Redeemer, then our gift must match that. To offer Christ some kind of a relationship, to give him just a part of our life, or some parts of our life, or even to give most of our life is to hold something back. Our relationship, our dreams, our desires, our talents, our finances, our time, our ego, our life and our death – we must give it all. To the one who gave it all, we must also give all – as a gift. That would be true HOMAGE!
c) Bread and Wine – The Eucharistic Gifts. The magi offered Christ gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. At every mass we offer bread and wine. But why bread and wine? Could not we offer better gifts? At the offertory the priest says, “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread [wine] we offer you: fruit of the earth [vine] and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life [our spiritual drink].” Besides the fact that God had instructed the Hebrew people to use unleavened bread at the first Passover, and that Jesus used unleavened bread at the Last Supper, bread, the world over is the most basic food. It is simple, humble, unassuming and gives itself without resistance. Also the phrase, ‘earning one’s bread,’ literally means one’s livelihood. Bread, then, represents that part of our life that entails hard labor - the work of our hands. Wine at the Last Supper symbolized the blood of the Lamb that marked the doorpost of the Hebrew homes at the first Passover. Very soon, Jesus would shed his blood of the cross. Beside these reasons, in the ancient, classical and modern cultures wine represents enjoyments and festivities. Wine represents joy, love and friendship. In other words, when we offer bread and wine we bring all of our life before God – our labor and the joyful fruits of our labor. Let me take this point a little further. In the offertory prayer we use the title “God of all creation? Since we bring just a little bread and wine to the altar, why use such a broad and solemn invocation? The answer is simple: because in bread and wine we choose a gift that though it is small is ‘fruit of the earth’, that mother earth has given. So the bread and wine represent the earth. The earth receives rain so the bread and wine are the fruit of earthly and heavenly water. In this way, the entire creation, sun, moon, the entire solar system is in some way connected to the bread and wine. But the bread and wine are also the work of ‘human hands’. It is the work of many hands that collaborated together that makes this piece of bread and cup of wine. The farmer, the sower, the machines, the people who run the machines, the people who work in the winery - this is all human work. It involves not just human labor, i.e., physical or mental labor, but it embraces the entire humanity in its daily existence. So really speaking, the bread and wine brings all of our life before God. The only thing is that we must make sure that what the bread and wine symbolize is what we actually offer.
As we come to celebrate this Eucharist, this is our moment at the manger. We offer gifts too. Yes, we bring bread and wine, but really we bring our all. To the God who gives all, we give all. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph