The Epiphany of the Lord
“Where is God?” Perhaps you have heard this question numerous times. It is not a faithless question. It is a question that people with faith ask when life becomes extraordinarily burdensome - a child’s death, a horrible accident, devastating natural disasters, poverty and suffering. People have tried to answer the question in many ways. Fredrich Nietzsche, the famous philosopher said, “God is dead.” Others are unsure. And then there are the crazy Catholics. We say, “God is here!” We point toward a child in a manger or a mangled body on a cross and say, “God is here!”
Today we celebrate the feast the Epiphany or the feast is the Manifestation of the Lord to the World. It is the day that it’s Savior was make known to the world. How then do we reconcile the question “Where is God?” with the reality that God has been already revealed in Jesus Christ?
a) God is Everywhere! The signature line of Christmas is, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” This means that the God did not merely come into the world like we enter the doctor’s office and then leave. No! Rather, it means that the world has been touched by God like never before. God made the world a home. God came as a baby, grew among us, loved us, did good, died for us and opened heaven’s doors for us. Since God has touched the world and made a dwelling here, we can find God everywhere. To the eyes that see, nature and creatures, people and events, goodness and sadness, life and death, all reveal God. Just as the birth of Jesus and his crucified body are both the revelation of the same God, so is every aspect of our life a manifestation of God. Especially as Catholics who believe in the Sacrament and a sacramental world, human touch, holy oil, holy water, rosary bead, medals and scapulars, bread and wine – they all somehow communicate divinity.
b) The Human Person: An Epiphany! The Christmas story is the story of God becoming human. And this is important. God did not become a tree, an animal, or a thing. God became human. Perhaps, this is because human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. In other words, the human person is the first sacrament of God. The world is God’s creation; but the human person is a sacrament. This makes the Christmas story very significant. But there is a tragedy in the story. After waiting for centuries, many people who awaited the coming of the Messiah, missed it! They missed it because they were not looking at the human person. They certainly were not looking at the poor, defenseless, powerless and uninfluential human person? Would God be found in Herod’s palace? Would God be found in the High Priests home? Would God be found in the Temple of Jerusalem? In reality, God was lying defenseless in a manger! God was hanging powerless on the cross. Only those who could look at every human person as a sacrament, saw God in a child and on the cross– the shepherds, the wise men, Jesus mother, the centurion. The lesson simply is this – if you are a spiritual person on a search like the wise men, do not overlook the human person, especially the poor and defenseless – the immigrant looking for security, the disabled trying to find meaning and acceptance, the genuinely homeless trying to find warm hearts!
c) Every Eucharist - An Epiphany! I asked earlier, if we Catholics are crazy? I think we are. Why in the world would we bring a little bread and a little wine, and after consecration believe that they become the real presence of Jesus? Well, besides the fact that Jesus used bread and wine at the Last Supper, bread and wine has another great significance. The bread and wine represent all of creation. The 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 bread and win embraces the entire creation and humanity in its daily existence. In offering bread and wine, we recognize creation and all in it as God’s gift to us. We offer it to God and, surprisingly, God gives it back to us as a self-gift. And when we receive this bread and wine we are transformed into the body of Christ. Where is God?. “God is here!” Every Eucharist is an epiphany. At every Eucharist we recognize God’s gift of creation as holy; in the Eucharist the bread and wine become the real presence of Christ; after the Eucharist every person around us becomes the face of God. We are together the body of Christ. “Where is God?” God is here; God is in us; God is everywhere!
Like the wise men, let us hurry toward the altar. God awaits us here!
- Fr. Satish Joseph