Homily from Fr Paul Nicholson SJ for the Feast of the Epiphany

Did you ever dream of being a star? I don’t mean becoming one by winning Strictly, or the Bake-off, or some other TV talent show. I have in mind something much more scriptural, more in line with today’s gospel and with the feast that we celebrate today. 

 The people of Israel might have been expected to be prepared for the coming of Christ. They, after all, had been receiving promises for centuries, from Isaiah and the other prophets. The kind of promises that we heard in the first reading today, and were listening to throughout the Advent season. The Gentiles, on the other hand, hadn’t been prepared in that way. They had been given no such promises. What they get instead is a star. A bright new star, appearing unexpectedly, which undoubtedly got a lot of people wondering. What was it? What did it mean? What should they do in response to its sudden appearance? 

 And, as we’re told in today’s gospel, that questioning led some of them, the Magi, to make a journey. They didn’t know, at the outset, where they were going, or where they would be led to by following this star. But they set out anyway, and it turned out to be a journey that led them to discover Christ. Something which, no doubt, then changed everything for each of them. 

 That’s where you and I come in, and our call to become stars. We are, each of us, called to live our lives extraordinarily. Not necessarily to live lives of extraordinary worldly achievement, although some of you may do that. But to live in ways that are extraordinarily compassionate, extraordinarily loving, extraordinarily forgiving, extraordinarily generous. If we do that, then, like the Magis’ star, we will cause people to wonder. Why do you live like that? What does it mean? How should they respond? 

 Once they’re asking those questions, then some will set out on a journey. Not all, by any means, just as not all the people of the East accompanied the Magi on their search. But some will set out, and search, and come to find Christ, in ways that will change everything for them. 

 This is the weekly Mass at which the Jesuit community here at Farm Street comes together to pray for vocations. You might think of the Christian vocation, the vocation that we all share, as being in this way a call to be a star, living your life so extraordinarily that it will provoke some to question, and so set out on their own journey of faith. As we celebrate this feast, to which the appearance of a star is so central, let’s pray that each of us may shine brightly in a darkened world.  

Fr Paul Nicholson SJ