Homily from the Parish Priest for the Feast of the Epiphany
The Magi - they seem to fit in nicely at our crib scenes. We don’t really know their names – later tradition gives them names – and so, unlike Mary and Joseph about whom we have much greater devotion and know much from the Scriptures – they can easily become faceless characters, appearing on the scene in almost a perfunctory way as a nice neat way of ending the Christmas Story.
Yet these men were real human beings who were searching and it was through their searching their minds and hearts were opened. There was surely a restlessness about them. Restless hearts journeying from the East to seek out something new, something fulfilling, searching for meaning amid all the confusion of everyday life. And they were simply not satisfied where they were: otherwise why search for a King whose royalty was not attested – surely wouldn’t it have been more believable for the story to be that those scribes and pharisees consulted by Herod to go looking for their Messiah?
Yet – no, it was these Gentiles, these restless travellers – who set out on the journey. What we see in the crib is the end of that journey but it’s worth pondering: what were they leaving behind? And how were their lives changed when they left. They were, I’d like to think, at a crossroads.
Can we identify with them at all? At the end of an era perhaps and the beginning of something new? Many conversations I’ve been having recently have alluded to the uncertainty of this time, this time Pope Francis reminds us when we are in the same boat journeying together through choppy waters. My reflection on Francis’ image leads me to realise my own life and mission, perhaps like so many, is at a crossroads too, and as a parish we are in the midst of that, with so many plans and schemes and programmes and groups on hold, still right in the midst of the sea where we are responding as best we can to the immediate needs, reaching out as best we can to our dispersed congregation and to those most in need in practical ways. And I am driven by the conviction we will anchor, we will come ashore, we will move into a new era we are called to rebuild.
Where are you in your life, on your journey? For many of us what was settled, comfortable and looked good for the future, got upset. Plans shattered - a loss of a life that once felt secure, but was no longer. So perhaps we can identify with the Magi, with this journey.
And of course the Christian journey is not just about embracing a new life. It is not just about the here and now. The Christian journey reaches out to the next life. And so the Feast of the Epiphany also opens for us the foretaste of death. Note the gifts: gold – the magi reverence him as a King; frankincense – as the Holy One; but also with myrrh – foreshadowing the tomb, remembering what will happen and what he is sent for. And so the Magi in their seeking find what perhaps we might not see at first sight: the Epiphany thus is the first cruel taste of the passion – and surely they leave with this to ponder:
TS Elliott puts this so well in his poem The Journey of the Magi:
‘Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death’.
May our searching be born anew, so we may meet Christ, the way, the truth and the life, and hear his call to reorient our own lives at this confusing time so we do not simply keep calm and carry on but as we move forward in our lives we take some new roads, returning to the business of our everyday lives by a different route.
Fr Dominic Robinson SJ