St. Norbert's Church - Sunday Reflections

This year Epiphany comes as early as possible, just the day after January 1^st. Let us pray that we can understand and live a bit more profoundly this great mystery of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The first reading, from Isaiah, speaks about how light shows us everything. When Jerusalem is filled with light, then the whole earth is filled with light. This is clearly a reference to the presence of Jesus in Jerusalem - not for the author of this passage of Isaiah, but for those Jewish people who were awaiting the Messiah. They came to believe that these texts referred to the Messiah who would come. For the early Christians, who believed that Jesus was the Messiah, it was easy to see in Isaiah many references to Jesus.

This reference from Isaiah can be seen to prophesy that all the earth will come to the Lord. There are many other references in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, referring to the Messiah. As soon as one accepts that Jesus is the Messiah, then all of those texts are seen as referring to Him.

The Epiphany speaks particularly of the revelation of Jesus Christ as Messiah to the Gentiles. It is as though this mystery is so strong that it shines right through all of reality, if we are truly looking at reality with God's word. Among the first of the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people, to perceive divinity in the Lord Jesus were the Magi, the wise men from the east. They are able to recognize Jesus as Lord of all even in his state as an infant.

Today we who follow Christ must be Magi to the non-believers. If we truly witness to His presence, our own lives are transformed. Others are able to see that we live from another reality, not from the reality of this world. This does not reject the present world, but accepts it entirely with the hope of transformation into the reality of Jesus Christ.

Saint Paul says in the second reading that it was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

This is a message that still needs to be preached: all are invited to salvation, all are invited to the banquet of the Lord.

Only as we ourselves come to recognize the divine shining through our human condition will we be able to give witness with strength and conviction. We Christians are supposed to recognize Christ present in our world, in every other person and in every situation.

O Lord, give us eyes and ears and hearts of faith.