"Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him..." (Revelation 3:20) A collection of my Sunday homilies for Holy Mass as well as some occasional talks and reflections. May my words enable you to hear the voice of Christ, who asks that you open the door to Him. Please share this podcast with others if you benefit from listening to it.
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The Epiphany of the Lord highlights the arrival of the Three Kings or Wise Men or Magi. We are allowed to enter into the wonder and awe of those who saw with their own eyes the infant Saviour and King. We are called to adore Him as they did and to go on our way to proclaim Him and to bring Him to the world, which is in so much need of Him. May God grant to us all many graces and blessings in this new year of 2022.
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The word epiphany means a manifestation or an appearance or a showing forth. There were many, many moments of epiphany during the life of Christ. In reality, everywhere he went he showed forth the face of God. While in the body before his glorious ascension, at all times he was a manifestation of the divine presence of God in time and in place. The great feast of today recalls the first and the greatest of the Epiphanes, but also two others. Firstly there is the arrival of the wise men, the Magi from the East, to adore Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world. But we mustn't forget the much more private display of the newborn babe to the shepherds on Christmas night itself. The other two great epiphanies occurred at Christ's baptism in the Jordan, which we celebrate next Sunday, and the manifestation of his divinity at the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee, which is the second luminous mystery of the Holy Rosary. But back to the Magi. They come as representing the entire world because they come from outside of Israel, from the neighbouring pagan nations and religions. They come to Israel, seeking among the Jews the one who will be king of all nations. Their coming means that pagans can discover Jesus and worship him as Son of God and Savior of the world only by turning towards the Jews and receiving from them the promise contained in the Old Testament. So at the entry of the wise men, the full number of the nations now is made worthy of the heritage of Israel. After the ascension of the Lord, the Church takes up this task of epiphany by fulfilling the commission given to her by Christ, that is, to proclaim the gospel to every creature and bring humanity to the light of Christ, which shines out visibly, though sometimes dimly, from the church. It is God the Father's desire to unite all his children, indeed the whole of humanity in his Son's Church. How does the Church show forth Christ and bring all of humanity into the unity of the Church? Well there are many ways, aren't there? You probably think many times of the witness of your life as a Catholic. Am I different from those who do not have faith? Or do I appear to be the same? Then it's easy to think of the words, the evangelization, the programs, the retreats, the summer schools that the Church provides. Today I want to remind you of one other way that has been used for many centuries, and it's so much part of our life that perhaps we forget about it. First though, a story. In St. Peter's Square in Rome there stands an ancient Egyptian obelisk, a single block of granite almost thirty meters high and weighing three hundred tons. It's the oldest obelisk in Rome, dating from about one thousand eight hundred and fifty years before Christ, so it's roughly four thousand years old. At the time that it was erected, it was put up as a monument to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and so it did watch over two thousand years of Egyptian history. Egypt was the longest reigning empire in history. It stood there when Abraham was called, it stood there when Joseph was a viceroy of Egypt. It was there when Moses led his people out of Egypt. At the time of Christ, soon after the Magi came to worship him, the Roman Emperor Caligula brought it from Egypt to Rome as a sign of Rome's superiority. They had conquered Egypt. And there in Rome it stood for four more centuries, a symbol of the Roman Empire, the largest empire in human history. On top of it was placed a golden urn with the ashes of Julius Caesar. So it was there in that place when Saint Peter himself was martyred not far from it, along with hundreds of other early Christians in the arena that stood on Vatican Hill. Then the barbarians invaded Rome, and in the Middle Ages the obelisk fell. Ivy grew around it, and it was sort of half buried under the old basilica of St. Peter. But as we know the church converted the barbarians, and when a new Christian culture emerged and flourished, and Saint Peter's Basilica was rebuilt and expanded, Pope Sixtus V had the obelisk re erected in the centre of the plaza, but not as a reminder of the long perished empire of Egypt or of Rome, or even of the barbarian hordes. But now, instead of the ashes of Julius Caesar, it is topped with a bronze cross, and inside that bronze cross is a small fragment of the true cross, the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified and from which he saved the world. Now it serves to proclaim to be an epiphany, if you like, of Christ the universal king, and of his kingdom which will have no end. You see, architecture is the silent witness to faith in Jesus Christ. It is a silent epiphany or showing forth or manifestation of Jesus Christ in this world. In bricks, in mortar, in stone and glass and many other materials, Christ is made manifest to the world. I wonder how many people drive past the church that you go to mass in every Sunday. The fact that the church building is there and has been probably for many decades, maybe even over a hundred years in some instances. The fact that that church building is there says that Christ is important, and the people who come here follow him because he is the Savior of the world. We hear at Mass you who are listening to this, we hold the heritage of our faith in our safe keeping. It has been passed on to us, and we must pass it on to the next generation. Having a church building that we love, that we reverence, that we protect and care for is a significant part of bringing the world to Christ and making Christ manifest to the world. Architecture can be the means of an epiphany. La Dato Jesus Christus.
