Epiphany of the Lord—January 5, 2020

Dear Friends in Christ:

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord. The very word Epiphany means “manifestation.” The definition can at times be elaborated to say that an Epiphany is: “an intuitive grasp of reality through something simple and striking.” Something as simple as a child. Something as striking as a star, the star of Bethlehem. Remember our Advent theme: Longing for Light?…Follow the Star…this Star is something so simple and yet so striking that brings us to the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. The Feast of the Epiphany is an opportunity for us to focus, not on the Magi and who they were, but on Jesus Christ, the mystery of God revealing Himself through the incarnation of His own Son.

History is silent about just who or what the magi in the gospels really were. In some translations, they are astrologers, in others they are kings or “wise men.” And, in fact, we don’t know exactly how many of them there were. But because they brought three gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh – tradition has held that there were three of them. It’s a meaningful number. Three is the number of the Blessed Trinity. It is the number of days Christ spent in the tomb. But it also signifies something more meaningful and, for us, much more important. They are not solitary. They are a group. They are a community.