SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD (2025)

SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD (2025)

Readings

Isaiah 60:1-6

Psalms 72:1-2, 7-8,10-11, 12-13

Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6

Matthew 2:1-12

The infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke were special and unique sources used by the evangelist.  Together they are conflated to tell us what we believe to be the entire Christmas story,  regardless of the impossibility of blending them seamlessly.  The earliest known nativity scene is a fourth-century fresco in a Roman catacomb that depicts Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the Magi and a star.  The oldest known nativity scene with carved figures was created in the thirteenth century and is located in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.  It was at this same time that St. Francis of Assisi was popularizing nativity scenes by creating the first living nativity scene in 1223 in Greccio, Italy.  It is a stunning Italian baroque nativity scene which sits under and in a large artificial tree in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Our manger scenes are usually a combination of the only two infancy narratives thought to be inspired, in spite of their differences.  A careful reading to today’s gospel has the Magi entering a “house” (Joseph’s home), not the more interesting manger of Luke.  As there are no kings in Luke’s version, there are no shepherds mentioned in Matthew’s version.  But our crèches would not be complete without the presence of both (and a host of regular people as well).  Matthew wrote his gospel for a Jewish audience, and so it is likely that his inclusion of this particular part of the  infancy narrative at his disposal was no accident.  The early church at the time the gospel of Matthew was written was already struggling with the vexing question of what to do with the Gentile converts – do they become Jewish first, and thus circumcised, or was baptism enough?  The privileged position these Magi (Gentiles) have in this opening story of Matthew shows that Matthew was making a very definite statement.  Furthermore, it fulfills the prophecies of old, that were spoken of Solomon, but applied on our liturgy to Jesus: “nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance” (Isaiah), and “the wealth of nations shall be brought to you…. All from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming the praises of the Lord.”  The psalmist, too, praises Jesus’ Davidic ancestor, stating “the kings shall offer gifts…. All kings shall pay him homage… all nations shall serve him.”  Jesus is the fulfillment of all that the prophets have written!

But the three kings from afar (something ascertained solely because of the three gifts) are not the only kings in today’s story, for looming large in Christianity’s history is the figure of King Herod, for whom the “newborn king” is a threat, not a blessing.  Like any despot would in any age, he sees in the child a threat to his power, and he needed to hold on to that power at all cost, for he had very little else with which he was blessed.  It was that lust for power which caused him to exile one of his wives and his son, and kill three other sons.  In the very next chapter of Matthew we have Herod’s massacre of the innocents described.  He was not a good man.

Herod stands in stark contrast to the three kings, who took on the burdens of a long journey to catch a glimpse of the newborn “king.”  Imagine Mary and Joseph’s surprise at the presence of such royalty.  The king’s reward for their efforts was to gaze on the face of God.  While they might not have or even understood, that Jesus was the long awaited Jewish Messiah, I would like to believe that their lives were changed for the better, and their cooperation with the angel led to the saving of the small baby, who one day would grow up and change the world.  Unlike Herod who could not see beyond the selfish and pettiness of his world, the three kings had a broader vision.  Their hearts and souls were open to a broader horizon in which a God could do marvelous things.  Jesus’ manifestation (epiphany) to the Gentiles marks a change in Israel’s history, and Herod was powerless to change that.

May our horizons be broad like that of the three kings.  May we see beyond the selfishness that surrounds us, and may we see the baby Jesus in the faces of all those who suffer or are in the midst of hardship.  May we learn to love those who are difficult to love, remembering the very last words of the musical, “Les Miserables”: “to love another person is to see the face of God.”  May our “homage” be that of a life well-lived.