The Lord’s Epiphany: its implications

THE Solemnity of the Lord’s Epiphany reminds us that Christ is meant for all of us, and not just a few, and like the 3 magi, we should make an effort to look for him, that is, to look for God, in everything in our life—in the persons we meet, in the different situations, conditions and circumstances of our life. 

 To be sure, God is everywhere. This is how one of the psalms describes this reality: “Whither shall I go from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” (139,7-10) 

 More than that, God’s presence is not merely passive but active. He is always intervening in the existence of all the creatures, ever applying his wisdom through the ceaseless providence that he exercises over all his creation whose nature he always respects, upholds and defends. 

 And we should not worry too much about the effort involved here because just like what happened to the magi, we would also be helped and led by a star that is none other than our Christian faith, and the many instrumentalities that the Church provides. 

 We may not see its light from time to time for one reason or another, but there is no doubt that it is always there. We just have to learn to live with that condition, unafraid in pursuing God’s will no matter what the cost. We just have to learn how to use the means provided to us. 

 We obviously have to be wary of the unavoidable villains along the way. The Herod of that time can be our own weaknesses, the intoxicating allurements of the world and the wiles of the devil. But as long as we realize that we need to wage a lifelong process of ascetical struggle, then things would just be all right. 

 Like the magi too, let us offer the best gifts we can give back to God who actually has given us everything that is good for us. We have to learn to repay love with love. We have been freely given, and so we have to learn how to freely give ourselves to God and to the others. 

 And the best gift we can give him, far beyond what the magi offered, are our own very selves, our whole heart. God himself wants it that way, as one passage in the Book of Proverbs puts it: “My child, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.” (23,26) Of course, Christ himself articulated it more directly when he said, “Love the Lord our God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Mt 22,37) 

 Lastly, with the celebration of the Solemnity of the Epiphany of Christ, we are actually left with an invitation that can very well be a big challenge for us who profess to believe in Christ. This is none other than the duty to show or reveal Christ, as he is, to others. 

 This is no mean responsibility to be carried out by us who are his disciples. The ideal to aim at is to have those words of Christ to his disciples said of us as well: “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me. He who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Lk 10,16)

The direct testimony from heaven

“A VOICE came from the heavens, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’” (Mk 1,11) 

 As the gospel of St. Mark narrates, these words were heard by St. John the Baptist after he baptized Christ in the River Jordan. He saw the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending on Christ, and these words were spoken. 

 Obviously, the purpose of this testimony is to underline the true identity of Christ—that he is not just any ordinary prophet. He is the very Son of God who became man to offer “the way, the truth and the life,” the life proper to mankind. 

 This is a truth of faith that has to be taken by faith more than anything else. Without faith, there likely would be at least some doubt if not outright unbelief about the veracity of this claim. 

 And so, faith is indeed needed here. As St. Thomas Aquinas said once, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” 

 And yet there are other things that can lend credibility to what was said during Christ’s baptism. That he performed miracles, that he preached very sublime doctrine, that he had all the virtues that can be found in any man, that he offered his life on the cross and then resurrected, and that he ultimately appeared to certain people after his resurrection and was seen ascending into heaven—all these should leave no doubt as to Christ’s divinity and his role as our true savior. 

 We need to strengthen our belief in Christ and to do everything to follow him. In fact, we need to become like him as we are meant to be. We are meant to be “alter Christus,” another Christ, as some theologians have explained. 

 This is always possible and doable because in spite of our insufficient efforts to become like Christ, God’s grace is always there for us. All that is needed is for us to do our best or at least to be open and receptive to God’s grace and mercy. As St. Paul once said, “He who has begun a good work in you will continue to perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus the time of His return.” (Phil 1,6) 

 But it should be a constant concern of ours to know, love and serve Christ which should have a necessary consequence to know, love and serve the others. Knowing and loving Christ is proven when we serve him by doing his will, by complying with his commandment, the last of which was “to love your neighbor as I (Christ) have loved you.” (Jn 13,34) 

 We should try our best that the main interest in our life is to be like Christ. Everything else—our work, our family life, our business and politics, our successes and failures, etc.—should serve only as a means and an occasion to be like Christ. 

 It’s important that we know Christ thoroughly and love him to such an extent that he and us become one as we are meant to be. This is no pipe dream, since Christ has given us everything to achieve this goal. He has, in fact, given us his very own self in the Holy Eucharist. We just have to receive that sacrament with a heart full of faith and love. That way, what is impossible becomes possible and a reality for us.

The calling of Nathanael

I ALWAYS get amused everytime I read about the calling of Nathanael, one of the apostles who later became known as Bartholomew. (cfr. Jn 1,43-51) His friend, Philip, already an apostle, excitedly told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” 

 And what was his response? With words dripping with a provincial and prejudiced frame of mind, he said, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” That was when Philip invited him to “come and see.” And from this rather casual encounter, a great thing took place. Nathanael became an apostle himself! 

 The story of Nathanael’s calling somehow tells us that there are things in our life that we should not take too seriously nor judge too definitively. Because even if a person, like Nathanael, would at first show some kind of doubt about Christ, about God and about religion in general, we know that things can change for the better. 

 There is always hope, since there will always be some reason for everything, good or bad, humanly speaking, to happen. The providence of God knows how to deal with every case properly. And if the person concerned corresponds properly also, then what may be considered bad at the beginning would turn out to be good. 

 Nathanael embodies the ordinary person who, in spite of his warts and all, still has that basic, irreducible trait of exposing his heart, no matter how defective, to the truth. He does not run away nor hide from it. 

 He is truly a man with no guile, no pretensions, no need for covering. Except for the normal need for discretion and modesty, he is completely transparent. What you see is what you get. 

 More, he is willing and eager to know the truth, and to make the necessary changes and adjustments that such truth would require of him. He is humble enough to accept things as they are, never bending them to make the pieces fit his own ideas. Rather, the contrary. 

 That’s why we would immediately feel good every time we meet such persons. They always exude such welcome and wholesome aura about themselves in spite of their imperfections. They contribute in making society more at peace and in harmony. 

 Children are such persons, though their being guileless is due to their innocence and lack of exposure to the world. When you see such quality in a person who is already exposed to the world, then you really would feel good. 

 I consider this point most relevant these days, since this quality is getting very rare, even approaching the point of extinction. The other day, CNN reported that among the most hated expressions nowadays is the word “Absolutely.” 

 That’s because that term is now used “ad infinitum,” “ad nauseam,” even by people who are caught lying “in flagrante delicto,” that is, in the act. Everyone now seems to use that word, such that it has been strained to the limits, drained and made to bleed to death, emptied of its true meaning. 

 Especially in the media, in the exchanges of opinions, the truth has been warped and deformed into different shapes, stretched or shrunk depending on circumstances by people who have become unreliable experts in opinion-making. 

 Let’s remember and imitate St. Bartholomew in his simplicity of heart and sincerity. His story shows that before we look for the truth, it is God first, Truth himself, who looks for us. We should just follow God first before anything else.