Epiphany Homily

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all of you. As we continue our journey within the Christmas season we celebrate the Epiphany which is the day on which the wise men arrived at the manger bearing gifts. They brought with them the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh that would be presented to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who laid inside of the crib of the manger. Venerable Fulton Sheen stated: "But although Christ was denied room in the Inn the shepherds and wise men found Him and the angels sang His glory. Be happy, therefore, in Christ. Rejoice! And spread the knowledge and love of Christ in a persecuting world by bringing your gifts to our Lord. Whether it be the gold of money, the frankincense of your prayers, or the myrrh of your sufferings. Offer them to Christ through His Holy Catholic Church."
This statement should make us take a look into our own lives and examine our dedication to surrendering everything that we have to Christ through the Church.

The first of these three wise men according to Saint Bede was named "Melchior who was old and had a white-colored beard; he was the descendant of Sam who brought gold to Jesus" In this offering of gold he was bringing the riches that were worthy of a great king. As he journeyed towards this child he was unsure of who or what he would encounter, but upon meeting Christ he along with his traveling companions was compelled to prostrate himself before this king. As we continue this season of Christmas we should see this gift of gold and how it was drawn towards Christ. Often our own offerings of gold keep us from moving forward towards Christ. We get caught up in our money and worldly pleasures at the risk of making idols out of them. If we make idols out of our worldly possessions we can never begin to let go and acknowledge that Christ should be front and center within our lives. We should not journey after material goods because the greatest good is found inside of the manger and from here all our riches should flow.

Secondly, we have Casper who is traditionally described as being "young, beardless and the descendant of Ham who brought frankincense to the Child Christ." This gift pointed towards the great divinity that is found within Christ. In the temple offerings of frankincense would be burned to God and likewise the gift that was worthy to God was bestowed upon the Christ child. Psalm 141 instructs " Let my prayer rise before you like burning incense O Lord." The Church compliments this Psalm through the use of incense during the sacred liturgy. Instead of a sea of coughs we should in vision in the rising smoke our prayers that should be rising up to God. This gift of frankincense should make us aware of our need to pray unceasingly. It becomes easy to pray when we find ourselves in need of something, but should recall our continual need to join with the Divine Messiah through prayer. The Messiah is present even at those moments when we feel completed and so may we each find a way to draw towards Christ through our gift of prayer.

Finally, there was "Balthasar who was a bearded, black descendant of Japheth, in the prime of his life, who brought myrrh." In myrrh we find the reality of suffering and death because it was the ointment that was used to prepare the body for burial. For all of us the themes of suffering and death are scary, but we cannot run from them because eventually they will catch up to us. We know that we can look to the cross and glance at the great suffering and death that would bring the victory over sin into all of our lives. Myrrh should be our gift to Christ because we cannot separate ourselves from this reality. We should at each moment offer the suffering that arises in our life for good by offering them up to God and behalf of all the souls of Purgatory. Little mortifications inside of our life can separate us from our passions and return us to the greatest love that can be found with Christ our Lord. Each time that we give something up or offer our sufferings to a greater good we are drawing towards the manger with our gift of myrrh.

On this day the wise men bring their gifts before the Messiah and they leave us with the challenge to do the same. We are all called to conversion out of our everyday life to be able to see the light of Christ. The star shun brightly upon these men in their lives, but through this journey and encounter they gave everything that they had. They traveled to this manger as ordinary individuals, but left transformed from their former selves to a sense of conversion. If we bring the gifts that have been bestowed upon us to Christ we to can come to understand the conversion of heart that was felt by the wise men. If we take our gifts of gold and offer them to the Lord we can feel liberation from our worldly possessions. If we can take our gifts of frankincense and truly offer them unceasingly we can begin to truly dwell with God through prayer. If we take our gifts of myrrh and leave them with Christ true meaning can be brought to suffering and death that will always draw us to the redeeming reality of the cross of Christ. And so my brothers and sisters we must ask ourselves what we are holding back from Christ. Instead of holding anything back we are called to make our journey towards Christ leaving behind our former selves as we present ourselves totally through our gifts of love to Christ. May each of us join with the wise men on their journey of conversion as we continue each day to adore The Lord.