Epiphany, 2012
Fr. Anthony Brankin
Gospel: Luke 2:1-14 “You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths”
Complete sermon text: I guess it is somewhat strange, but today—even though it is two days later after the “real” date, we are celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany. And we do this because America is such a non-Catholic, non-Christian, non-religious country. Officially, at least, all our politicians and all our laws, of course, are either against the practice of religion or ignore it entirely.
Now if we lived in a little village in a happily Catholic country, then naturally on the 6th of January—the Twelfth Day of Christmas to be exact—no one would have to go to work—and everyone would go to church; and we would have a beautiful Mass, and three men would dress like the Three Kings, and pass out candy and little gifts to the children; and they would even bake cakes with tiny little figures of the Baby Jesus inside— and whoever found the little figurine would be declared “King!”
Christmas novenas in Catholic countries
But we live in a country that is so far from that ideal and so distant from that way of life—that there are not even Twelve Days of Christmas—there is barely one—and that is mostly about gifts! Let me give an example: Every Catholic country has a nine-day Novena before Christmas—the Philippinos call it Simbang Gabi—the Mexican people have Las Posadas—the Polish have Novenna do dzontka yesus! But what do we have in America? Twenty-five shopping days! No wonder we have no religion in this country—we don’t do anything! So the Church has felt that since more people come to church on Sunday, then we should celebrate the Feast of the Three Kings on the Sunday after. That way a few more people might hear about the Three Kings. The church is trying to throw a lifeline to us who are drowning in the excesses of American consumerism and atheism.
Revealed to the whole world
So what is the Feast of the Three Kings? What is the Epiphany? It tells us that God has been revealed—not just to Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds and the Jewish people—but to the whole world.
And the Kings—there may have even been more than three—are the historical symbol that God—who, by means of the little baby Jesus—wants everyone in the whole world from the Chinese to the Americans—from the Indians to the Irish—from the Mexicans to the Italians—to come to Him and to worship Him and then to take that knowledge back to all our brothers and sisters wherever we live.
I think of the very first Missionaries who came to the New World hundreds of years ago—after Columbus arrived in America.
Think of the zeal and Faith of those missionaries. They had no maps, no radios, no global positioning systems, no rescue helicopters. They just got off their boats—I guess in Florida or the Eastern side of the Yucatan peninsula— or off the shores of Venezuela or Brazil and just started walking west.
They plunged into two totally unknown continents—to see what they could see—to find what they could find—to talk with whom they could talk—about Jesus and Mary and the Saints and the Angels.
Nine million became Catholic
But—amazingly—it seems that the priests were not the first missionaries to the Americas. Of course we have the Virgin of Guadalupe. She was the missionary from heaven par excellence. Did you know that after her appearance to the Aztec Juan Diego nine million Indians were baptized and became Catholic? But it seems there was another missionary who got here before the priests. A nun from Spain—Mother Mary Agreda. She lived in a convent in Spain and never left the enclosure; but she was given the gift of bi-location.
In other words she could be in two places at one and the same time! When the priests arrived in the American Southwest in the sixteen hundreds, they found that many of the native peoples to whom they came already knew of Jesus Christ and believed in Him! It seems that this nun, Mother Mary Agreda had already been there! She had bi-located from Spain to meet and greet the Indians of America! The priests could not figure out how the Indians knew so much! The missionaries were completely dumbfounded that these natives were actually expecting the priests, and the Indians showed to the priests that they already knew about Mary and Jesus even how to say the rosary.
Mysterious woman in gray and blue
You can imagine how stunned the missionaries were as they heard this tale from the older Indians, who told the missionaries the story of a beautiful woman dressed in gray and blue who had visited their villages many years before—how she spoke in their own language and would patiently sit down with the people in village and tell them the marvelous story of Jesus and Mary—of heaven and of the sacraments. Sometimes she would even leave chalices and rosaries for them. Above all, she told them how they must live good lives and then wait for the priests to come to them.
This did not take place in one single lonely isolated village out in the middle of the Sonoran desert. This story was repeated to all the missionaries all over the Southwest—from Texas to New Mexico from Arizona to Nevada—in village after village. And anyone over a certain age remembered this woman dressed in blue and grey who brought the facts of the faith thirty years before any Franciscans or Dominicans or Jesuits even knew how to get out there! The priests were amazed. They had never heard of such a thing.
Bringing us all into His family
I mention this amazing story on the Feast of the Epiphany because if the Epiphany is the day when God manifested himself as Saviour, Messiah, redeemer to everyone—the Asians and the Africans, the Europeans, and the Indians, then we can see that everyone is invited—and has always been invited. God finds various and different ways to bring us all in to His family.
The coming of the Three Kings to the little stable in Bethlehem teaches us that if we wish to be saved we must come to Jesus, but only to Jesus; and we must worship Him in His Church—His Presence on Earth. The Three Kings teach us that there is no other God nor other name by which we are saved—but only that of Jesus. It is not money—not success—neither fame nor power that will save us—only Jesus. No celebrities, or newspapers, or internet are going to save us or tell us what we need to know—only Jesus who speaks to us through the Catholic Church.
The Wise men are wise because they know that the Messiah is not to be found in political parties or presidents or kings. In fact it is the politicians who actually want to kill the Baby! Politicians are not the Messiah, for The Messiah is Jesus and He alone.
We must bring Him to the world
And then once we do believe that He is the One True God, we are obliged to bring Him to the world that does not know Him—we must introduce Jesus to our family and our friends. And we do so by our goodness, our kind words and generous deeds—by our peacefulness and beauty.
We are each missionaries—much like the nun who miraculously brought Jesus to the New World. She came to unknown peoples in unknown lands as if in a dream. But by her example and prayers and interior beauty she taught the people about Jesus and Mary His Mother and she prepared a people for God. She gave Jesus to her people and she gave her people to Jesus. What a marvelous exchange of gifts.
What more wonderful gifts could we give to the people we love than to introduce them to Our Lord—as did the missionaries—as did Mother Mary Agreda—as did the Three Kings—whose feast we celebrate today.