Epiphany Year A 2026

Today the world comes to Christ—it was the grand moment the Child Jesus was manifested to the 3 Kings who found their way to Bethlehem. The implication of this visit is made clear for us in the 2nd Reading. The Magi’s presence signals that now all are truly welcome. Perhaps we can understand this better from the perspective of our country.

Imagine one day the powers that be in this land decide that the principle of administration will no longer be based on colour of our skin nor the creed that we profess. Everyone who is born or has migrated and lives in this country will be called a native or a prince or princess of the land. Am I advocating subversion of any kind? Nope. What I am stating is that the Jews considered themselves to be the favoured sons and daughters of God. With the visit of the Gentile Magi, now everyone will be called a son or daughter of God and a brother or a sister of Christ and there will no longer be any special provision given to those who are Jew-born.

It may not impact anyone from nations where there are no discriminations based on colour or creed but in countries where there are biases, such equality would be radical. To hear that everyone has equal opportunity under the Malaysian sun would indeed be ground-breaking. According to the 2nd Reading: “This mystery that has now been revealed through the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets was unknown to any men in past generations; it means that pagans now share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body, and that the same promise has been made to them, in Jesus Christ, through the gospel”.

With the Magi’s visit, the Gentiles have now secured a spot at the feast of salvation. Travelling beyond the range of their comfort zone, they came seeking for the true God.

The Magi challenge us with this question. Are we still searching for the true God to worship or have we settled for less?

Nowadays we have to celebrate diversity where anything and everything should be accepted on equal standing. Thus it is standard to hear people say that all religions are the same. But the Epiphany shows us otherwise. These Magi risked everything they had, compelled by the innate search for the true God whom they instinctively knew to be worshipped as the Lord of lords.

If Christ were to be the Saviour, it would make no sense that He is simply a Saviour of the Jews or even Christians. God, to be Saviour, should be the Saviour of all humankind. The message or the Gospel must go out that Jesus Christ is the Saviour and not just the Saviour of Christians. He is the Saviour of all.

The message is not easy to preach given that we are constrained or limited by the dictates of “tolerance”, “diversity”, “equality” and “respect”. The result is that every religion should be treated on an equal basis and the challenge is that even if we believe in Jesus as the Saviour of mankind, we behave as if He were provincial and limited to Christianity as we unwittingly hold on to the axiom that basically all religions are the same.

Putting aside the difficulties surrounding the Kerygma, that is, the proclamation in this current climate of “DEI”, what can be done? If we acknowledge and accept that the Magi who came were looking for the God who saves, then how can that message of salvation be universalised?

Two of Pope Francis’ exhortations, “Evangelium gaudium” and “Gaudete et exsultate” are helpful. The word “evangelisation” is derived from Greek “eu angelion”, meaning, good message. In proclaiming the Gospel, the most powerful tool we have is not a book, not even the bible to beat others into submission. Rather it consists of a lived experience of Christ where we demonstrate a consistency between our belief and our behaviour. Immediately what comes to mind are the two basic Sacraments helpful to make the connexion between word and deed. Firstly, we are sinners through and through. We need the Sacrament of Confession for the grace to avoid sin. Secondly, the Sacrament of Communion for the strength for good deeds. We will be more attractive when the beauty of God shines through our actions.

Evangelisation is not and cannot be the proselytisation of the past and therefore it does not begin by seeking to convince others. The days of “proselytisation” are over in the sense of walking up to someone to tell him or her that Jesus Christ is Lord. It may have some value that we can shout at some street corners announcing who Christ is and that belief in Him promises eternal life. But we live in echo chambers, a world of herd-mentality where “your truth is true for you, my truth is true for me”, that it is almost impossible to penetrate those enclosed bubbles.

Instead, evangelisation must consist of bearing witness to the truth of a love that has looked upon us and has lifted us up. There is a profound beauty in the God who, sacrificed Himself for us and now through His Sacraments, lifts us up. Evangelisation must consist in communicating this truth and nobility in our behaviour is the only convincing message that modern men will embrace.

Like it or not, the current demand is that we live in a world which is hyper- sensitive to the lack of credibility. Imagine someone discovers a celebrity or a cleric who texted some homophobic slur in the past and immediately he or she is made to grovel before the “approved narrative” or the “canonised group-think” on how wrong he or she had been. Company and even the Church now must run “PR campaigns”. Whether all this is spin or not, credibility has become the standard and perhaps it is a good thing because it makes us more accountable, not so much in bowing to group-think but rather the need to make sure that we walk our talk. People are searching and even dying to believe. And we might be the only Gospel they ever read.

I end with a note on parking. Our one neighbour, maybe, in the big scheme of things, he is insignificant and who even cares, right? But for him, we are the only Christians he knows and each time he comes, in his rage to park his car at the entrance to block us, what we regard as a nuisance should give us enough concern to think of the impact we have on others because we are called Christians.

Epiphany Year C 2025

Epiphany is a feast of manifestation. So far the shepherds were the only ones who had seen the Christ. With the Magi, He is now shown to the world and that is just the beginning. If the world were in doubt, they will no longer be for the King of the kings is here now. The event that has brought the Magi is by no means a flash in the pan because liturgically, there are two more epiphanies to come and they are the Baptism in the Jordan and the Wedding at Cana.

As a public presentation to the world, we respond. Both shepherds and Magi responded by seeking out the Child to marvel and to worship. However, Herod responded with a somewhat malignant motive. Jesus was right when He told the Apostles, “Those who are with us are for us and those who are not with us are against us”. Either you are on His side or you are not. Herod was on the opposite side of Jesus.

If we fancy ourselves on the side of Jesus, then we have things to think about.

The three Magi brought gifts befitting the King. More than the status of a King is true worship. If anything, the gifts, even with gold, were just side shows. Significantly, these men had come from the far ends of the known world to behold the Child. That is devotion and dedication. Perhaps we should ask what attitude we bear when we come before the Lord.

Our present attitude is pretty much exposed via the system of obligation. The present religious practice is that we are required to attend Mass on a Sunday or any of the designated days of obligation. If the basic attitude were simply to fulfil it, then we may have just missed out on what the Magi did. They were under no obligation to come from afar. Yet they willingly embraced the hardship of travel in order to come and behold the child. Can you imagine yourself moving heaven and earth in order to come worship the Lord? Or do you feel compelled to be here? Last Sunday, when we launched the Jubilee, as part of the rite, there was a procession into the Cathedral. We announced that those with mobility issues should remain while those who can walk should join in the procession. There were mutterings about having to “vacate” the Cathedral and to go out into the hot sun. When we chafe under such a minor inconvenience, can we endure a more rigorous demand like persecution for our beliefs? We have become worshippers of convenience.

Compulsion does not grow well in the soil of freedom. St Augustine in his famous Confessions remarked that the God who created us without our permission cannot save us without our cooperation. That is how profoundly free we are—to accept or to reject. But God is also a “mysterium tremendum et fascinans”. It means that He is both a fearful and a fascinating mystery. Whether we recognise it or not, man fears that God will punish him if he does not toe the line. Even the Psalms highlight the fear of the Lord as a virtue. Whilst its meaning is “reverence”, what we hear it as “terror” or being terrified by the Lord. In fact, dictators are powerful because they know how to exploit our weakness which is the fear of the consequence of our inability to love.

But if like the Magi, nothing is going to stop us from coming to worship the Lord, then, gifts should be unfolded. If we come here because our hearts are searching for the Lord, then our gifts will represent that. We bring our best before the Lord. Perhaps the system of tithing might be brought up. Tithe is a method of ensuring that if all else fails, at least 10% is reserved for the Lord. But that can brings us back to the compulsion of giving. True giving is not calculative. To clarify, I am not suggesting donation. Just trying to see how we can move away from having to be dutiful out of compulsion to being dedicated out of love.

The Cathedral that is rebuilt in the centre of Paris should be our model. The French decided to return to the ancient Gothic structure that represented the best of what the mediaeval artisans erected for the Lord. Those Gothic monuments soaring into the sky sprang from a foundation of love. Since that should be the case, then we should spare no effort to give God our best. It is represented by our offering to Him the best of who we are. It is quality and not just quantity.

The same qualitative principle at work is to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Again the love for the Lord is the engine that powers our love for others and not the other around. Loving others in order to “prove” that we love God is to fall into the trap of giving grudgingly at best or merely fulfilling the obligation at worst. A good example is when the collection bag comes. Everyone seems to be putting in. You will look bad if you alone do not put anything in. The giving will be grudgingly or just fulfilling the obligation. Again the point is where our heart is, there is our treasure.

Finally, after the Magi had offered their best, they also made the decision to follow the star on their way home. Having the desire to worship God, we render Him the finest gift of ourselves and we should earnestly strive to follow the north Star. This so-called “true Star” is not the same as that which is promoted by popular culture. Our “celebrity star” puts a stress on my self-fulfilment and whatever I want to do. Everyone is his or her my own star. No. The Star is Christ Himself. He is the light that shines upon our path. Once we have found Him, we must not let go, no matter what. He is the treasure which we would want to hold onto forever, even if it should cost our life.

Epiphany Year B 2024

The Magi have arrived in Bethlehem. Their presence is recorded only in the Gospel of Matthew and this visitation is called the Epiphany. Since three gifts were presented, we assume that they must have been three kings, traditionally known as Casper, Melchior and Balthasar.

This visitation is a kind of Theophany or Hierophany. On Monday we will celebrate a Christophany. All these are just words expressing the same phenomenon—a manifestation. A theophany is an appearance of God, a hierophany is a showing of the sacred, an epiphany is a manifestation from above and a Christophany is the “presenting” of the Christ. Each of these terms has to do with the Divine making Himself known to us.

The Epiphany is the revelation of the Son of God to the entire world. However, our reach/span today is incredibly universal that it feels as if the entire world has shrunk to the point that we describe ourselves as a “global village”. Many of us recognise this type of experience, which is, today, one is here in Singapore and tomorrow, one is already in New York.[1] In a way, the fluidity of mass movement has relativised the Epiphany into a non-event. So, what is the big deal when everyone can be anywhere at the click of a button?

The point of the Epiphany is more than God becoming known to the world. It celebrates also that man’s search for God has found a definite answer. Creation hungers for God and the only answer that can fully fulfil is found in Jesus Christ. Therefore, if we pair the Epiphany with the Christophany of this coming Monday, that is, the feast of the Baptism of Jesus, perhaps we can come to a joyful appreciation of our Christian responsibility.

God has made known His salvation. According to the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, in the past, He spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our time, the last days, He has spoken to us through His Son. We belong to these “last days” and are privileged to hear God speaking to us through Jesus Christ.

The entire pontificate of Pope Francis can be interpreted from this angle. The Holy Father wants to proclaim the message of salvation that Christ has brought to the entire world. He dialogues with cultures and even with human experiences which many of us may not appreciate. For example, rightly or wrongly, whether I agree or not, the controversy over the blessing of same sex couples can be interpreted from the perspective that this Jesuit Pope desires to dialogue with current reality. Furthermore, the Holy Father has consistently spoken to us on the environment, that according to him, is God’s gift and is part of the salvation that Jesus has come to bring. In a way, Pope Francis echoes what God has done by extending the message of Jesus Christ to the world. For the Pontiff, it feels as if the Church has kept that message to herself instead of sharing it as the “Gospel of Joy” to a world waiting to know Christ.

Perhaps Pope Francis is nothing but a poor echo of God’s word. This is not a condemnation of the Pope because everyone is a sinner. No one is an exception. Everyone is a poor sinner who does not always mirror God’s great news of salvation. We know that for a fact that we can be better but we are not. We should live up to the name of Christ but we do not. God’s desire in these last days to make known His salvation has frequently been frustrated or hampered by our sinfulness.

That the event of the Epiphany took place just before the Holy Family fled to Egypt is crucial to the celebration because the focus on the Magi makes us forget the other key player in this saga. The Magi were not the only ones looking for God. Herod was too. In fact, Herod was deeply enamoured by power believing that power was god. History has recorded Herod as a man whose exercise of power was terrifying. What both Herod and the Magi symbolise is the divine gift of human desire which is a powerful drive.

Creation in general and man in particular will never stop seeking the Saviour. When the search is misguided or misdirected, as in the case of Herod, it becomes destructive. But when the search is properly guided, as directed by the Star, it yields a great reward in Christ.

The Epiphany represents two movements. God’s movement towards humanity in Jesus Christ. Man and creation’s search for the Saviour. From the side of God, He has never stopped reaching out to humanity. From our side, sin which arises from the lack of correspondence between our words and our actions, our belief and our behaviour, makes us poor quality Gospel, dim stars, for those who are searching for the Way. Both the Magi’s search for the Saviour and Herod’s greed for power challenge us. How do we become like stars that guide others to find Jesus Christ and be saved.

The Epiphany proclaims to the world that Christ is the only answer to Man’s desire and search for the Saviour. For Jesus Christ to be known, it requires that we be attentive to His presence, most especially at Mass and in the tabernacles of our Churches and adoration rooms. At the same time be mindful of our sacred duty and mission to be better messengers of His in the world. May the light of our Christian witnessing lead others to know the Saviour, who is Jesus Christ the Lord.


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[1] Consider that the known world then was small and therefore the visit of the King is even more stupendous considering that practically nobody travelled the way we do. Like for example, the Americas, north and south were “discovered” only in the 15th century, according to accepted historical accounts. Of course, “discovered” sounds rather Eurocentric which makes the word “New” a description taken from a European perspective. Second, the more “politically-correct” term is “uncovered” because the existing continent uncovered the so-called European greed that brought about the destruction of existing cultures and religions. This is a “woke” interpretation of the event whereby two cultures collided or interacted.

Epiphany Year A 2023

Two fantastic events will take place today and tomorrow. In fact the etymology of the word “fantastic” is related to these two celebrations. Sunday is the Epiphany and Monday is a theophany. These two Greek terms are definitions concerning divine revelation wherein God is manifested. In the Epiphany, the divinity of Jesus is highlighted by the Visit of the Magi. When they saw the Child, they fell on their knees and did Him homage. Whereas tomorrow at the baptism in the Jordan, it is a theophany because the Blessed Trinity is revealed by the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and the voice of the Father coming from heaven declaring that Jesus is the beloved Son.

In the past, some scholars believed that in the early Church, the Nativity (or Christmas), the Visit of the Magi (or the Epiphany), the Baptism of Jesus (a theophany) and the Wedding at Cana (yet another theophany) were commemorated on the 6th of January. Over time, these developed into separate events in the liturgical calendar. Once again, we have a thematic kind of a homily because we know everything or almost nothing about the Magi except their famous offerings: gold for the Shepherd-King, incense for a Priest-God and myrrh to prepare the Redeemer-Prophet for His mortal death.

Perhaps we can dwell on the notion of manifestation or showing forth. It is not the ghostly or the horror movie type. Rather it is of the divine revelation in which God is shown to the world and this has implication for each one of us. In the Epiphany, the wise men were able to recognise Jesus whom they had been searching for. For us, our epiphany or theophany is that God shows Himself to us and through us He reveals Himself to the world. Will the world be able to recognise Jesus in us? This is definitely challenging as Gandhi pointed out. “I believe in Christ but I do not believe in Christians”. A slap on the face indeed but it illustrates what it means to be a Christian and how frequently our behaviour does not measure up to our belief. A good example would be as simple as being mindful in the manner we park around this neighbourhood.

The truth concerning performative contradiction is our lack of awareness. We might not realise that our conduct in a way negates or invalidates what we profess or claim to believe in. It may not be wilful but still, it feels like a form of hypocrisy to the observer. Therefore, the often-repeated accusation that the Church is hypocritical should not surprise us. Everyone is a hypocrite because everyone is a sinner. But, we seem to have forgotten this existential reality and instead, we have unconsciously assumed a construct which is sinless, as if everyone were immaculately conceived.

Within such a framework, our reaction to sin arising from our fallen nature is that we are often taken by surprise that people are flawed. And our reaction to failing imperfection may come across as “enlightened”. Take a look at the performing arts where leading actors are celebrities we look up to. In the matter of public behaviour, some who are permanently offended will judge a past action of an actor using the criteria of present-day standards. There seems to be an unwritten rule that one should never have sinned in the past. Once a blot has been discovered, the actor is supposed to apologise for doing something which was in the past acceptable but is now in the present unacceptable.[1] If not an actor, a public figure like a politician. The minute a politician is discovered short of his calling, he should resign. We esteem that as accountability or professional standard, believing that it is an enlightened response. How many of these celebrities or politicians have had to apologise for the wrong thought they had or expressed when they were young and found out now? Better still, “leaders” apologising for their ancestors’ behaviour!

Is there a more sober kind of spirituality that is more in touch with our fallen nature? There is, in fact. The sacramental system is tailored to fit in with our brokenness. Our depraved nature on its own is incapable of doing anything for itself. Instead, it needs grace to be lifted up onto the plane of a supernatural life. The more we fall, the more we need God. Hence, in His infinite wisdom, the Lord has left us, through His Church, the Sacraments. They are His personal help to us in the ascent to holiness.

Sadly, the world thinks otherwise. The more we fall, the less we need the Sacraments. After all they are “ineffective”. As a result, we need to rely on ourselves. This self-reliance that believes that it is possible to achieve supernatural life on our own volition is Pelagian. The simple truth is, without the Sacraments, we can never go to heaven.

This is indeed a loaded assertion. Almost arrogant because it discounts the others who do not have access to the Sacraments. How about those who, through no fault of theirs, have not been baptised? Such a statement only makes sense when we accept that the Sacrament of Baptism is the ordinary means of salvation intended by Christ.[2] At the cusp of the Ascension, He commanded His Church to go and baptise all nations using the Trinitarian formula. It was not a suggestion and furthermore, He added in John 6, “If you want eternal life, eat my flesh and drink my blood”. There was no equivocation about the necessity of the Eucharist for eternal life.

In a way, the Epiphany in which Christ is manifested to the world can be linked to the challenge of living the sacramental life to its fullest. Why? We are witnesses to Him despite our sinfulness or brokenness. An “immaculately” conceived world is not really a perfect world. Rather, it is a world steeped in despair. How many of us have reasoned that the Sacrament of Confession is useless simply because we continue to sin and are canonised in a particular habit of sin? In our despair, it does not take much for us to relativise the necessity of the Sacraments and by extension, the Church for our salvation.

The gap created by our performative contradiction should invite us to embrace a more vibrant sacramental life. We need more of the Sacraments and not less. Chesterton remarked that the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried. It explains our insipid or tasteless witnessing. We are neither here nor there because we have no faith that the Sacraments are powerful.

Finally, Monday or tomorrow is the Baptism of the Lord. It is an important theophany in which the Blessed Trinity is revealed through the baptism in the Jordan of the 2nd Person. What is the point of manifestation, that is, of an epiphany or a theophany if not for the attraction of people to God? Indeed, God becomes more attractive if we live a more convincing life. As St Therese de Lisieux said, “The value of life does not depend upon the place we occupy. It depends upon the way we occupy that place”. Thus, the Epiphany, together with the theophany of Christ’s baptism are meant to carry us into the ordinariness of life, no matter who we are, a Tan Sri or a Tong Sampah Collector and no matter where we are, in a tower or on a tree. Who we are and where we are, in our encounters with the world and the world that encounters us, Jesus Christ is manifested through our thoughts, words and deeds. The Sacraments, properly and faithfully received, are there to help us narrow the gap between what we believe and how we behave.



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[1] The Black Minstrel Show used to be entertainment. Today, it is called “black face” and considered to be highly offensive. Some of us might recognise the toothpaste brand, “Darkie” which has since been rebranded as “Darlie”. The point is “standards” do evolve and change. What we canonise today as the “standard” might be considered primitive 50 years from now. Perhaps, judging should be a little bit more nuan


[2] If there is an ordinary means, there must be an extraordinary means. We are bound by the ordinary means because that is what God has intended. God Himself is not bound by that means.

Epiphany Year C 2022

Solemnity of the Epiphany feels like a contrived celebration designed to validate the Visit of the Magi. After all, this account is found only in Matthew’s Gospel. The word “Epiphany” derived from Greek to mean “show” or “manifest” appears narrowly specific to the visit of the Wise Men. However, the English usage of the word implies a more cosmic reality for as early as the 14th century, Epiphany was defined as “the festival of the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles”. It is a theophany of universal significance because the accent is on the Gentiles.

Today, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, representatives of the Gentile humanity have come searching for the Saviour of the world. They did not come empty-handed for they brought with them fitting gifts for the new-born King of the universe—gold, frankincense and myrrh. These seemingly random treasures disclose the true identity and destiny of this Child. As suggested by the Prophets from of old, gold is fit for a King while incense is dedicated to the worship of God. Myrrh is in preparation for His coming death.

These gifts revealing His true identity and purpose direct our attention to His name. Jesus is not only the King of the universe. The name Joshua, Yeshua or Jesus is God who saves. Through His death (and resurrection), eternal life has been purchased for us. For Matthew, the gifts emphasise the innate and intrinsic recognition that even the Gentiles have of this Child as the Saviour. Underlying the Magi’s momentous expedition is the question of the universality of salvation. Did the Magi come looking for a mere Saviour of the Jews or were they looking for the ONLY Saviour of the world?

Acts 4:12 supplies the answer, “Of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved”. The context of this audacious or daring assertion was the arrest of Peter and John. Both were at the Temple preaching the Resurrection where they also cured a man who was crippled from birth. The subsequent interrogation by the Jewish authorities drew forth this bold statement by Peter.

This has remained the consistent teaching of the Church that Jesus Christ is the ONLY Saviour of the world. Otherwise, it makes no sense that He should claim, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one can come to the Father except through me”. And for Him, before the Ascension, to command the Apostles: “Go and baptise all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.

Ever since the first Pentecost, the Church has carried on the task of evangelisation. Christianity spread through Europe into the new world. But beyond Europe and the New World, Christianity’s fortune has been mixed. Now that we inhabit a global village, one of the effects of globalisation should have been the universalisation of salvation offered by Jesus. But the reality is different.

Why?

The failure of Christianity to take root may stem from our proclamation being stymied or stunted by our practice. Christianity’s history is littered by the shameful witnessing of violence and greed. Remember the Africans saying this: “When the White Men came, they had the Bible and we had the land. Now we have the Bible and they have the land”. This is not “White-bashing” or “Black-praising”. The point is not out there but rather here. It is as simple as “Do we drive differently from others or do we drive the same as everybody else?”.

More than that, while we may proclaim Him to be the Saviour of humanity, in effect, we seem to have settled comfortably into accepting Jesus as the Saviour only of Christians. Thus, the Epiphany—the coming of 3 Magi, these Gentiles, searching for salvation—challenges both our relativism and indifference. We are relativistic because some have accepted that Jesus is one means of salvation amongst others. In fact for some, the fullest means of salvation or the privileged way to God implies that there may be other “ways” to be saved. We become indifferent when we no longer see the need to proclaim the Good News of Christ’s salvation to all. We tend to excuse ourselves by referring to the possibility of salvation for those who are ignorant through no fault of theirs.

God wills to save all through Jesus Christ His Son. This salvation is mediated through the instrument or the agency of the Church for where the Head is, there the Body is too. However, the truth is while “God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel… still the Church has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelise all men”. (CCC #848). The Church is missionary in nature; her mission is evangelisation. God’s universal will to save does not abrogate our duty to proclaim to all the salvation brought about by Christ.

“To evangelise” does bring to mind the idea of “proselytisation” but the task of evangelisation is really a two-fold duty for every Christian. Firstly, can our personal and faith life stand up to scrutiny? Do we stand out as Christians? If not, our job is cut out for us. We must continually resolve to meet the standard of morality and the normal strategy is to avail ourselves of the Sacraments—Penance and Eucharist. Self-conquest remains to be our daily exercise. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me”. Second, the strength of our proselytisation is to be found in being attractive. We convert through attraction—like a lit-lamp on a stand, we draw people to Christ through the consistency of our conviction and conduct, through the beauty of our belief and behaviour. 

The pagan world, through the Magi, came searching for the true God to worship. Today the same “unbelieving” world—be it Christian or otherwise—is still curious, seeking to know God, desiring to love God and yearning to be saved by God. To these inquirers, the words of Peter must resound through our belief and behaviour. What we profess with our mouth, we perform through our action that “there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved”. The name that saves is Jesus. So let us come and adore Him, Christ the King, Christ the Lord, Christ the Saviour.

Epiphany Year B 2021

Why are you here?

To fulfil my obligation. But, why are you here?

 

To worship God. Yes, but why are you here?

To receive Holy Communion. Good, but why are you here?

 

If the questions appear to fluster you, perhaps this Solemnity right after the birth of Jesus can help clarify our reason for being here. 

 

Firstly, we all know that the Epiphany is a sort of a revelation. Christ is shown to the world at large in the form of the visit from the Gentile Magi. As noted before, the Birth in Bethlehem, the Visit of the Magi, the Baptism in the River Jordan and the Wedding at Cana that launched the public ministry of Jesus were all lumped together as one “Christmas” celebration. Only later were they separated into the distinct observances which we are familiar with today.

 

What is the significance of the Visit of the Magi?

 

It is a celebration of virginity, to say the least. You could be thinking, “OK, crazy”, but bear with me. If you have watched Steve Carell in the sex comedy “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”, you would get the definite impression that virginity is a bad word. It paints a portrait of a sad, unfulfilled and pathetic loser. The movie mirrors the modern mania or obsession with intimacy that is somewhat tilted towards physicality. It would seem that the social nature of intimacy has now been reduced to physical expression or contact.

 

Today, the focus on the 3 Wise Men is that they have come bearing gifts for the Baby Jesus. What may escape our attention is how their quest is characteristic of who we are. Picture this: 3 Wise Men before the virgin mother, Mary with her Son who in time would also embrace a life of virginity, and they are flanked by the virgin father, Joseph. What is that if not a celebration of virginity?

 

What is virginity, really?

 

Too bad our idea of virginity has been hijacked by the approved narrative. The current paradigm of virginity is painfully prescribed or dictated by a philosophy of physical fulfilment that to propose otherwise would appear to condemn a person to a prison of carnal or sensory deprivation. However, in its more unsullied objective, the 3 Wise Men’s undertaking symbolises the deepest yearning of the human heart and virginity epitomises that. Of course, they came looking for the Child King, but they also encountered a family totally dedicated to God—a single-mindedness of the Holy Family which is mirrored by their relentless quest for the Child. In seeking the Divine Child, the Magi experienced His divine bearing already exemplified in His mother and foster father. Face to face with the Child Saviour, they paid homage to the One who has been the aspiration of their search.

 

Virginity when defined restrictively in physical terms will always be viewed negatively as a loss when in actual fact, the deprivation, not in the sense of the loss of virginity but rather the absence of physical contact might be the highest form of sacrifice. The human heart was never created for the perishable. Examine the Prayer after Communion during the early part of Advent and you find this theme repeated “…for even now, as we walk amid passing things, you teach us by them to love the things of heaven and hold fast to what endures”. “… (Y)ou may teach us to judge wisely the things of earth and hold firm to the things of heaven”. “(T)hat, with the needed solace of things that pass away, they may strive with ever deepened trust for things eternal”.

 

The liturgy expresses a fundamental truth that the human heart was created for eternity. In other words, engraved into the human DNA is a heart that longs for heaven. Our deepest realisation is to give our heart to someone far greater than we are. In the Eastern tradition, there is an iteration of the devotion to Our Lady which expresses this truth profoundly. She is the Χώρα του Αχωρήτου (Chora tou Achoretou), that is, the Container of the Uncontainable. This same notion, in the Western tradition, is represented by Mary as the Seat or Throne of Wisdom (Sedes Sapientiae). For example, Our Lady of Montserrat where the Child Jesus is enthroned on the lap of Our Lady. That she is able to contain the Lord in her womb or seat Him on her lap comes from the fact that her virginity was the reflection of her total self-gift or self-donation to her Creator God and Saviour—an expression of the fundamental orientation of her heart, her whole being to Him.

 

In other words, virginity is not deprivation as it is denial (or sacrifice). The presence of carnal knowledge or physical intimacy is not the be-all or end-all of human happiness or contentment. On the other hand, its absence is also not an indication of “chastity” or purity of intention.[1] Rather, denial is a noble sacrifice or grand forfeit in which we leave what is good for what is better—"amid passing things to hold fast to things that endure”.

 

Virginity is more than abstinence or continence for it denotes a stance, posture, or orientation[2] of the heart because the human heart longs to know, to love and to serve God wholly. If not, it will languish as we witness sadly when human attention gets dissipated. Today with the use of electronic devices, this is even more troubling and obvious. We run from one attraction to another distraction not realising that our mindless “Googling” is symbolic of our quest for a cause more compelling and worthy of our sacrifice and ultimately of immolating our lives. The Wise Men were searching for the Truth that would be worth more than their gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So, the pandemic despites its cursed effects might just give us pause to realign our celestial compasses so that our “search engines” can point in the direction of Him Whom our pursuits should be directed to.

 

Why are you here?

 

Like the Wise Men, we come from everywhere. The point is, we must start somewhere. But no matter where, Epiphany reminds us that our direction or orientation could be miscued or seriously in need of a realignment. Virginity is simply a dedication of our heart’s space to Him Whom we have been created to know, to love and to serve. We are prompted that the ultimate end of our journey should follow the example of the Magi. They searched for Him. They saw Him. They submitted to Him.

 

O come let us adore Him.

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[1] Just like the Pharisees. They “deny” themselves only to be lifeless and not life-giving.

[2] It is a lovely word for its etymology is derived from Latin “orientem” meaning “the rising sun, the east, part of the sky where the sun rises” very symbolic of the rising Son of God.

Epiphany 2020

Carols were still being played at a nearby Mall on 1^st January. A pleasant surprise because one would have expected the outlets to trot out commodities all crimson and red so as to reap the Lunar New Year retail wave. So, carols being played should be the way because the 12 days of Christmas should end on the 6^th of January—the proper date for the Epiphany. However, for the sake of convenience, we have transferred ours to the Sunday between 2^nd and 8^th January.

What Epiphany means for the Latin-rite Church is that Jesus, the Son of God has been revealed primarily to the Magi. However, His baptism at the Jordan where a voice was heard declaring Him to be the beloved Son and the Wedding at Cana where He transformed water into wine, are also both epiphanic moments because the glory of His Divinity was manifested. For the Eastern Rite Church, the Theophany is focused more on the revelation of His divinity at the Baptism in the River Jordan.

Christmas without either the Epiphany which in Greek is a revelation from above or the Theophany a revelation from God does not make sense. From a certain perspective, the event of Christmas is a kind of looking back at the life of Jesus to make sense of it. Just like John did with the Prologue. Compared to Luke and Matthew who both gave an account of the circumstances surrounding the birth of the Christ, John entered right into the heart of the mystery to announce that before the advent of human history, the Word pre-existed time and the Word was God. In fact, the early Christians, notably those from the East, lumped the Nativity together with the Visitation of the Magi, the Baptism and also the Wedding at Cana as one celebration on 6^th Jan because for them, each one of these feasts is but a manifestation of the Divinity of the Christ child. It was only with the passage of time that these events separated to become different feasts. It was the Council of Tours in AD567 that set both Christmas and Epiphany apart by the 12 days we know as the season of Christmas.

It is not surprising that Christmas takes centre-stage so much that we do not fully appreciate the impact of the Epiphany. This is possibly because we have been myopically blind-sided by the commercialisation of a theological truth—the birth of the Saviour of mankind. This is the irony of it. In a globalised economy, where speed and scale reign supreme, ironically, the truth of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, has been narrowly relegated to the fringes of the local, provincial or sectarian. For example, fashion now dictates that Merry Christmas be replaced by Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings so that we do not offend those who do not believe in Jesus Christ. Furthermore, sensitivity seems to demand that we do not impose Christianity’s world view on others. The paradoxical point being that this theological truth should be relative to time and place, whereas the commands of consumeristic capitalism do not seem to share the same humility. Everything must serve the might of the market economy but not Christ the Lord.

But the Epiphany is proof of Christ’s universality. The corners of the world have come to pay homage to the King of kings. There is a song which is old, as some of us are, but it a reminder that there is a search which is primordially human and which the Wise Men submitted themselves to. The title of the song is rather inappropriate, “Looking for love in the all wrong places”.

Let us consider this innate search or latent longing. We all long to be loved. We all want to be needed. We all yearn to live forever. Having these desires may help explain our inclination to sin. Firstly, man was created to love, serve and the revere God. Somehow, this interior orientation of man towards God been damaged and weakened by Original Sin. Man has a bent or a propensity to sin because his desires have become disordered. Hence, sin is analogous or comparable to looking for love in all the wrong places. As our moral compass has been compromised by Original Sin, our search often ends up short because we mistake that which is not good, not true and not beautiful as the Good, the True and the Beautiful. In our quest for the one thing that can satisfy us fully, that is, God Himself, we often settle on that which leaves us longing for more. Now you understand why drugs—not just narcotics drugs but power, sex, money, technology—are so captivating. They promise us fulfilment but end up enslaving us.

Today we celebrate not just any truth but the Truth. And, it is not local or confined to a specific geographical location. Instead, this is Truth in cosmic proportion. The Magi who had been searching, have now found the Truth their hearts have been aching for. The name Jesus means God saves. Presumably, the one who saves is also the one who created. To think that God saves only Christians is to reduce the Creator of all that is, to merely a deity amongst deity, thereby negating everything we believe about this God. God saves and the Saviour is the Saviour of all. Whether we want to be saved or not is altogether another matter but the point here is that we who believe in this universal Saviour somehow live as if He were just the Saviour of Christians—betraying a tribal mentality that we do not really know our God or believe in Him as we should. Perhaps it explains why some of us turn to bomohs so easily…

It is said that the Epiphany is a manifestation to the Gentiles. But upon deeper reflexion it should lead to the conclusion that it is more than just a showing forth to the Gentiles. In the visitation of the Magi, we recognise that everyone, Gentiles or otherwise, is looking for the One who created us, the One who has saved us and the One who will satisfy us completely. God has put a God-size hunger in our hearts for Him. Whilst the Epiphany is acknowledgement that God came and revealed Himself to us, the Magi symbolise our search for our Creator, our Redeemer and our Sanctifier. Hence, the Epiphany is not just any revelation but THE revelation which answers all our questions about who our Saviour is and how He has entered human history in order to save each one of us. God wants to save everyone, not just Christians. Whilst Jesus the Head labours to save mankind, each one of us has profound duty to ensure as many as possible are incorporated into His Body, the Church.