Homily for Epiphany 2010

When the Magi entered Israel they said they were looking for the "child born king of the Jews". They seemed not to know that Herod himself had been appointed "King of the Jews" by the Emperor in Rome. No wonder Herod thought there might be a rival to his throne. Yet, his perceived rival was but a powerless child, of poor family and circumstances. Such is the paranoia of much worldly power. So they were summoned into Herod's court.

The wise men did not go straight to Jesus even though they were following a star. Why it this? They, through Herod and his advisors, had to learn from the scriptures for details of the expected child's whereabouts. Like the wise men, we need to turn to the scriptures to deepen our relationship with Jesus whatever personal star we follow. Meditation on the scriptures can give a mature basis for all our spirituality and devotional life as well as the direction our life may take.

At some ecumenical gatherings in my earlier years I used to be taken aback by how often some people of other denominations would say "God told me to undertake such and such a mission." It was usually said with utter conviction. Hearing it from a Catholic perspective it sounded as though they were speaking with more infallibility that the pope! That same kind of language is being taken up more and more by Catholics in recent years as we mingle with other Christians these days. When said to me the expectation seems to be that one has no choice but to accept it as true. However, my response to it is, why should I believe you? How do I know that God wants you to do this? The statement can be of course simply be a way of expressing a deep faith in God and be still open to change. But it would be foreign to our Catholic sensibility if we did not always subject our personal ideas and beliefs to the refining fire of community life in the Body of Christ. It can indeed be a painful fire to have one's cherished ideas challenged or even rejected.

So it is not so much that I discover what God wants by working it out inside my brain. It is only through the eyes of love that I recognise where I am and where I need to be. To be open like a child to find God anywhere. I was thinking of this while visiting a dying woman who had dementia. I gave her the Anointing of the Sick. She could communicate only in the confused way that such people speak. What she said was unintelligible. She was like a child. She had not long to live. Yet, there was an epiphany of the glory of God in that moment with her. What was the will of God? Simply, that she be loved in all her weakness and vulnerability. She was certainly loved through the Sacrament by the whole Body of Christ, the Church. And I saw an example of that love for her in the reverent care given by the nurse looking after her. Even the sacraments can be reduced to empty rituals if they are not surrounded by the love with which Christ inspired them in the first place.

The wise men found more than they were looking for. With all their wisdom they followed the star as best they could where it led. They found a child. But in spite of what their preconceptions might have been about what they were looking, for they were open to this new manifestation of God. We too search for more than we can understand. And God finds us in surprising ways.

The wise men never figure again in the Gospels. They disappear from sight only to reappear in pious legends. The purpose of their story is to tell us that even pagans are an intimate part of God's plan from the beginning. They also can find Christ if they follow their heart and conscience.

"There was once a 94 year old nun back in the 1980s whose worn out body began to fail. Her doctor prescribed for her a shot of whiskey three times a day to relax her. But, not to be lured into worldly pleasures she firmly declined. However, her mother superior knew the elderly sister loved milk, so she instructed the kitchen sister to spike the milk three times a day. Eventually, the elderly pious nun approached her final hour. As several sisters were gathered around her bedside the mother superior asked the dying nun if she wanted to leave them any words of wisdom. 'Oh, yes,' she replied. Never sell that cow!'" (from Laurie Woods).

As we enter 2010 and the statistics of death in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan are becoming as mundane as the road death toll we can still in our own small way let God be revealed through us by the faithful way in which we love. Then we too will find much more than we are looking for.

Fr Graham