January 06, 2021
by Mary Clifford Morrell
The Feast of the Epiphany is one of my favorite feasts of the liturgical year. It is a feast rich with meaning and commemorates, among other things, the adoration of the three magi who travel to Jerusalem looking for the newborn King of the Jews. They had seen his star in the sky and had traveled many miles to do him homage. Their searching would lead to the revelation of the Son of God to the gentile people.
So, I was more than happy when my acapella group chose Epiphany as our name.
We are a small group of friends who have sung together for more than 20 years. We have ventured out together to places unknown to bring the gift of song to others, as a ministry to nursing homes, senior centers, or parishes. On the way, we always sought out experiences of meaning and learned new music that would bring comfort and joy, and hopefully, an encounter with Jesus, to those who heard us.
In that way, we could relate somewhat to the Magi, who set out together to find Jesus and understand his birth's meaning. Imagine how surprised they were to find the child, the King of the Jews, in the humble place of his birth in Bethlehem, hidden from public view, his birth known first to the lowly shepherds who were led by angels to visit the child well before the Magi, the respected wise men, arrived.
It is expected, I suppose, that in our culture, we look to those who are held up as influential, powerful, and well-off for leadership, but it is telling that God’s son came to us as a baby, came to us in poverty, came to us in a stable. God has a habit of revealing himself among and within the humble and the poor and unexpected places.
With that in mind, today, I was inspired by the words of a pastor in his recent reflection: “This year we celebrated a Christmas Mass in a barn. This was to show that, with God, every barn could be a church, the savior could be in any or every man, and the last will be first in the Kingdom of God.”
As we begin our journey into a new year, let us remember one of the lessons of Epiphany, and not be surprised when we find Jesus standing in a very long line at the food pantry.
We need only recall Jesus’ own words, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me,” and “… whatever you did not do for one of these, you did not do for me.”
Epiphany always reminds me that faith is a journey, sometimes an arduous one, where we are likely to discover the unexpected. Often the unexpected is God.
Mary Regina Morrell is a Catholic journalist, author, and syndicated columnist who has served the dioceses of Metuchen and Trenton, New Jersey, and RENEW International in the areas of catechesis and communication.