EPIPHANY 2022
Is 60:1-6
Eph 3:2-3.5-6
Mt 2:1-12
Jesus has never been without His Church. The Bridegroom has always be one with the Bride. The New Jerusalem comes ‘down out from heaven from God’ (Rev 21:10). Jesus, the Son incarnate, God in the Flesh, cannot be severed from His people, the People He has come to save. He is Immanuel, God-with-us, God-with-His people. The Church is the people of God. The disciples are the family of Jesus. When the Good Shepherd is born, the shepherds come and adore Him first. When the King of the Nations is born, the kings of the earth, represented by the Wise Men, come to worship Him. From their distant country, they have heard the calling and felt the need to be part of the mystery which has just happened at Bethlehem: ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.’ So is it that ‘the Gentiles’, that is to say, all the peoples of the earth, all men and women and not only the Jewish people, ‘are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel’. The Church of Bethlehem is universal. It convokes all the peoples of the world. It is Catholic.
What do we see at Bethlehem? First, we see a family; the Holy Family. Mary and Joseph are with Jesus because they are His parents. Not only that; they are the very first believers, the very first disciples. ‘Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord’ (Lk 1:45). The humble consent of Mary and the silent obedience of Joseph are the hallmarks of true discipleship. They proceed from their adoration of God’s merciful designs.
The Church is a family. Those who do “the will of God” are brothers, sisters and mothers of Christ. They partake in His obedience; they share in the same life which comes from the Father. The Church of those who believe in Christ and, like him and with him, do the will of God, is the family who has no other Father than the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Church is the family of the children of God.
At Bethlehem we see a family welcoming the shepherds. The Poor One is acknowledged by the poor. The One who did not find a place at the inn is joined by those who had to spend the night in the fields, out of the city.
The Church is the people where the poor are not on the margins, but at the centre. This people knows ‘the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich’ (2 Cor 8:9). They recognise that God ‘chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God’ (see 1 Cor 1:26-29). The Church is the people of the poor.
At Bethlehem we see the Wise Men prostrated in adoration before the New Born King and presenting Him with their highly symbolic gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. The wisdom of the nations bows before the King of the Jews. The wisdom of men welcomes the God who ‘chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise’ (ibid.). The Wise Men say Yes to the folly of the crib; already they are saying Yes to the folly of the Cross.
‘For those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men’ (see ibid, v. 20-25). The glory of the Cross already shines on the Crib. Herod is ready to kill. Jesus’ life is threatened from its very beginning. Martyrdom flourishes as soon as Christ is manifested. The People of God is the Church of the martyrs.
‘Arise Jerusalem; for your light has come.’ We begin to glimpse the full meaning of these marvellous words of Isaiah. ‘The glory of the Lord has risen upon you’. Which glory? The ‘Glory to God’ sung by the angels in the night of the Nativity cannot be separated from the glory of the Cross – I mean, the glory of the Paschal Mystery: ‘for behold, darkness shall cover the earth’ – the darkness of the death of our Saviour – ‘but the Lord will arise upon you’ – in His resurrection. Then ‘nations shall come to your light’: the wise men and the kings will come to the light of Christ revealed in Bethlehem and in Jerusalem.
‘Lift up your eyes and see; they all gather together’. The People of God, the synodal people of God, is gathered in the Holy Spirit. It is the family of God’s children, the people of the poor who are the people of the Cross and the Resurrection. See the Church of God, the assembly of the Saints, the Bride of Christ, filled with the light which shines from the Face of Christ: the radiant face of the Babe; the wounded Face of the Crucified Messiah; the glorious and transfigured Face of the Risen Christ in the glory of the Father.
We, too, we come; we, too, we worship; we, too, we welcome our Saviour, incarnate and crucified. We adore the Son of God and we present ourselves and the whole world to Him as a living sacrifice of praise, a burning incense of adoration and love.