SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY
SUNDAY 5th JANUARY
AT QUARR ABBEY
“Wise men from the east came to Jerusalem.” They saw a star, when it rose in the east, announcing the birth of the king of the Jews (Mt 2, 1-2). According to the liturgy, they came from Persia, the cradle of one of the most ancient cultures, which is now Iran, a country where there are large deserts and where it is possible to see the stars in the best conditions. So, these wise men saw a star in the night of the world and something or someone revealed in their hearts that a very special light was going to illuminate the darkness or the mystery of their lives.
Saint John writes at the beginning of his Gospel : “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” (1, 5.9). Centuries before, Isaiah sang what we have just heard: “Arise, shine, for your light has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you and his glory shall be seen upon you” (60, 1-2).
Last year we were often in the dark of this world below, with so long and many wars, and the situation does not seem to change at the beginning of the new one. On Christmas eve, Pope Francis opened the Holy Year: we are invited to walk towards the light as “pilgrims of hope”, as the Magi did, as Isaiah has prophesied: “The Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (60, 2-3).
Three men in dark ages saw a bright light in the pure and beautiful sky of their land: they were amazed, they hearts burned within them, and they started on a long journey to see and worship the newborn King, who was already present in their souls and thoughts. In these recent days, when unexpectedly I was invited to give a conference on Jesus and Mary in Iran, a sudden storm broke on the city of Tehran, and the plane had to wait more than two hours before leaving Dubai, but when we landed in Iran, the sky was perfectly blue over the high mountain which is above the town.
So it is in our own lives, as in the history of the nations: we are going from darkness to light, and from a blue sky to a tempest which can stay quite a while. As we know, there are frequent tornadoes or hurricanes in the world, due, as it seems, to climatic change. To go on walking in these difficult circumstances, we need hope and some interior light. We remember the prayer of saint John-Henry Newman, when he was ill in North Africa and was anxious to come back to this country:
Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th’encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
Last Friday, in the office, we prayed with similar words: “Cast your kindly light upon your faithful, Lord, we pray, and with the splendour of your glory set their hearts ever aflame”. I was able to see something of that splendour, when coming back from Persia on the 1st of January: we flew between the blue sky and white mountains; the snow was sparkling under the rays of the sun, and thus for more than two hours above Armenia and Anatolia. This last name of the eastern part of Turkey means “sunrise”, which occurs in the text of Isaiah we have heard. There we saw from above the great and beautiful mountain (more than 5000 meters high) called Ararat, which was, according to the tradition, the resting place of Noah’s Ark at the end of the Flood: on the 1st of January, I looked at it as a sign of peace.
The Magi came from the Orient, which is the same word as Anatolia; they went “from the place where the sun rises” to attend the rising of the Prince of peace, bringing in Occident their light to the “Light of the world” himself. O Oriens, we sang to him just before Christmas, and everyday, at the office of Lauds, we sing with Zacharias about the newborn Saviour: Oriens ex alto.
How do we receive this Light which rises again on the world? Is our heart “oriented”
to that Light which is stronger than all kinds of darkness? Let us open our eyes and hearts to the Lord, the Light of our lives, this “kindly light” which drives us day after day to our humble King as “companions in his Kingdom of grace”.