"Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage."
A charming story is told of a wise mother and her teenage son. One afternoon, she heard a sound coming from her son’s bedroom that she rarely, if ever, had heard. It was the sound of a vacuum cleaner! As he came bounding down the stairs she heard him humming a tune as opposed to his usual dourer attitude. He was also wearing, strangely, nice jeans and a shirt that was tucked in! Now, she was really beginning to worry. As he went to the refrigerator to ‘graze,’ low and behold she smelled the unmistakable fragrance of cologne! It was then that she simply asked him, “Who is she?”
This wise mother intuited the signs that something extraordinary had taken hold of her son. Love had captured him and his life would never be the same.
My friends, as we remember and celebrate the Solemn Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord this Sunday, we hear the timeless story of wise men who intuited from the signs of nature that something marvelous had broken into our waiting world. The star in the heavens would lead them to an utterly ordinary scene – a mother with her husband, cradling her newborn son. Yet, in the ordinariness of this moment, they knew in their heart of hearts, that their lives and the life of every person yet to be born, would never be the same.
God the Father, in his unfailing love to share himself with his creatures, would gift the world with his Son, Jesus, who would make his home with us. To some, that astounding reality would be simply embraced in a surrendering faith that needed no explanation. However, for the wise men, symbols of men and women of every age who wrestle with both faith and belief, God would, in the words of C.S. Lewis, ‘surprise them with joy’ as they came upon the nurturing love of a mother, her husband and child. In this very disarming and captivating encounter, God would be revealed in the flesh.
And isn’t that so often the case, my friends? God revealing his presence as we find ourselves surprised by the joy of unexpected love, forgiveness, mercy, grace and healing. These moments continue to hold the possibility of daily ‘epiphanies’ in our lives, signs of a gracious and merciful God who makes his home with us still.
No wonder the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest and peace to people of God will!”