THE EPIPHANY

We shall soon be celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany. But what does Epiphany mean? The term ‘epiphany’ comes from the Greek, epiphania which means "to show" or "to make known." It is our mission to make Jesus known! As the Three Kings went to adore Him, to give Him homage as their new King, as their Saviour, we, as His followers, are bound to do the same.

They offered Gifts. We can’t offer Him Gifts, personally, as the Wise men did, but we can still offer Him Gifts, because we see Jesus Christ in others, in neighbours, in the poor, in the aged, in the sick and the lonely...and in the Missions.

We are duty bound to offer Gifts to all the Christs around us, in the whole world, and this, to show our gratitude to God who has offered Himself to us.

Yes, it’s till some days away, the Feast of Epiphany, the Calendar date is actually on the 6th January. But my intention is to be well-prepared for this great Feast and prepare ourselves for it. After all, Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar, travelled for quite a number of days to reach the new-born King. So why should we not do likewise.
But I have to speak about the very curious... though providential, atmosphere, that existed before the Birth of Jesus.

The three wise men were interested in the study of astrology. So they used to follow all movements of the stars. Now it happened that on the very first day of the month of Mesori, Egyptian Calendar, there was in the sky the star Sirius, which shone so brightly, brighter than any others, it’s light was extraordinary.

One might ask, but how is it that just because a bright star shone in the firmament, three men leave on a long journey, in search of a King. The reason is simple. There was, all over the known world, in those days a ’great expectation’ that something extraordinary was going to happen. That an important person was about to be born.

So much so that even the pagan writers and poets wrote about this expectation. The fact that even pagan authors wrote about it, it’s not something to be ignored.

The Roman Sutonius wrote in ‘The Life of Vespasianus’ that there is a strong belief that destiny has decreed that from Judea, is to be born a world leader. Josephus Flavius, who was a pagan wrote that the Jews...and he was a Jew.. believed that one of their nation, therefore a Jew, was to become a Governor of the of the world.

The Roman poet, Virgil, wrote that ‘golden days’ were ahead. So we can see that God’s plans will come true, though HE might use the influence of pagans, of those who do not believe in Him, so that HIS plans will be accomplished.

Yes, we can easily say that “Great Expectations” was not written by Charles Dickens, it was God’s own work, much longer before the English author was born. So Jesus Christ was born in an atmosphere of expectation. He was expected by all. YET, as we read in St.John: “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.”

His own people rejected Him, even His Birth...’there was no place at the inn’, as we already stated , He had to come in through the back door, the Creator, the Master, the Ruler of the Universe, entered a cave in the dark of the night.

And this is a point of great, deep Reflection, just think..”the humility of GOD becoming man for men and yet was ignored, was unaccepted.” Let us meditate on these Thoughts about the Epiphany so that we will be worthy of approaching the infant Jesus, as the Wise men were.