Epiphany

By Fr. Frederick Edlefsen

“After coming into the house, they saw the Child with Mary his mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him.

Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”  

(Matthew 2:11)

“From now on I announce new things to you, hidden events of which you knew not.” 

(Isaiah 48:6)

An “epiphany” reveals something hitherto unknown.  It’s an “enlightenment” that entails a transcendent sense of wonder and creates a hopeful new perspective.   To those who have been given such a gift, only the Capital Sins get in its way:   Pride, Envy, Greed, Wrath, Gluttony, Lust, and Sloth.  As the soul is purified from such pettiness, the Light of a new hope dawns.  

The true Enlightenment was not a 17th-19th century intellectual or scientific movement.   The realEnlightenment happened 2000 years ago when the “Light came into the darkness” (John 1:5) — when God’s Face was revealed in the fresh innocence of a Child.  This event’s only foretelling was from the Holy Spirit speaking through the prophets.  But the prophets were not understood.  What they foretold had no basis in history or experience.   Their cryptic foresight came from Somewhere Else — from an unknown realm of Light.  “Many things greater than these lie hidden, for we have seen but few of this works” (Sirach 43:32).  New things come from Him “who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16).   

Christ testified to this Light:  "I am the Light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in the darkness but will have the Light of life” (John 8:12).  "While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world” (John 19:5).

This Light can only be received by those who, like the Magi, desire it and seek it. First, one must be a disciple, and then the Master appears.  And what did the Magi do when this Light appeared?   They contemplated its Face.  They allowed it to transform them.

When God made the world, he contemplated it and saw that it was very good (Genesis 1:31).    At Christ’s Epiphany, we contemplate God’s Face and find it very Good.   It changes us.  “Behold, I make all things new!”  (Revelation 21:5)