Epiphany Sunday - A Homily with Fr. Dom

James Caldwell (00:00.262)
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Fr. Dom (00:22.314)
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Good morning. And happy Epiphany. Truly is a wonderful day. Today, celebrating something that is actually older than celebrating Christmas on the 25th. For the early centuries of the church, this time of the Epiphany was one of great celebration of multiple feasts, all at the same time. Today, they celebrated the Nativity.

And they celebrated the Epiphany. And they celebrated the baptism of the Lord in the Jordan. And then they also celebrated the miracle, the wedding feast at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine. And so today is rightly called the Epiphany, or in other Catholic church traditions, the Theophany. Epiphany is Greek.

for a revelation from above. Epi is from above. Theophany is a revelation by God. So the reason why the church in its early years celebrated these powerful movements and realities and historical facts was that they truly were an epiphany and a theophany from our Lord, God being born. That's an epiphany and a theophany.

The coming of the Magi to give homage to our Lord. That truly is an epiphany and theophany. And again, the baptism of our Lord is an epiphany and theophany. And in the first miracle, water into wine, that is an epiphany and theophany. In the early centuries of the church, the church was surrounded by many pagan religions.

And so in January, where usually at some of the darkest times of the year, there's this portrayal amongst pagan religions of light and darkness.

Fr. Dom (02:12.53)
So then yet at the same time, many pagan religions are worshiping the sun gods or fertility gods or the gods of night and darkness. So the church comes on the scene and says, no, we are no longer going to celebrate these pagan religions who are to nothing but false gods or demons as St. Paul says, but we're gonna celebrate the one true God in the true light that comes into the darkness of the dark time of year in January. And it's gonna be an epiphany and it's gonna be a theophany.

So the Nativity is going to trump all the pagan gods. The Epiphany is going to trump all the pagan gods. The Baptism of the Lord and the Wedding Feast of Cana are going to trump all these pagan gods, and we are going to celebrate the one true God so that we can destroy these pagan gods. That's really how it started.

And then around a year, 550 A.D. in a council, they began to separate these feasts. And then about that time, we started celebrating the Nativity on the 25th separately, the Epiphany separately, the Baptism of the Lord separately, and then the wedding feast at Cana separately.

So today as we celebrate the epiphany, remember these other feasts that are very important and connected to the epiphany. Yet a very special way we're focused on something very powerful in itself, right? The coming of the Magi. The Magi who came from the East. Prophesied by Isaiah, we hear it in our first reading. These caravans on camels and these dromedaries from all these Eastern pagan cultures.

will come bearing gold and frankincense, these caravans. Notice it doesn't say three kings, but caravans. So we had not just three guys on camels who crossed hundreds of miles of treacherous terrain to get to Bethlehem.

Fr. Dom (04:03.074)
And if you've ever been to the Holy Land, and if you travel from Jerusalem down into Jericho or the Dead Sea, that is part of the path in which people from the East traveled to get to Bethlehem, it's virtually impassable with deserts and mountains and rocks and exposed to the sun the whole time. So if you're gonna travel from far Eastern cultures and countries to get to Bethlehem, you're gonna have to travel in a huge caravan, caravan that has food, shelter, water, and higher protection.

for there were many robbers and murderers on those routes that would murder and rob people. So that's why Isaiah says the people from the east are going to come in caravans and dromedaries and camels loaded with gold and frankincense to give homage to the one true king, prophesied over a thousand years before the epiphany ever happened. We also have to remember as well that the coming of the Messiah was just not foretold in the Jewish culture from Judea and Jerusalem.

Many other pagan religions and cultures were looking for the coming of a king at a certain time, and in their religions, and I think God in a mysterious way brought about his revelation through these people and their cultures and religions, pointed to the king coming from the little town of Bethlehem in Judea. The Magi, in Greek, magoi, or magician, or most importantly, master.

weren't necessarily kings, though they did operate in the king's court, for they were very educated in astronomy, astrology, law, politics, religion, and so they counseled the kings of their court.

So when they looked to the sky and they saw the star, they knew that it was time to head east. And so they did, because they too were looking for the king or the messiah. And so they traveled in the great caravan east towards Jerusalem. Then what was the star? Was the star a comet? Was the star a supernova? Was it a natural phenomenon? Or was it a supernatural phenomenon?

Fr. Dom (06:09.814)
Well, our church tradition and the commentary on early church fathers say that the star was an angel. A very bright, powerful angel. Well, look at scripture. Angels come in and out of time and space into our reality. And I know many people who have encountered angels. And if you look at scripture, most specifically the book of Job or in Revelation multiple times, stars are confused as angels, angels are confused as stars.

So then what was the star that moved through the night sky, providing light and guidance in the midst of darkness for the Magi to find Jesus that led to Jesus and nobody else's star didn't lead to Herod, who represents the earthly realm.

It led to Jesus, and it was a very powerful angel that guided them, a bright star in the sky that moved and guided them. Well, it's no different than you look at Exodus and the Israelites in the desert. What guided them at night and what guided them during the day. At night, it was what? It was a pillar of fire burning with light, guiding them in the darkness. It's no different than something in the sky, now bright, leading the Magi.

out of their exodus of pagan religion and culture that is false to the one true God. Well, what else did the Magi represent? The Magi represent us. Before we were baptized, we were pagans in Gentile lands, so to speak.

And so when Jesus comes on the scene, he's going to institute the sacrament of baptism, the most powerful sacrament of baptism that God has ever given us, the most powerful gift. And so when we are baptized, we are brought into the family of God through Jesus Christ, who is King. So the Magi represent the gathering of all the nations. That's the light and the darkness of the world. No longer is it just for the Jews and their Israelite culture and tradition. Now God has come in the flesh. And that's Jesus Christ, who is God.

Fr. Dom (08:09.74)
and man, and now there's freedom for all people. That's what brings us so much joy and peace today. We should be filled with joy. We should be filled with great peace because of what we get to celebrate today that still affects us every day. Every baptism is almost like an epiphany. Every mass is an epiphany because we're remembering all these things.

Another tradition that the church enters into, and it's something that the church does today, and I would like to do it, after the gospel reading, there's the chanting of the movable feasts. What does that mean? It means Epiphany has come, Christmas is coming to an end, and now the chant for the people is to prepare them for the coming of Ash Wednesday and Lent and the Passion.

in the resurrection, in the ascension, in the Pentecost, in the building of Holy Catholic Church, in Acts of the Apostles. So it's a great day we celebrate today. Imagine in the first centuries of church celebrating today, it was probably like a three or four hour mass. Ooh, Father, if you go over an hour, I'm angry. What a beautiful celebration that would have been. But we get to celebrate it in a matter of two months, that's okay. It's beautiful to be Catholic.

ingrained in this deep, rich liturgy of tradition. Do not lose it. Do not lose our tradition. And we celebrate that today. So the Magi are heading east, following the angel. Herod sees this great caravan of these powerful people from different kingdoms coming into Jerusalem.

When our gospel says what? It says Herod is greatly concerned and all of Jerusalem is concerned. Like who are these people and why are they here? They're looking for the king and Herod finds out they're looking for a king and he says, well I too wanna know where this king is for I wanna give him homage as well. He wants to destroy the king, the little baby king. Because there's only enough room in Jerusalem for one king and that's Herod. What does Herod represent? Herod represents the world in which we live in. It's not our home. We are a pilgrim people passing through

Fr. Dom (10:17.136)
In the world, we're not of the world. And so in a spiritual sense, King Herod represents power, money, honor, prestige, control, pleasure, addiction to these idols. Imagine I know that they're not going to him.

So Herod does not want there to be another king. He will kill other kings. So do we follow the world or are we the Magi? We follow and give ourselves to Jesus. For when the Magi show up at the little manger, a little cave, they do what? They present gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And these are caravans and dromedaries and camels laden with what, as Isaiah says, gold and frankincense. So there's a lot of money here, a lot of beautiful gifts.

to present towards the king. Gold represent Jesus as king. Frankincense as incense, meaning he is the high priest. And myrrh meaning the oil that he will be buried in upon his death, meaning he will die for us and save us. And then after they lay down the gifts, what do they do? They lay prostrate in front of this cave, in the dirt, before a little baby in a manger. They lay prostrate.

That is key. Do they lay prostrate to the world of King Herod with all the lures of pleasure and money and power and prestige? No. Though they do come from power and money and prestige. In their fine dressed linen clothes, they lay down in the dirt before Jesus. They prostrate themselves before the one true King who conquers the world. How many of you have ever been to the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem? Some of you.

There's multiple entrances into the church, but the primary entrance in which pilgrims pass through is a hole in the wall, literally. A very low, open door. And the wall is like two feet thick. In order to get into the church nativity so that you can go down into the basement and visit the manger, in order to get through this hole in the wall, what do you have to do? You have to bow down. Isn't that amazing?

Fr. Dom (12:30.558)
Just like the Magi, people are still doing it today. If you want to get to Jesus, you have to bow. Whoa, I hit my head. Isn't that what sin is? Like if you're not gonna bow before God, then who are you gonna bow for before? And if it's not God, you're gonna hit your head all the time. Isn't that what sin does? Ow, that hurt, ow, that hurt, ow, that hurt, ow, that hurt. You have to bow.

Why? Because he's king. We are his subjects. So we submit to God. We submit to Jesus who is God. We submit to the Holy Spirit who is God. We submit completely and utterly to the Holy Trinity. That's sometimes pretty hard.

So is our pride gonna keep us standing tall? I'm God, I'm gonna take control, get out of my way, I'm gonna do things my way. You're gonna hit your head on the wall. You have to bow and then you can go in and then you can see God. That's powerful. But I think one of the most powerful things that happened with Imagi is our very last sentence in our gospel.

after they had offered him gold frankincense and myrrh and having been born in a dream, not to return to Herod, not to return to the world, they departed for their country by another way. When you encounter Jesus, an authentic encounter with Jesus, and I had that when I was 27 years old, I did not go back to my old way of life. I didn't want to. My old way of life now was boring, thinking I had all this money, all these women, all this power. That was boring.

My whole mind was focused on Jesus, and I did not go back the same way I came. I departed another way. So that's what we do today. We encounter Jesus today, every day. When we do, we give him our heart, and we depart another way, which is his way to heaven. That, my brothers and sisters, truly is an epiphany. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

James Caldwell (14:40.418)
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