January 4, 2009 - The Feast of Epiphany  - Fr. John Yonkovig
“We saw his star at its rising and we have come to do him homage.” William James was a famous American psychologist. He wrote a ground-breaking book called, “Varieties of Religious Experience.” One story in the book is about a man who lived in a rural area. One summer night he went for a long walk across a field. He ended up on a hilltop. As he stood there gazing at the starry sky, something amazing happened inside him. The nearest he could described it was to say that it was like music, swelling up inside him and filling his soul to the point that he thought it would explode. Then with every fiber of his being, he felt a mysterious presence engulf him. He later said, “I could not any more have doubted that God was there than that I was there. Indeed, I felt myself to be, if possible, the less real of the two.” The man said that hilltop experience blessed him with the strongest faith and truest idea of God that he’d ever experienced in his life.

The man’s experience - was it just a beautiful coincidence or one of those rare divine surprises in which we profoundly sense God’s presence? The Feast of Epiphany is all about the acknowledgment of God’s presence in our lives. In the Gospel today the magi were actually not kings. These exotic visitors from the east were advisors to kings. They were scholars who studied the stars. When they saw the new star in the sky they reasoned that it might signal the birth of some great new king. So they set out to investigate. The rest of the story we all know. But what does this story have to do with us? How de we respond in a practical way in our lives?

Perhaps the best way to begin is to say that many people today struggle with their faith. They hunger for some sort of an epiphany or religious experience, like the one experienced by the man on the hilltop. It is in this sense that Jesus intended his followers to be a kind of epiphany for other people. He said to his disciples: “Your light must shine before people, so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.” St. Paul expressed the same idea. Writing to the Christians of Philippi, he said, “You must shine among them like stars lighting up the sky.” Using the imagery of the magi story, each Christian is called to become a star. Every Christian is called to be a spark of light in the darkness of our world. Every Christian is called to be an “epiphany” pointing the way to God.

How do we do this? How do we become a star or spark of light in the darkness of today’s world? The simple but challenging answer is by living according to the teachings of Jesus Christ. It means that every time we forgive someone who has treated us wrongly, a star lights up the darkness of our world, pointing the way to Christ. It means every time we open the door of our heart to the least, the lost, or the lonely, a star lights up the darkness in our world and points the way to Christ. It means that every time we treat those about us with gentleness and kindness, a star shines through the darkness and points the way to Christ. It means that every time we resist the temptation to live by worldly values rather than Christian values, a star shines through the darkness and points the way to Christ. The feast of the Epiphany is about living according to the teachings of Christ, and letting the light of Christ shine through our lives into our world. It is about becoming a star or spark of light in the darkness of our world, so that modern magi may find their way to Christ.

The gospel ends with the statement that after the magi “did him homage...they departed for their country by another way.” This suggests not just a new geographical route but a new mentality. Having met Christ in the humble stable, in the poverty of his birth, their lives were changed. They discovered that simplicity is a wealth and sharing is having and going without allows one to go deep within. Having met Christ and having heard his gospel we too travel through life by a different route. We are called to have a different attitude, different values, different goals than what our world proposes. Our lives are to reflect the light of Christ. Our Christian way of living may well be summed up with these words: “When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with the flocks, then the work of Christmas begins: to feed the hungry, to release prisoners, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among our brothers and sisters, to make music with the heart.”