The Epiphany (04.01.15)
Recognising epiphanies
Christians put a definite article before the word epiphany and give it a capital ‘E’. Thus ‘The Epiphany’, for those who believe in Jesus, identifies the unexpected arrival in Bethlehem of wise foreign dignitaries seeking ‘The Infant King of the Jews’. The celebration is observed this Sunday though its traditional date is January 6th.
On its own the word ‘epiphany’ is not commonly used. Consequently, some may ask what is the meaning of ‘epiphany’. It can be described as an amazing and unexpected revelation that could be called an ‘eye opener’! It may indicate the dawning of an understanding, the development of appreciation, and an explosion of delight or being captured by wonderment. There is no time limit to an epiphany’s duration. Related, fragmentary, epiphany experiences can happen over a period of time leading a person to finally exclaim, “How could I have been so blind all these years?” Equally, an epiphany moment can be complete in just that, a moment.
Christians identify with The Epiphany and thereby may make it harder for them to identify epiphanies in their own journey of life for what they are, invitations to receive God’s gratuitous grace.
Could public wonderment at the impressive and wide-ranging discoveries in science and technology be obscuring God’s initiatives revealing his love? The Creator has gifted people with a natural spiritual sensitivity. Is this sensitivity being surreptitiously overlaid by a commercially irresponsible avariciousness, infected with addictive sensual immorality? The epidemic level of overuse of alcohol and illegal substances, along with an addictive social behaviour which ignores the Ten Commandments, reduces a person’s ability to see the hand of God at work in their life or even the need for God.
Mary and Joseph would have viewed the arrival of distinguished foreigners at their humble Bethlehem abode as a further, inexplicable, manifestation of God’s goodness to them. The Gospel tells us that Mary stored these ‘epiphanies’ in her heart (Luke 2:19). Mary and Joseph’s sensitivity to God’s nearness began with the warmth of their earliest home-life experience that would have helped compensate them for the harshness of Roman Army oppression. Their early nurturing with prayer and fidelity to the Law of Moses was the foundation enabling their later sensitive openness to God’s unique revelations.
When Pope Francis visited Albania recently he laid aside his prepared speech. He had met and listened to two Albanians survivors describe their forty years of painful oppression under the cruel Communist dictator Enver Hoxha. Francis called them ‘living martyrs’. It sounds as though it was another epiphany moment for the Pope. Equally, meeting Pope Francis must have been an epiphany moment for those Albanian survivors.
To be present at and witness, at first hand, another’s epiphany moment is a privilege. Those accompanying Pope Francis and other Albanians nearby shared a very special moment but did they recognize it? Our celebration of ‘The Epiphany’ in 2015 is an opportunity to reflect. Are we so distracted, even mesmerized, by secular attractions that we miss out on moments of proffered grace either in our life or reflected in the lives of those closest to us?
We can draw an analogy with the mobile phone. Customers complain about ‘dead zones’ where there’s either no signal or only a weak one. The spiritual equivalent of a mobile ‘dead zone’ is when Satan is able to block God’s call to us. Wittingly or unwittingly we can place ourselves in spiritual ‘dead zones’ by allowing the build up of spasmodic or even broken contact with God. We’re too busy to pray, too busy to get to Mass, disinclined to make use of the Sacraments, especially Reconciliation – which could be dubbed ‘reconnection’.
To deliberately turn away from God’s proffered love is quite different from never having been ‘tuned into it’! The more dangerous situation is the former. Turning away from God implies a measure of deliberate choice. We may not realise how spiritually perilous is our chosen detachment. Spiritual separation can come about slowly. It’s a sort of ‘epiphany’ in reverse taking us in small, fragmentary steps away from communion with God. Our entry into a spiritual ‘dead zone’ is almost unnoticed. Satan, God’s and our enemy, uses his ‘dead zones’ to disrupt our conscience’s communication with God, often by heightening our sensual appetites. In this Satan is greatly assisted by so much that is broadcast daily on TV and radio and written in the press. Our ears and eyes are constantly under assault.
Young people, denied a family life with a spiritual foundation, are like people whose mobile is in a semi-permanent ‘dead zone’. Peter, the fisherman, once hit a spiritual ‘dead zone’ when Jesus was within touching distance! Jesus had appeared walking on the water in the midst of a storm. Peter, though terrified by the apparition, issued a challenge crying out: “If it is you, Lord, then tell me to come to you across the waves.” “Come,” said Jesus. Peter stepped out of the boat on to the sea. But as soon as he felt the force of the wind, Peter panicked, “Save me, Lord, I’m sinking!” Jesus reached out and held him. “Man of little faith,” Jesus said, “why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14: 27-31)
We may assume that our relations with Jesus are ‘satisfactory’ whereas they have been disintegrating beneath the surface of our distracted lives. One stormy winter, not so long ago, properties along the front on the south shore of Llandudno Bay in Wales were badly flooded. The sea had been seeping in under the shoreline, removing the sand and then the footings until, silently one high tide; it flooded the basements and ground floors! No one had seen it coming!
We know nothing of the Wise Travellers acknowledged by the Feast of ‘The Epiphany’ except that they brought gifts of significance – gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The commemoration of ‘The Epiphany’ reminds us that life on earth is a journey of multiple epiphanies until we are called to our eternal Epiphany – our encounter with the Risen Christ.