EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

Today, we celebrate the feast of Epiphany of the Lord. The word ‘Epiphany comes from the Greek word ‘epiphania” which means ‘revelation’ or ‘manifestation.’ This day commemorates how Jesus reveals himself to the three wise men from the west.

Tradition tells us they are three: Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar. Reading from Isaiah also prophesied the Magi traveling to see the Christ. “Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your radiance…. They will carry gold and frankincense and proclaim the praises of the Lord” (Is 60:3, 6). The Psalms saw a future with Gentiles worshiping the Messiah. “May the kings of Tarshish and distant shores bring gifts, and may the kings of Arabia and Seba bring him tribute. All kings will bow down to him; all nations will serve him” (Ps 72:10-11). Number 3 attributed due to the number of gifts which were presented.

The three wise men brought three gifts namely Frankincense, Gold and myrrh. These gifts reveals who Jesus is respectively.  In the Bible, Frankincense was commonly used as a perfume and it is a symbol of deity. It symbolizes Christ our priest. Gold were gifts presented to kings at that time. It symbolizes Christ our King. Myrrh was commonly used as an anointing oil and myrrh is an embalming oil is used as a symbol of death. It symbolizes Christ our Saviour.

Bee of the sky urges to enjoy the bee. A thirsty deer seeks to quench its thirst by drinking water. Running lake seeks to join the ocean. Waves of the ocean rushes to reach the shore. All the above is the law of nature but human being has only one desire that is beatification. It is to see God face to face. St. Augustine states “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” True indeed, nothing can quench our heart’s thirst. It is only possible by a Person who is Jesus alone, so the realised three magi do homage to Jesus. Three magi realised that no gold, power or intelligence can quench their hearts thirst, it is only possible by Jesus who is king, priest and saviour. They are called wise men because they realised the mystery.

We need to pay attention to the journey of the maggi. As they started their journey to see the child Jesus face to face, they faced many obstacles. The king came to deceive them by lying them to inform him when they find Jesus so that he can also pay homage to baby. Seeing Jesus face to face helped the three maggi to understand deceive of King Herod.

We too in our tradition, we used to see the face of Good in photo or relics (daivadarshana) as soon as we getup from the bed. We used to visit church before we go to do any activities. We used to visit church before starting the day or going to school and work. At present time, this tradition of seeing the photo of God or seeing the God face when we wake up has almost disappeared. What is it stopping us to see the face of God early morning. Is it Cell phone, tv, social media or YouTube?

Remember to be wise and to learn the lesson that three messi teaches us today: “nothing can quench our heart’s thirst. It is only possible by a Person who is Jesus alone” and we need to follow new star who is Jesus himself who can quench our hearts thirst. Only in him we can find rest, joy, happiness and fulfilment. When leprosy man bows his head and says:“if you wish you can heal me” (Mt8:2), Jesus heals him. Jew official knelt down in front of Jesus and begs to save his dead-daughter in (Mt 9:18). Disciples in the boat adored Jesus saying you are the son of God (Mt 14:33). A woman felt to the foot of Jesus and adored it (Mt 28:9).

Like the maggi, leprocy man, official, disciples in the boat and woman, let us all bow our head so that we can have that revelation of Jesus in our life. It will change our life. Until today, whoever wants to visit birth place of Jesus, everyone has bow his or her head to enter into place. Let bow our head in front of Jesus and lead our life.