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HAPPY . . . !

Happy New Year! Happy 2012! Happy Sunday after Christmas! Happy Feast of the Naming of Jesus! and HAPPY EPIPHANY!

Yes, folks, this is one of those days with multiple possibilities for celebration. Because we had the longest Advent possible (a full seven days), Christmas fell on Sunday, and so, of course, does January 1^st. So here we are, beginning a new year with a liturgical bang!

Of all the choices we’ve been given, we’ve chosen the Feast of the Epiphany which celebrates the revelation of who Christ is. Strangely, it’s pagans who realize it first, eastern magi following astrological signs, according to Matthew’s Gospel. In Luke’s Christmas account, it’s shepherds who first recognize the Christ Child, and they were just as much social outsiders as the magi.

It will take a lifetime for each of us to discern who Christ is, and what he means for us. It has taken the Church over two thousand years of constant reflection and discussion. From this day until Ash Wednesday, we’ll be hearing Gospel readings which challenge us to reconsider who he is; one epiphany celebration after another until Lent arrives in late February.

In the meantime, let’s keep our eyes open, looking for signs that he is among us. Let us welcome visitors and strangers as if they were Christ himself—because, in a very real way, they are. And let us keep celebrating the gift of God-Among-Us, offering a love that is beyond what we could ever ask or imagine!

~David Montgomery