Epiphany

On this feast of the Epiphany, we celebrate that God’s glory has been reveled to all the nations….  not just the chosen people of Israel but people from every corner of the earth…  of every nation and race…..    generations of people….God’s revelation, God’s invitation is for all people of all times and places….

 

Saint Paul puts it so nicely….   “god had a secret plan…  formed before all ages… and that plan is now revealed and it is this…..’ in Christ Jesus, the Gentiles, people from other religious and cultural backgrounds and nations, are now CO-HEIRS with the Chosen people of Israel, members of one and the same body….  sharers in the promise of God, through the proclamation of the good news…” 

 

Are we becoming one human family, (one commentary (365 Days with the Lord) asks rather relevantly)?    hard to answer….   in some ways, yes., technology, communication, transport, aid to needy nations, multinationals, globalization (which means so much – good and bad)   we are part of something much bigger than the local…. and yet.. in other areas….    nations breaking up into factions, social, ethnic groups, wars, strife…… poverty and starvation in poor developing nations……    the jury is out on how far God’s dream for the world is being fulfilled, so far… but it is not for want of God’s desire, God’s work, God’s calling…..

 

I was given this poem to read the other day….  and it is so very topical to this feast….  it’s the poem by TS eliot….  entitled the “journey of the Magi”…. the commentary says of this poem, but the famous writer, best known perhaps for his poems which formed the inspiration for the musical by Andrew Llyody webber, Cats,  but the commentary says …..  This poem is not one of Eliots most famous….  but it is a very good example of plain and direct language… and very well illustrates the complex and mixed emotions and issues going on for the author prior to his conversion to Christianity …….(“80 Great Poems, From Chaucer to Now”   Geoff Page. UNSW PRESS. Sydney, 2006).

 

in this poem, the Journey of the Magi, he writes..

 

T. S. Eliot's "Journey of The Magi"

 

'A cold coming we had of it,

Just the worst time of the year

For a journey, and such a long journey:

The ways deep and the weather sharp,

The very dead of winter.'

And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,

Lying down in the melting snow.

 

There were times we regretted

The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,

…………………………..And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,

And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly

And the villages dirty and charging high prices:

A hard time we had of it.

At the end we preferred to travel all night,

Sleeping in snatches,

With the voices singing in our ears, saying

That this was all folly.

 

…..Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,

Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,

And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.

But there was no information, and so we continued

And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon

Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

 

All this was a long time ago, I remember,

And I would do it again, but set down

This set down

This: “were we led all that way for

Birth or Death?” There was a Birth, certainly,

We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,

But, had thought they were different;

this Birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death,// our death. //

We returned to our places,// these Kingdoms, //

But no longer at ease here,// in the old dispensation, //

With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death.

   

This poet, Eliot, captures something about the journey of the wise men… it is our journey… its out journey of life… its our religious pilgrimage through life….  its our journey to conversion and beyond…..

 

our journey of faith is not an easy one……    it is filled with challenges and obstacles….. and how many faith journeys have we heard where the critical, negative voices, the voices of doom, the critics, the people who make fun of the direction another needs to take……..     need to be ignored, endured….   moved beyond……….

 

the journey to conversion, the complete commitment of heart and head to Jesus good news..  is a real odyssey… like the journey of the Magi…….   it is like a death…. and a rising to new life…… and we, like the Magi, return to where we came, but by a new way…(in the bible…  a change of path symbolizes conversion……     and how can .. and everything looks different, because jesus invites us to see it all though his eyes.. the eyes of the good news.. the lense of care for those most in need….. ..with the vision for inclusion of all…… how true it turns out to be in every sense…. “behtlehem…   by no means the least of all the cities…..  “like bethlehem….  at first glance.. seemingly slight and insignificant…   lesser…..  yet…  here is Jesus….    humble, vulnerable, poor…..   the poor and the forgotten, may appear insignificant in Jesus time and even our own time, but it is through them that the Lord is coming.”   (from Gustavo Gutierezz, Sharing the word through the Liturgical year).  The Magi realized this and it changed everything.