Sunday Homily 1-8-12, Epiphany
Readings: Isaiah 60, 1-6, Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem, your light has come!; Psalm 72, Lord, every nation on earth will adore you; Ephesians, 3, 2-6, The Gentiles are coheirs; Matthew 2, 1-12, The Magi arrived from the east asking, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews?"
Isaiah, a review
Here is another of those passages which make me love Isaiah so much. I said this on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, when we read Isaiah 61.
Today we have Isaiah III talking again to the Jews who have returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Captivity, about 550 years before Christ.
When he says Jerusalem or Zion, you may consider it a metaphor referring particularly to us, to you and to me.
Ephesians
Paul is directly talking Epiphany, that is God to Gentiles, to us.
Sources: Good News Bible, The New Interpreter’s Bible
Epiphany Every Day?
Almost every evening Rosemary & I take Aviana for a walk along our street. Usually we meet a variety of neighbors and neighbor dogs. It is a fun connection.
This past week we were walking when we met a lady who lives across and down the street. She had tragedy hit her family. A daughter with 3 young kids died 18 months ago with cancer. It had been a lengthy fight and numerous neighbors had helped out.
We asked her how she was doing. She waited a moment and then with a gulp she said, “Ollie has cancer.”
Ollie is a 3 year old son of the mother who died. A week or so before Christmas the family noticed that Ollie had a lump on his forehead. They took him to get checked and discovered that he has a very rare and aggressive form of child cancer. Only about 350 cases occur a year in the States, hitting children between ages 1 and 5. Ollie is 3.
The lump has been removed but a port has been put on Ollie’s chest for chemotherapy. He is expected to receive chemo from 6 to 11 months. Meanwhile, another small tumor I think in his lymph nodes grew about a centimeter in just about 10 days.
Folks, this was an epiphany moment for me. I wanted to cry with our neighbor. My heart went out to Ollie, his dad, his brother & sister, and to my neighbor & her husband, to the whole family.
I would suggest that an epiphany is
1. a God light breaking through, especially through & into those corners of myself where I don’t go,
2. a deeper awareness of the fragility of the Gift, the Gift of life & health & control
3. a deeper awareness of my normal insensitivity & ingratitude.
The Accident was an Epiphany. Check Rosemary.
I suggest that there are large, small, and medium epiphanies. However, they occur daily. At home, at work, at Tom Thumb, on the roads, at the Bridge & Austin Street Shelter, at Vines. In fact, we can be epiphanies for others.
Your last epiphany?
Picture 1: Mass Begins
Picture 2: Our Father
Picture 3: Taylor & Zack
Picture 4: Torri walks
Picture 5: Sienna
Picture 6: Cole