Blog #97 Epiphany blessings 2011

Blog # 97 Epiphany blessings 2011 Celebrating Feast Days as we progress through the annual liturgical celebration of the life death resurrection and ascension of Jesus helps us renew and grow as Catholics in our knowledge and love for Him. Something went on in the past. We remember. We believe. We are there. As with a family recipe book. A new sack of flour, new salt and new raisins, a new loaf of bread but the same recipe for experiencing God's love again in a particular way through celebrating this particular Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord. We have questions to answer. Who are the people involved? What did they think or say or do. Can we find a place that invites us to enter into the story? Can we find a situation in any way like theirs in the world around us today in 2011? Mary and Joseph continue to be present. They are faithful servants of the Lord. They are holy. We admire them and thank them. They give us joy in their love for Jesus. The Magi are discoverers, willing to grow, willing to follow their star, responsive, self-giving, rich yet humble, blessed. The physical star of the Magi may have been Haley's comet. It is likely they were among many people who saw that physical phenomenon. Another 'star' within them told them to search for something further and somehow connect the star in the sky with a particular person, the King of the Jews as they put it. The star invited them to search for that person. The star was their conscience and they followed it to Jesus. We have a conscience too. And it too is a star inviting us to follow. Oh! there is another place for us in the story of the Magi. Herod was jealous, fearing and fearsome, selfish, insecure and violent. We can thank him for teaching us how we should never be. The traditional theological content of the Epiphany has been a recognition of the DIVINITY OF JESUS in the coming and testimony of earthly rulers and wise men to pay Him homage and offer their treasures to Him, and secondly an emphasis on the UNIVERSALITY OF SALVATION IN JESUS and the consequent call to welcome the WHOLE WORLD into the love of God in Jesus. This is seen in the fact the Magi are traditionally given as Gentiles rather than as Jews or as already members of the People of God and Children of Abraham.