Alberic Jacovone OSB
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YEAR B
EPIPHANY - 8.1.06
Is 60,1-6; Eph 3,2-3.5-6; Mt 2,1-12
Epiphany, a feast of ‘apparition’
Jesus
‘appeared’: how? Epiphany
is from the Greek ‘Epiphaneia hiera’, which means ‘Feast-day of
Apparition’. It gives us an insight of how Our Lord’s birth was celebrated
in the first 200 years of Christianity. It gives us also a tasting of how
Orthodox Christians celebrate even today the Incarnation of our Saviour: using
symbolic language. For them, it’s
a matter of Our Lord ‘appearing’ among us as a brilliant light shining upon
our dark world. From God’s point of view, the Incarnation, is a mystery of
radiant glory: it started in Bethlehem, where
God’s brilliance shone out, & the ‘invisible’ God became ‘visible’
(Gr. epiphanes). There, God ‘appeared’ to two lots of people: to the
shepherds, who were representing the chosen people of Israel, & to 3
Magi-Kings, who came from the East, to represent the first-fruits of all Pagan
Nations. There, caught in God’s brilliant glory, hurried the shepherds who
were keeping watch & there adored the Lord, the 3 Wise-Men who came from
far-away countries, led by the brilliance of a star. And all along, caught in
the same brilliant glory, was present a throng of Angels, who sang majestically:
‘Glory to God in the highest’. In exalted theological & symbolic
language, the Orthodox liturgy sings: Come you nations, sing hymns of praise to
the ‘Saviour-Incarnate-of-Mary’. And you, Mother of God (Theotokos) pray for
us... The story of the Wise-Men is found only in Matthew’s Gospel. And while
Matthew makes no mention of the classical Old Testament prophecy about ‘the
Magi’s star’ in the Book of Numbers (24,17), where the prophet Balaam says:
‘There shall come a star out of Jacob...’, the Orthodox Liturgy has
acknowledged the link with this prophecy, as it instructs the priest to use a
star-shaped implement, when it comes to covering without touching the Communion
Bread.
Earliest
Christian understandings. Typical of us Westerners, we have a long tradition of attempts to
verify the star-story through astronomical data: Haley’s comet, supernova, an
alignment of planets etc. The Early
Christians however, tended to visualize in a symbolic way, the details of our
Lord’s apparition. For them, the star was a ‘sign’, that the Magi -like good astrologers-
interpreted as foretelling the Saviour’s birth. They saw in Our Lord’s
Incarnation, God’s greatest miracle, surpassing all miracles. But this miracle
was made ‘visible’ only to few
humble shepherds & 3 Magi (Greek: ‘Magoi’), who -led by a star- came to
adore Him & brought gifts of gold incense & Myrrh. In the wonder of the
Incarnation, God became one of us in order to make us divine, but only in time,
as He later walked among us, he made new & fresh ‘appearances’
(Epiphanies). Our earliest liturgy books, in East & West, say that the
Epiphany (it means ‘apparition’), commemorates three ‘signs’: a star
that led the Magi to the manger, water that was changed into wine at the
marriage feast, and the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. Notice the theological
& symbolic language which is used in the Liturgy of Epiphany: “On
Epiphany-Day, the Church is joined to her heavenly Bridegroom, for in the Jordan
Christ has washed her of her sins: the Magi bearing gifts, hasten to the royal
wedding; and the wedding guests rejoice, since water has been changed into
wine”. The Orthodox Church quickly reminds us Westerners that at first, East
& West celebrated Epiphany on January 6th, to commemorate the birth, baptism
& adoration by the Magi. Only since 274AD, under Emperor Aurelius, the birth
of Christ started to be celebrated in the West on 25th December, to Christianize
the pagan festival in honour of the “Sun-God”.
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