St. Raymond of Penyafort, priest
1 John 3:22—4:6
+ Psalm 2 + Matthew
4:12-17,23-25
January 7, 2013
“I will give you all the nations for an inheritance.”
[Psalm 2:8]
In this final week of the Christmas Season, the Epiphany of the Lord
continues to reverberate through the Sacred Liturgy. In fact, while we tend to equate the Epiphany
only with the narrative of the “three wise men”, the Church actually holds up
two other Gospel stories along with that of the “three kings” when she reflects
on the meaning of the Epiphany.
All three of these narratives bring to greater light who Jesus really
is. The word “epiphany” literally means
“revelation” or “insight”, similar to how we use the word in common speech. Of course, in reference to Jesus, no
particular revelation or insight can be complete, since the object being
revealed (that is, the divine Person of Jesus) is an infinite Mystery. The three Epiphany narratives, then, are like
three different facets of a diamond, each of which reveals something of the
gem’s brilliance.
Nonetheless, all of the Epiphany narratives reveal that God’s Messiah
has come to save “all the nations”. The
universality of the Messiah’s mission shines through the Scriptures, antiphons
and prayers of the last days of the Christmas Season. The Responsorial Psalm today and the next two
days present this with special clarity.
This is a good week, then, to ask whether we ourselves have any tendency
to exclude others—whether in thought, word or action—from God’s love.
