The epiphany must go on

We have just celebrated the solemnity of the epiphany of the Lord, otherwise known as the feast of the 3 Kings or the 3 Magi. With this celebration we are reminded that at the “fullness of time” when the son of God was born of a woman, this God-made-man was meant not only for the Jews but all of us.

There must be a lot of drama behind this episode of the visit of these 3 magi that is largely ignored by us. That’s why it’s good that from time to time, we take the effort to study the fine print, perhaps read a good book pertinent to the matter, or consult some experts.

What can be said is that in the sweep of all the interesting and intriguing stories compiled in the Old Testament of the Bible, there must have been some people who seriously took the word of God as it was revealed in the beginning of the creation and tried to followed its indications as the signs became evident.

This was the case of the 3 magi who traveled from distant lands to find and pay homage to the King of the Jews. We don’t have the space here to trace the twists and turns of this event, but suffice it to say that this episode recovers the forgotten truth that the Messiah was meant for all, and not just for a few.

That is the meaning of epiphany. It’s Christ’s manifestation to all people, not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles which was the collective name to refer to all people who were not Jews, who were the chosen people.

We need to bring our understanding of epiphany to another level to refer to the fact that the Son of God who became man is not only supposed to manifest himself to all people, but also to all things and events.

In other words, we are supposed to recognize the presence of our divine redeemer, the one who saves and perfects us in our humanity and in our dignity as children of God, not only in other people, but also in things and events.

This is where we are most negligent. While we are still way far from the ideal of recognizing Christ in every person, we can say that it is even worse when we talk about recognizing Christ in everything.

The epiphany of Christ has to go on. His manifestation to us through people and things has to continue. This time, we need to step up our attitude and skills to capture this reality.

That’s why we need to pray, to study well the doctrine of our faith which while formulated by us, men, and therefore can contain some limitations and impurities, is in substance the living and eternal word of God that never fails to bring Christ to us anytime anywhere.

We need to develop the appropriate skills of recollection, meditation and contemplation, and extricate ourselves from the web of a purely sense-based approach to knowing things, let alone, to knowing and loving God.

God is the very foundation of our life and of the whole universe of existing things. We need to be able to capture this reality not only in the abstract and theoretical way, but down to the sensible and material, such that we can truly feel the presence of God and can actively cooperate in his providence.

Of course, this ideal can only be reached through stages and through an effort that is abiding. At the moment, we need to overcome certain strong and deep-seated biases and erroneous thinking that stop us from pursuing this goal.

Thus, we need to be patient, humble, simple, and at the same time, hard-working and persevering, since we need to submit ourselves to the discipline of studying, reflecting, developing the appropriate norms of piety that assures the vitality of our spirit more than our body.

We need to develop a lifestyle that gives due attention to this aspect of our life. So far, we have been negligent in this area as we tend to indulge in the sensible and material aspects of our life as well as the merely human, as in getting entangled in the technical, social, economic, political dimensions, etc.

In this present age which is marked by tremendous advances in technologies and knowledge of the sciences, it’s kind of anomalous to realize that insofar as our spiritual life is concerned, insofar as our relation with God is concerned, we are still in the primitive or at least kindergarten stage.

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