Celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany: The Revelation of Christ to the Gentiles

Readings for Mass and Virtual Homily for January 5, 2025, Feast of the Epiphany; The Late Brawn Sullivan (Has Got an Excuse!); Attending to Infrastructure (While I Can) 

Readings for Mass this Sunday

• Isaiah 60:1-6

• Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-13

• Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6

• Matthew 2:1-12

Dear Friends and Family,

Like the Feast of Christ the King, which ends the liturgical year and occurs just before Advent, the Feast of the Epiphany, which many think of as ending the Christmas season (technically, no, it does not do that) is one of my favorite feasts of the year.  And like the Feast of Christ the King, the Epiphany gets, in my view, less attention than it deserves.   

This is the feast of the revelation of Christ to the Gentiles.  That is, this is the day that the Church celebrates the conversion of the world.  Is there anything more important than that? 

Well, technically, yes, there is.  There is Christmas, the birth of the God-Man, the Savior.  There is Good Friday, the saving and sacrificial death of the God-Man, the Savior.  And there is Easter Sunday, the Resurrection of the God-Man, the Savior.  Without these three events we can't get to what we celebrate today, the revelation of Christ to the Gentiles and the conversion of the world.  

That said, I still maintain that the Feast of the Epiphany is underrated -- even in those cultures (such as Latin America) where a pretty big deal is made of the Epiphany.  The Epiphany, in my view, should be the third great holy day and holiday of the Christmas season -- by which I mean that the secular culture should celebrate it.  

It would make sense, commercially.  Instead of "After-Christmas Clearance Sales," department stores could offer sales based on the very idea of gift-giving: the visit of the Magi, who came to Bethlehem bearing gifts (today's Gospel passage).  Their marketing managers could exhort customers to imitate the wise men and "bear gifts" to their families and loved ones in one last great expression of the holiday spirit, with Epiphany brunches at fancy hotels and restaurants and extended-family dinners while watching The Epiphany Bowl on CBS or CSpan or ESPN and well -- take it from there.

Alas.  The feast of the conversion of the world is overlooked and underrated, not just by the marketing managers at Bloomingdales and Nordstroms, but (in my view) by many Christians.  The conversion of the world -- an ongoing and dynamic process -- is one engaging and exciting story.  It deserves more attention than it gets, each Christmas season.  

Because I have preached at length on this feast, both vocally and virtually, I am going to restrict myself here to a few quotes from today's readings, to give a sense of the bright joy, the deep hope, the global reality of today's feast.

From Isaiah: "Arise!  Shine, for your light has come...though darkness covers the earth and thick clouds the peoples, upon you the Lord will dawn...Nations shall walk by your light, kings by the radiance of your dawning..." (vss. 1-3). 

From Psalm 72: "May he rule from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth...May the kings of Tarshish and the islands bring tribute...May all kings bow before him, all nations serve him..." (vss. 10-11).  

From the Letter to the Ephesians: "...it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles are co-heirs, members of the same body, and co-partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel" (vss. 5-6).

From the Gospel of Matthew: "When Jesus was born in Bethlehem...behold, magi from the east...prostrated themselves and did him homage.  Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh" (vss. 1, 11). 

I'll just quickly note in passing that, with regard to the psalm's reference to "the islands," it is generally agreed that Old Testament references to "the islands" or "the coastlands" are, in fact, Spirit-guided prophecies of the island continents, the Americas and Australia, whose existence was not known at the time the psalms were being written.  Psalm 72 predicts Christianity in the Americas and Australia. 

Additionally, it hardly needs to be underscored, but I will do so anyway: the magi are NOT Jewish.  They recognize Jesus as the new Jewish king (vs. 2) but what is so telling in the passage is that the wise men recognize that Jesus is also their king.  He is a king -- he is the King -- to whom all the nations owe homage.

That's as far as I am going to take it with this one.  I look forward to the days when Macy's holds Epiphany sales.

So...Last week I mentioned that I was working happily on my Christmas cards a day or two after Christmas, and that I hoped to have them all postmarked by New Year's.  Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men... 

I had a scary incident involving my left eye, right at the end of last week -- a sudden explosion of floaters (those of you with retinal issues know what I am talking about here) and -- a symptom much to be concerned by and which I have never experienced before -- an infrequent but unmistakable "flash" of what seemed to be light on the periphery of my vision.   

Worried that the holiday week might make seeing my ophthalmologist dicey, I called his office and secured an appointment at his Concord office, for Tuesday, December 31.  New Year's Eve!  God bless Dr. Brinton for even being at work that day, never mind that it was in Concord.  

I received the best possible news from Dr. Brinton -- there was no retinal tear, no damage to my eye at all, just a separation of the vitreous matter in the eye, which some of us are prone to as we age.  These separations can give rise to symptoms which mirror a retinal tear or even detachment, but in fact, they are harmless events.  The symptoms were already abating, by the time I saw my doctor.  And they have cleared up entirely as I am writing tonight (this is Thursday, January 2).  

So here's the thing.  Between four hours spent Tuesday late morning into early afternoon getting to and from Concord and then being essentially incapacitated by the fact that my eyes were dilated and everything was for several more hours flooded with light -- a couple hundred Christmas cards meant to go out with a New Year's Eve postmark went out Thursday, January 2, instead.

I so much appreciate the good-natured teasing and joshing I have had from several of you, regarding my "Christmas" cards sent at New Year's!  You have kept me amused even as, I guess, I have also amused you. 

In any event, almost all of my cards are out now, and way over half of them with a 2025 postmark.  As my sainted mother used to say, setting the bar really rather low, "If it is postmarked by January 6 (that is, by the Epiphany) it is out on time."

Other than a big family party at the start of the week, at the home of one of my nieces, I have been laying low all week.  Not just to get the cards done, but also to attend to a number of everyday agenda items that are almost impossible to take care of, during the academic term.  Seeing my MDs (and my dentist) is something that falls into this category of what I call "personal infrastructure," so it is fitting that I saw my ophthalmologist this week.  

But such utterly mundane and routine things as getting standard maintenance done on my car, clearing out and cleaning up my rooms, making appointments for later this winter with my tax people, with my other MDs, finding the time to get to the Apple Store for cloud storage and so on...I do not know how it is, but I learned my first year on the job at O'Dowd (and my colleagues echo my experience here as theirs): You get at personal needs while on vacation or you wait through the subsequent academic term to attend to them.

This reality -- and reality it is, though I know it is hard to understand if you are not experiencing it -- is one of my few complaints about the assignment at the high school.  It is not at all like being a parish priest where you set your own schedule.  Not at all. 

So...I have been attending to basics, most of this week, and am feeling good about where things will be, when we return to classes, next Tuesday.

That's gonna do it for this one.   

Take care.  God bless.  

A joyful Feast of the Epiphany to you, and Happy New Year!

Father Brawn