Transcript of Abbot Clement=s Homily Sunday, January 2, 2005
How do we celebrate the feast of Epiphany when we already know where to find Jesus? Each of us knows that we can find Jesus in prayer, each of us knows that we can find Jesus in Scripture, each of us knows that we can find Jesus in the sacraments, and each of us knows that we meet Jesus in each other and be judged by how we have met him in each other.
So what is the significance of celebrating the feast for us? What it does is really intensifies the meaning of the search of the three Kings because, we too, must find Jesus and be able to give our gifts to him. We can see this rather clearly and objectively since America was a nation based on Christianity, when it was early in its efforts to live as a governing people it still had a lot of Christian values to reflect on and guide the government. Lincoln didn
=t hesitate to call for a day of prayer and penance in order to receive guidance in his ministry as President of the United States, and people went with that.But what has happened to the nation as time has gone on? We had all of a sudden a rather shocking experience. When 9/11 came all of a sudden everybody began to go to church. They went for about a week. That was the sum total of it. Everybody was singing God Bless America and the ACLU was kind of quiet and not saying anything about it. More flags were sold and paraded then in ten or twenty years in the United States.
What happened to the actual governments of the country? What was going on? Soon after 9/11 legislation for homosexual marriages began to blossom and flourish and be supported. So it didn
=t change its ways.One of our difficulties is that God speaks to us, there is no doubt, both in prayer and in the other means that we have mentioned but also in events. How do we really let those events be seen from God
=s perspective? What=s the minimum God perspective on the earthquake in the Indian Ocean? From the human perspective, it=s pure tragedy. From the point of view from the people who don=t have faith, it=s nature acting up and therefore we have an awesome respect for the power of nature.But do we ask,
AWhat was God trying to tell us?@ What=s the minimum message that events in our world speak to us? Well, if we open the Book of Deuteronomy the answer is clear, every event that is a disaster for the human race is a call to repentance. It=s not saying that those people are any worse than we are. It=s not saying that they deserve it and they got it. It=s saying, AWake up world you=re not following what God wants!@ The real issue is not just the proclamation of the gospel is available to the whole world that this feast celebrates and rightly so, but whether or not we really listen to it. And whether we being to put into practice. What was the significance of the scandal in the church being revealed to the whole world? Surely it is God=s purification of his Mystical Body. God is not pleased with sin, he hates it and he will do anything to move us to turn from sin to become the children of God we were meant to be and receive the many blessings he wants to give us. So the feast is really, first and foremost, a realization that when push comes to shove the real success story is the three Kings. They did something rather radical and I=m sure totally incomprehensible to their neighbors, that they had decided to leave their homeland, to pack up and follow a star. Surely their neighbors mocked them out and said, AYou guys are crazy!@ But they persevered and in their perseverance they found Christ and they poured out their gifts before him and received a whole new way of life so they went back home another way. They were renewed.What happened to Herod who had the opportunity in his life to really receive something unbelievable, salvation and forgiveness. If you know anything about the life Herod you know that he was very, very protective of his government and he was very suspicious of anyone who threatened his position. He murdered not only two of his wives but his children and other people that in any way was seen to be a threat to his being on the throne. So he missed the opportunity of the tremendous mercy and grace God wanted to give him.
When we celebrate this feast, we can
=t celebrate it in comfort alone, that is, in the great joy to know what God has done to make himself known to us. We must celebrate it in the light of the culture in which we live and ask ourselves how are we contributing to the lack of faith in life and also lack of the radiance that this feast must proclaim. It is clear that God is a God of justice, as well as of mercy, and goodness, and tremendous love. But it=s also clear that if we are to respond to him we must also seek a life of justice and be converted so that God may use us and count on us to bring his love, his light, and his truth to our world.