Epiphany
One
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany
Matthew 2, “After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east. 'Where is the infant king of the Jews?' they asked. 'We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.' When King Herod heard this he was troubled, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 'At Bethlehem in Judaea,' they told him …Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared and sent them on to Bethlehem. 'Go and find out all about the child,' he said 'and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.' Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out.”
In his book The Infancy Narrative, Pope Benedict says the men of whom Matthew speaks were not just astrologers. They were “wise.” Every person has an inner unrest that can only be satisfied by a deep relationship with God. One who is wise recognizes that the things of this world are good, but they will never satisfy to deep longings of the human heart because we were made for union with God. This causes an inner unrest that should cause us to set out to seek union with him.
One who is foolish tries to satisfy all their desires with more of the good things of this world. But the unrest is a sign pointing you to Christ. The unrest is the star. Follow it to him.
Two
What prevents us from setting out?
We may want a deeper relationship with God, and we may have the desire to set out for union with Him, but there is just so much to do. You might say, “I don’t sleep well, and then I have to get up early and I need to exercise and get the kids ready and I have to be at work early because I’ll never meet all the demands. And when I get home I’m utterly spent but there’s supper and kids sports and homework and all the details of life.”
Or maybe your health is not good and it takes all your energy just to make it through the day. So, we work harder, take on too much, say yes to too many things, and put unrealistic pressure on ourselves to perform. Then the weight of the world begins to crush us. That is a very good thing. This is the decisive moment. Now you have a choice. You can try to escape being overwhelmed by overindulging in food, alcohol, entertainment, news, sports, social media, porn…but it won’t work. Or you can say, “Jesus, my life is unmanageable and out of control. Jesus, I beg you to take total control of my life.”
Then hear him say what he said to the Apostles when they felt that way. He said to them, “'Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. (Mt 11:28) and “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while.” Mark 6
This time, don’t turn to the escape, this time, set out to seek Jesus in silence. He is waiting for you in your soul.
Three
Maybe you are not overwhelmed, maybe you are winning at life, but that is way more dangerous.
God designed us to pursue and possess the human goods: physical goods like good health, a nice home, safety and security; the good of relationships in marriage, and kids and grandkids and friends; the good of achievement through work inside or outside the home, the good of knowledge and the experience of beauty through all five of our senses.
Maybe you’re winning at all these, maybe you have good work, thanks be to God, and a good spouse and the kids and grandkids are doing relatively fine, and you live in a nice house in a great neighborhood, and you can learn and experience anything you want and you have every food and drink imaginable and instacart will bring it to your house and every form of entertainment is available on demand…So you never set out for Christ – or maybe you seek him a little – one Rosary a day is great – but we delay making the choice the “Wise Men” made – to go all in – to seek Christ above all.
This delay is dangerous, really dangerous, because when we are winning at life, when we have all the human goods, we become more and more addicted to them, more and more attached. We desire more and more, and we desire God less and less. We pursue him in sacrament, prayer, knowledge, and love of neighbor less and less until we kill the desire for God within us.
Four
Why not just wait for purgatory?
We may be tempted to think, there are so many demands in life, that setting out for a deeper relationship with Jesus and holiness is just too much. I’m tired already. I’ll just do the best I can in the human things. I believe that I love God and he can finish off all that needs to be done in me in purgatory.
Okay, but you better think this through. If you have a desire for God, then you will pursue him now through a deeper life of prayer, in the Eucharist, and by loving and serving the people around you.
If you have so little desire for him now that you won’t set out to pursue him with all your heart, what makes you think you’ll want him when you die? In fact, it works in just the opposite way. The more we think about and pursue the things of the world the more we desire them and the more we desire them the more we think about them and pursue them.
That means we think about and pursue God less and less which results in desiring him, wanting him, less and less. We actually create an aversion for God and the things that lead us to God like prayer, sacraments, virtue…If we turn desire for things of this world and an aversion to things of God into a habit it becomes our nature. Then at death, when we see God we won’t want him. We might even reject him.
That is the danger of delaying to set out for Christ like the wisemen.
Five
The whole issue is the issue of desire.
What do we desire most? God or the good things of this world.
Here is the catch, John of the Cross makes it clear that we cannot generate a desire and love of God that will carry us to the finish line. Only God can give this to us. So, ask him. “God please give me a greater love for you, give me a burning desire for you.”
Then seek him in prayer in a more generous way. Seek Him through the good things in life, but any way that these good things lead you away from him or become a distraction from him, get rid of them. And when God allows certain good things to be taken away, when the kids leave, or retirement comes, or health fails, or when any good thing fails you – accept it peacefully because God allows the human goods to run their course. Remember, nothing here is perfect, it doesn’t last, and it will never be enough. But that’s perfectly okay. Sit tight! And persevere because, as God allows these things to slip away, he is filling you with himself and one day not long from now you will possess him fully and perfectly and forever!
“And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod and returned to their own country by a different way.”