January 2, 2011
feast of the Epiphany
Isaiah 60, 1-6,
Psalm 72 (71),
St. Paul to the Ephesians 3, 3,2-3 .5-6
Epiphany, the "event " of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a multifaceted mystery. The Latin tradition identifies it with the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus in Bethlehem, and the interpreter therefore especially short a revelation of the Messiah of Israel to Gentiles. The Eastern tradition in contrast emphasizes the moment of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River, where it manifested itself as the only Son of the Father in heaven, consecrated by the Holy Spirit. But John's Gospel invites us to consider as "epiphany" is also the wedding at Cana, where Jesus changes water into wine, "manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him" (Jn 2, 11) . And what should we say, dear brethren, especially us priests of the New Covenant, which are daily witnesses and ministers of the "epiphany" of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist? The Church celebrates the mysteries of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, humble, in which he reveals and conceals at the same time its glory. "Adoro Te Devote, Latens Deitas - adoring, and pray with St. Thomas Aquinas.
... The Church Fathers were also seen in this unusual episode told by St. Matthew a kind of "revolution" cosmological caused by the coming of the Son of God in the world. For example, Chrysostom wrote: "When the star reached over the child, she stopped and this could only be done by a power that the stars do not: it ie, first hide and then appear again, and finally stop (Homily on the Gospel of Matthew, 7, 3). St. Gregory Nazianzen says the birth of Christ imparted to the stars of new orbits (cf. Dogmatic Poems, v, 53-64: PG 37, 428-429). What to hear of course the symbolic meaning and theological.
... In the earthly Jesus is the crown of creation and history, but in the risen Christ, it goes beyond: the passage through death to eternal life anticipates the point of "recapitulation" of all things in Christ (cf. Eph 1, 10). Everything, in fact - wrote the apostle - "has been created through him and for him (Col 1, 16). And it is precisely with the resurrection from the dead, he got "in every way" (Col 1, 18). Jesus himself said, appearing to the disciples after the resurrection: "All power given unto me in heaven and on earth" (Mt 28, 18). This awareness supports the path of the Church, the Body of Christ along the paths of history. The universal power of Christ is carried in a special way on the Church. God "put all things under his feet - we read in the Letter to the Ephesians - and has been on top of everything, head for the Church, which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all » (Eph 1: 22-23). Epiphany is the manifestation of the Lord, and therefore it is the manifestation of the Church, because we can not separate the body from head. The first reading today, alleging that the so-called Third Isaiah, gives us the right perspective to understand the reality of the Church as a mystery of light reflected: Stand Up! - The prophet says, addressing Jerusalem - shine, for your light, / and rises upon you the glory of the Lord " (Is 60, 1). The Church is an enlightened humanity, "baptized" in the glory of God, that is to say, his love, his beauty, his power. The Church knows that his humanity, with its limitations and weaknesses, also point out the work of the Holy Spirit. It can boast of nothing else in his Lord: it is not that it comes light, the glory is his. But this is precisely the joy that no one can deprive him: be " sign and instrument" of the One who is "Lumen Gentium," Peoples light (cf. Conc. Vat. II , Const. dogma. Lumen Gentium, n. 1).
Preview - ROME, Thursday, January 8, 2009 ( ZENIT.org ) - homily by Pope Benedict XVI on the Solemnity of the Epiphany January 6, 2009, in St. Peter's Basilica.
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