Epiphany 2025

I want to walk as a child of the light. I want to follow Jesus. God set the stars to give light to the world. The star of my life is Jesus.

Merry Christmas! Merry (10th day of Christmas- 10 Lords a Leaping) (11th day- 11 Pipers Piping)! Happy Epiphany! The three… or more than three… magi, wise men, have arrived to visit Jesus and Mary! They’ve brought their gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. What do these gifts represent? Gold… a gift for the King, Incense… a gift for God, Myrrh… a gift for someone destined to die.

Here is the oldest artwork depicting the Epiphany; it’s dated to the 3rd Century. It covered a casket in the catacombs of a person named Severa. On the left it says in Latin, “Severa, live in God”. Then we see three magi, with the head cloths flapping behind them showing movement towards Jesus, there, Jesus held by Mary, and the star, and… who’s this figure behind Mary? That’s Balaam, an old testament prophet who looked into the future and said, “I see him, but not now… There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.”

How do I prepare my homily? I sit with the readings, reading through them a few times, meditating, until something strikes me. You might say, I wait till I’m given an epiphany, a word which means manifestation or showing. Then I consider whether this is what the Holy Spirit wants me to focus on in the homily. Eventually, I begin writing out the homily.

This past week, the line that struck me in the Gospel is, “They were overjoyed at seeing the star…” “…the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place… They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary, his mother.”

What’s happening here? The star… led them to an epiphany; the epiphany of meeting God now visible in the flesh, as a cute little baby, needing to be held, and burped, and changed. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, but that star wasn’t the goal, that joy wasn’t the goal. The goal was Jesus. Ever since then, this is the pattern that has led countless millions to encounter the Living Jesus. First, we see some kind of star, or sign, pointing to Jesus; second, we have a personal epiphany.

God wants each of us to experience this pattern every single day: in the quiet of our daily prayer times, in our scripture meditation, in the sacraments especially Eucharist and Confession, when out enjoying nature, and in our daily conversations with others and in our service of others.

Soon after I decided to focus on the verse about the star, I opened up another Dove Chocolate, and read the wrapper, and smiled at God when I read, “You are a shining star”! God likes to speak to me through chocolate…

Brothers and sisters, “You are all shining stars” pointing to Jesus! I’ve seen epiphanies of Jesus in your words and actions:

In the Rescue Project meetings, I’ve seen the stars of parishioners’ words, comments, questions, and testimonies of God in their lives;
I saw the same kind of stars at the Bay Area Youth Lock-in at St. Jude recently, where high school students talked about God in their lives; one young lady even told me that only Jesus makes her happy!!
At Kawkawlin Restaurant, I’ve seen the star of a parishioner’s friendliness, in how he has introduced me to servers and to folks at the tables, in hopes of connecting them to Jesus and to our parish;
After Mass, I’ve seen this star: a parishioner handing me money to help some family in need;
At various times during the week, I’ve seen the stars of confessions of people, coming after many years, hoping to meet Jesus;
At our food pantry, I see the stars of volunteers from our parish and others, serving the needy
And in this story that happened recently, I glimpse a star pointing to Jesus: a parishioner noticed the lady ahead of him in a checkout line who didn’t have enough money to pay for her items, so he stepped up and paid for her;
In my own heart, I see stars: whenever I visit folks in the hospital, lying on their bed of pain, full of tubes, I see Jesus suffering in them, Jesus on the cross, hidden in them…

But tragically, not everyone sees these stars. I watched an interview of a 97 year old atheist named Herbert. He’s a philosopher who’s written many books and taught many years at a university. He stated, “naturally I think about death…. When we die we cease to exist”… “I walk around the house asking myself what’s the point of it all? I wish I knew.” As I was listening, I thought to myself, you CAN know the point of it all! You can OPEN [gesture] yourself up to epiphanies of God!

Herbert said, “I still find I still am a puzzle to myself”. Pope St. John Paul II taught that “Christ… fully reveals man to man himself”; in other words, because of Christ, we are no longer a puzzle to ourselves! We know who we are, because we know WHOSE we are!

Herbert also stated, “Loneliness and absence is an absolute part of my life”… “I just go on waiting till I have to say goodbye”. Had he ever heard the promises of Jesus? Jesus promises in the gospel, “Whoever loves me… I will show Myself to them”… Again, “Whoever loves me… I will show myself to them”! AMEN??