Feast of The Epiphany & The Saviour of Adam's Children

Blessed Feast of The Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ, every one!

Epiphany or as is used in the Easter Church,  Theophany are one and the same word meaning one and the same thing; 'manifestation'. 

On the Day of Annunciation,  the Archangel Gabriel preached the First Gospel to Our Lady, a simple Jewish Virgin Girl. 

 On announcing the Gospel about St. John The Baptist's Birth, He appears to a Priest; Zachariah. 

To the doubting St. Joseph,  He appears in a dream to help the Saint make the right decision of taking "Mary as his wife". 

On the fourth,  The Angels appear to the poor Jewish Shepherds to tell them, "this day, is born a Saviour..." 

Until now God had favored the Sons of Abraham alone. 

On Epiphany however, He chooses to speak to all the sons and daughters of Adam through the personage of the Magi. St. Matthew writes, "On entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother.  They prostrated themselves and did him homage.  Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh." (St. Matthew 2:11).

God truly now encompasses the world and establishes Christendom beyond the borders of the Holy Land Israel.  Years later, He would formalize this acceptance through His Catholic Church and by giving His Mother to the whole world at The Cross in the Personage of St. John The Evangelist. 

The Lord using the very things these pagan and first Christian Saintly  Monarchs understood,  namely the Heavenly Bodies; revealed Himself.  To the Known, He revealed Himself through Angels,  to The Unknown He revealed through a Star. 

To these Saints who are traditionally named,  Sts. Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar; He revealed His Deity , His Priesthood and His Divine Mission. The Mystery of Salvation, which the Jews would later disregard were accepted by these who weren't Abraham's sons. To bring into one sheepfold, one People God receives these who came to adore a Babe and found a God.

The gold that St. Gaspar gives to a Royal (to be rejected by His People), St. Melchior offers Frankincense to a God and a Priest (a sign of contradiction to the world) and St. Balthazar gifted Myrrh to a Sacrifice. What a marvel, what love God has!

For Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh they received a return-gift each, of Faith, Hope and Charity. 

Let's ask ourselves,  what are we giving the Divine Infant this Christmas? Are we going beyond our abilities to visit Him? Are we adoring Him in Humility or are we being like Herod, worldly and scared of losing our earthly possessions? 

To Conclude,  let us ponder on these beautiful words by St. John Henry Newman, 

"Above all, let us pray Him to draw us to Him and to give us faith.   When we feel that His mysteries are too severe for us and occasion us to doubt, let us earnestly wait on Him for the gift of humility and love.    Those who love and who are humble will apprehend them, carnal minds do not seek the and proud minds are offended at them but while love desires them, humility sustains them.

Let us pray Him to give us an earnest longing after Him – a thirst for His presence – an anxiety to find Him – a joy on hearing that He is to be found, even now, under the veil of sensible things – and a good hope that we shall find Him there.

Blessed indeed are they who have not seen and yet have believed.   They have their reward in believing, they enjoy the contemplation of a mysterious blessing, which does not even enter into the thoughts of other men and while they are more blessed than others, in the gift vouchsafed to them, they have the additional privilege of knowing that they are vouchsafed it.”

….Blessed John Henry Newman  (1801-1890) – Parochial & Plain Sermons, Vol. VI, no. 11