Feast of the Epiphany

The story is familiar but very strange. After observing a rising star, wise men from the east travel to Jerusalem. They are looking for the child that they say is born to be King of the Jews. The star seems to be moving. Then it stopped over the child Jesus.

What does this story mean? I don’t know.

This story is a mystery.

A mystery cannot be explained.

But a mystery is something to enter. If you enter a mystery then the way you explain life and yourself changes.

When we enter the mystery of the story of these wise men, the way we explain life, and ourselves, changes.

We can no longer have a life without meaning; God has become a human being.

People began entering this story a long, long time ago.

And the way people explained life changed.

Before God’s life and human life were separated. When Jesus was born, God’s life and human life came together.

We have the audacious belief that Jesus really is God and really is human. But Jesus is not half human and half God. Jesus is the unity of all that is God and all that is human.

Because God became human in Christ, all human beings received the dignity to be lifted into the life of God.

People began entering this story a long, long time ago.

And the way people explained themselves changed.

They believed that the only way to follow the light of this star is to enter the darkness of the world. That takes a commitment to something bigger than you. It takes a commitment to love God and to respect the dignity of every human being.

And that’s what we believe.

We believe that the God, who is beyond history, is in the life of Jesus, present with us in our history.

There are several people here at St. Anselm that have been following the light of this star together. It stopped right over the parish hall on Wednesday afternoons.

They have worked very hard lately to make the Food in the Afternoon in the program work.

Flyers are posted in the area, food is bought, then cooked, volunteers welcome hungry people, and a good meal is served. They even came last Wednesday, January 1 and served hungry people.

They believe that the only way to follow the light of this star is to enter the darkness of the world.

And in the darkness this star stops, and it stops right over where Christ is.

As we reach the Christ child, we touch someone who is really human. And when we touch Christ we touch someone who is really God.

The truly astonishing thing is the location where this star stops today. People tell the story of this mystery this way: that in helping the most vulnerable in the poor and in the hungry the star stops and Christ is encountered.

And in this story we encounter this mystery: that through the incarnation of God in Christ, Christ is now united to very human being.

This mystery points to this star shinning in the darkness: every human being has an infinite dignity.

With all that you are tell this story. Enter this mystery. Follow this star.