4 January 2026

4 January 2026 - Feast of the Epiphany

Transcript

Reading:  

Isaiah 60:2-3, 5

Write:  

See, darkness covers the earth,
 and thick clouds cover the peoples;
 but upon you the LORD shines,
 and over you appears his glory.
 Nations shall walk by your light,
 and kings by your shining radiance…

Then you shall be radiant at what you see…

Reflect:   

I want to start with that last quoted line. Who is the “you” that is being talked about? In one sense it is the nation of Israel, but I think it was also the Blessed Mother. She has these guests show up with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I don’t think she was unaware of who Jesus – this newborn baby – really was. So when these guests – by the way, tradition says there were three, the Bible is not that explicit – come with their gifts, there is a lot to be said about the gifts.

The two spices – frankincense and myrrh – are only mentioned in the Old Testament together once. They were perfumed scents that occur in reference to a wedding. Gold and frankincense are only mentioned together in one place – our first reading for today.

So we have a reference to a wedding and to royalty in the gifts that are offered to the infant King. And Mary is the Queen Mother. It is amazing how all these things slide together.

Apply:   

But, have you ever heard of the fourth Wiseman? There was a movie made of the story with Martin Sheen. What gift did he want to give to the infant King? Jewels. But he got delayed and according to the movie he never did meet Jesus until – wait for it – the day Jesus died. He spent his treasure of jewels helping many people over the years from his original attempt to reach Jesus when he was an infant. But he kept one jewel – he could not part with that one. As I recall, it was a ruby, and was the largest of the precious stones that he had. In the movie, he was a doctor and he spent MANY years helping people in a leper colony, even to the detriment of his own health.

But on Good Friday, he heard that Jesus was about to be executed. So he went to try to ransom Jesus with the one jewel he had left. He missed him. But there was another man in need of ransom. And he gave his last jewel as payment for this man’s life. But by this time, this fourth wiseman was also dying and the trauma of a life spent helping others finally caught up with him. He collapsed in the street and it was at the same time as Jesus died on the cross. The closing part of the movie has Charlie Sheen’s character dying and talking to Jesus who has just died. The people around this fourth Wiseman hear only the side of the conversation from the dying man, not from the dead man. In his conversation he apologizes for not getting to Jesus. But Jesus tells him that all the jewels he brought that he intended for Jesus were spent for Jesus, without this wise man knowing what he was doing. And Jesus treasured them all.

Part of the lesson in that for us is that we do not know whether: when we are helping someone else, we are helping Jesus! St. Martin of Tours cut his military cloak in half for a man that was freezing. That night he saw Jesus wearing that half of his cloak. That made St. Martin become a priest and then a bishop.

But now, let me return to Our Lady. It says in another place in the Gospels that Mary “pondered these things in her heart…” I find it hard to imagine any mama not getting excited when her child is honored. The radiance that Mary must have felt with the shepherds and then the wisemen was probably among the most joyous times of her life. It would only be a few days later when she would hear from Simeon the prophecy that a sword would pierce her heart. She really was a Lady of Joy and a Lady of Sorrow.

But now I want to turn to yet another point. The Jews were not looking for some sort of a nation-spanning church. The prophet Isaiah against this said that God would take non-Jews as priests and Levites. I think it was the prophet Malachi who later would say that there would be sacrifices offered around the world for the praise of God. Well… Sacrifices imply a priesthood! Yet that is what the symbolism of the wisemen brings to us. They were, in a sense, all of us wrapped up in their adoration of the infant King.

Something else I found interesting in doing my research for this weekend. The word Epiphany means “to shine upon”. Thus, Jesus divinity is shining on the world as he comes to birth. He is revealed to the world, and the Magi, to offer his greatest gift: salvation. But, here is a humorous side to the whole thing. There was a king about two hundred years before Jesus who called himself Antiochus Epiphanes because he thought of himself as God incarnate. But, there is another Greek word “Epimanes” that means “something pressing on the brain” – in other words “insane.” Antiochus thought he was God, but the people thought he was insane. Epiphanes/Epimanes. A little Greek humor. Jesus proved himself to be far from insane. In fact, C. S. Lewis has a famous quote that Jesus was either a lunatic, a liar, or he is Lord. Lunatic – liar – or Lord. Each of us has to make the choice as to who he is going to be – for us. Will we worship him and serve him as the Magi did, or will we be insane and reject him as a lunatic or a liar? To quote another man named Jesus – or more correctly Joshua – “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Now to yet another curious event in history, tied to a New Year’s celebration…

Two of EVERYTHING

The passenger steamer SS Warrimoo was on its way from Vancouver to Australia. The navigator had just finished working out a star fix and brought the Captain the result.

The Warrimoo's position was LATITUDE 0º 31' N and LONGITUDE 179º 30' W. The date was  December 31,1899.

The Captain said "Know what this means?"

First Mate broke in, "We're only a few miles from the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line."

The Captain was enough of a joker to take full advantage of the opportunity for achieving the navigational freak of a lifetime.

He called his navigators to the bridge to check & double check the ship's position. He changed course slightly so as to bear directly on his mark. Then he adjusted the engine speed.

The calm weather & clear night worked in his favor.

At midnight the SS Warrimoo lay on the Equator at exactly the point where it crossed the International Date Line!

There were many consequences of this bizarre position:

• The forward part (bow) of the ship was in the Southern Hemisphere & in the summer.
• The rear (stern) was in the Northern Hemisphere & in the winter.
• The date in the stern of the ship was December 31, 1899.
• In the bow, it was January 1, 1900.

The ship was therefore not only in:

Two different days,
 Two different months,
 Two different years, and
 Two different seasons, 

But in two different centuries – all at the same time!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

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