Feast of the Epiphany - Homily 1

Homily 1 - 2005

I find Isaiah’s vision/dream in today’s first reading inspiring: Jerusalem would enlighten the nations, the world, leading them all to recognise and accept the God whom the Jewish people had learnt, particularly through their sufferings in exile, to trust and to love... And he dared to dream at a time when his nation was utterly insignificant, no one taking them seriously, little more than a group of  disheartened stragglers recently returned from captivity.

The Psalm that followed the first reading was somewhat more triumphalist, dreaming of a world-wide empire “from the Great River to earth’s bounds”. But it went on to make explicit the nature of Israel’s’ rule: justice shall flourish, and universal peace.  In his days justice shall flourish and peace till the moon fails.  Indeed, the future ruler would be particularly responsive to the poor, the needy and the weak.  For he shall save the poor when they cry and the needy who are helpless.  He will have pity on the weak and save the lives of the poor.

It is to this vision that Matthew turns in today’s Gospel miniature: the nations, the wider world (represented in the wise men from the East), respond to the gracious rule of the powerless infant Christ.  He shows us a Christ, originating from and expressing the heart of Israel’s spirituality, as the human face of the God to whom the whole world is precious and every person.

Yet we know from the rest of the story (that we read as last Sunday’s Gospel) that the visit of the wise men and their gift of myrrh used for embalming the dead hinted at the violence that would later engulf Christ, and their question as the whereabouts of the new-born king triggered off the fierce massacre of innocent children in the environs of Bethlehem by the prudent King Herod.  Does that story lead us further into the heart of our God?

The response of so many nations, and particularly of individuals in the aftermath of the recent tsunami, is a heartening instance of how much the Jewish/Christian sense of the dignity of every person and the call to solidarity between nations has unconsciously become part of a large part of our world’s thinking.

How do we respond as Christians - with our privileged access to the heart of God? We stand shoulder to shoulder with so many others: we grieve the devastation; we rejoice in the world’s response; we become part of that response as best we can; we acclaim and encourage our Government’s response and urge even more.

Yet perhaps we can do more.  We see the broader context, as our hearts beat in tune with the heartbeat of our God.  As well as responding to the present natural disaster, we encourage a similar response to those hundreds of thousands of others around the world killed or devastated as a result of human decisions or indecisions; the innocent civilians in Iraq, the tribal people around Darfur in the Sudan, the refugees fleeing across neighbouring borders in fear of their lives, and those others seeking asylum further afield and often being treated as criminals for having the initiative to do so, the thousands of children going to bed hungry each night, so many of whom eventually succumb to death through starvation, the sufferers from HIV/AIDS unable to access cheap retroviral drugs.  The list goes on.

The prompt and generous response of our government shows us what we as a nation can and will do when we are motivated and energised.  Yet we need to become consistent.  Our response to world need last year was, I think, .25% of our GDP.  We had promised .7%, but the priority has slipped.

The task remains: Isaiah was at it 2,500 years ago.  Jesus lived and died to show us how much a person can love.  Rather than getting discouraged, let us draw hope from each other and complete the work that our Lord has called us to.