Epiphany—Year C, 2001

Homily

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, the day on which, as is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, the wise men from the East arrived in Bethlehem to pay homage to the Christ Child. This is the day when Christ was made known to the Gentiles.

So right from the start of Jesus’ ministry we are made to understand that he was sent to the Gentiles just as much as to the people of Israel. This is not simply because the Jews did not accept Jesus, no it was in the mind of God all along that he was to bring salvation to the whole world.

We are, all of us, Gentiles so in a very real sense this is our feast. And it really is a cause of celebration. We rejoice that we have been able to come into contact with Christ through his Church. We rejoice that we have come to know his Gospel of healing and liberation. We rejoice that we have found salvation in him.

Although we rejoice we also realise that we have acquired responsibilities. We have to carry out God’s wishes, we have to follow the way shown to us by Christ and we realise and accept the fact that because we openly proclaim Christ a higher standard of behaviour is required of us. And we also accept the additional responsibility of evangelising our neighbour.

These might seem extra burdens and sometimes it is true that we experience them in this way. But, on the whole, we are glad that we have been chosen as standard bearers of the faith, as ambassadors for Christ.

 

I was reading an article in the paper just before Christmas. It was about aromatherapy—not something I take much interest in as a rule but a kind parishioner directed my attention to it.

In this article the author spoke about the gifts the wise men brought to the Christ Child—gold, frankincense and myrrh. She pointed out that these gifts were inherently healing gifts. Apparently today gold injections are given for some forms of arthritis, frankincense helps the breathing and myrrh is a natural disinfectant.

The author also noted that most aromatherapy shops were sold out of frankincense and myrrh several weeks before Christmas.

I’m not sure I would fancy the idea of a gold injection even if I did have arthritis; but since I’ve had toothache all week I’d be quite happy to consider a gold filling in the right place!

The point is that these gifts were symbols. Traditionally the gifts signified important things about Christ. His kingship—gold; his divinity—frankincense; and his passion and burial—myrrh.

However, one of the very best commentators suggests that the gold was actually a mistranslation for another type of incense. If this were the case our aromatherapist might be on to something—it would fit much better than gold as a healing gift.

These gifts, which were used in healing, would signify the salvation Christ was to bring to the world. In his ministry Christ performed many healings. He cured various diseases and he healed the people from mental illnesses and also from spiritual disturbances.

But of course there is a much deeper and more significant healing—healing our souls from sin, rescuing us from all that binds us. This is what we call salvation. It is the deepest form of healing; it is the most radical of cures because it goes to the very root of the main problem that afflicts us—sin.

And the feast of the Epiphany tells us the God did not send his Son to bring salvation to a small exclusive group of people; he came to bring salvation to all people everywhere. This surely is a cause for great rejoicing!

 

I am a Salvatorian—that means that I belong to the Religious Order known as the Society of the Divine Saviour. The Latin word for Saviour is Salvator, hence the name Salvatorian. In my previous job in Rome I had to travel a good bit and one of the countries I had a watching brief for was Romania.

Our Order was quite strong in Romania before the Second World War with about twenty-five or more members but they suffered during the war and like all members of Religious Orders they were bitterly persecuted by the very repressive Communist regime that followed.

I once wrote a pamphlet about our Order and about Father Jordan its founder. A colleague of mine took this pamphlet and translated it into Romanian for publication there as part of our attempt to make us more widely known and to promote vocations.

He told me that it was quite difficult to use the word Salvatorian in Romanian because they already had a very similar word in their language that meant Ambulance man!

Romanian is a Latin language and of course an Ambulance man is someone who comes to save you! Quite logical really! I suppose you can regard Father Tom, Father Charles, Sister Josephine and I as spiritual stretcher-bearers! It would be a bit lopsided, but I’m sure we would get there!

Christ is our Saviour, he is the only one who can heal us from our sins. His very words bring us healing—they are balm for our souls. All who call themselves Christians, but most especially we Salvatorians, have as our task to make this salvation known to those who have never heard about it.

It is our privileged task to be bearers of this Good News. It is our privilege and honour, but it is also our duty, our heavy responsibility. Let us pray that we will be faithful to this great commission and be like those wise men who surely returned to their own countries telling everyone who would listen of the wondrous things they has seen.