Dear Friends,
On this first Sunday of a new year, consider the people who have influenced your life…people in your intimate family circle as well as those beyond. Those beyond could be people you can name – like Pope Francis, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. They could be nameless like the Magi whose involvement in Jesus life was brief, generous, arduously undertaken and which impelled Jesus, Mary and Joseph to travel beyond their plans to spend time in Egypt.
After following the star and a detour to King Herod, the Magi finally came to the house where Jesus was. Matthew tells how they fell to their knees and worshipped him. They believed that this child held the key to the meaning of life. Whether it was their original intention or not, the Magi left gifts that drew attention to his authority, divinity and humanity. In leaving these gifts the Magi accepted that the newborn king was not what they expected.
In this new year, is God in Jesus what we have expected? This is a question worthy of our consideration. God is in the midst of the year 2020, which we have just completed – a year that, on the cover of a recent issue of TIME magazine was x-ed out. COVID marred 2020. So did forest fires and hurricanes and floods, storms of other kinds. We may think this is the most awful year in American history, but maybe not. Maybe we need to reclaim it as a year in which God reached out to us in a unique way, not to test us but to be present to us as life became more fragile for more people.
During this year just completed, we, too, had our star to follow, dreams that spoke God’s word to us in the deepest part of our being. Perhaps the only way we could have felt unquenched aloneness is if we did not acknowledge this God who is always with us. Did we feel unquenched loneliness?
God in Christ, says to us on this Epiphany Day:
Stand firm.
Listen to the dream.
Follow the star.
Go where it tells you.
Be sure of my love for you.
Press on beyond disbelief.
Stay close to each other.
Stay close to me.
If, from a human point of view, Epiphany celebrates the human search for God, from God’s viewpoint, Epiphany celebrates that God can be found. God wants to be found by us. 2021 is a year given to us to experience God, but we have to make time to do so. Be willing to stand before what looks like unfinished pain and emptiness and recognize God’s touch, embrace, the whisper of God in our innermost being, the hand holding our own.
God is more present that any Herod that comes our way, seeking to destroy who we are and what we cling to as essential for life.
~ Sister Joan Sobala
