2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
Three Epiphanies
Three Epiphanies
Today's Gospel
is the wedding feast at Cana and we're told about this first miracle, at Cana: that in this moment Jesus "revealed himself—revealed his glory to his
apostles.".
And that's all
great except for there's kind of the fact that he "reveals his glory for
the first time" like a half dozen times. He's constantly "revealing
his glory for the first time." This is a tricky question that the early
Church tried to deal with, "When does God reveal, or manifest—that's just
the Latin word for it—when does he manifest his glory in the flesh, in Jesus,
for the first time?"
It's a 2,000 year debate, most of which was done the first five hundred years of the Church, but it really is this debate about the month of January: When does God reveal himself? Is it at his birth, December 25th, as little baby? Is it later on, at the Epiphany when the Magi come? Is that the revelation—as we call it, the Epiphany—the "showing of himself"? But then at the baptism, Jesus is shown—sky opens, dove down, voice loud, right? Definitely revealing who he is there. And then we're told by John that he reveals himself at Cana, that that's the moment. In other words: "Everybody agrees that Christmas ended last week with the baptism of the Lord, but maybe Epiphany didn't end yet. Maybe that's actually still going on.
It's a 2,000 year debate, most of which was done the first five hundred years of the Church, but it really is this debate about the month of January: When does God reveal himself? Is it at his birth, December 25th, as little baby? Is it later on, at the Epiphany when the Magi come? Is that the revelation—as we call it, the Epiphany—the "showing of himself"? But then at the baptism, Jesus is shown—sky opens, dove down, voice loud, right? Definitely revealing who he is there. And then we're told by John that he reveals himself at Cana, that that's the moment. In other words: "Everybody agrees that Christmas ended last week with the baptism of the Lord, but maybe Epiphany didn't end yet. Maybe that's actually still going on.
So open up
your missals to page 89. That's why you've been keeping them open there. I'm sorry,
it's Song 89. My bad. Go to Song 89 in your little missalette. This is a song
that in most Masses, we sing it either at Epiphany or at the baptism or maybe both.
But it's also fitting to use it here on this day.
So I want you
to notice first of all, this hymn will literally use the word
"manifest" seven different times. It's clearly a big theme here, and
the song captures the tension and the debate about when is Jesus really made
manifest? Again, you can see it as early as the Feast of the Magi. Look at that
first verse; come to the second line of the first verse: "Manifested by the
star/ to the sages from afar/ branch of Royal David's stem/ in thy birth at
Bethlehem." Okay, so that's clearly the Magi, the Wise Men, coming on
January 6.
But then look
at the second verse, the very beginning: "Manifest at Jordan's stream/ prophet,
priest, and king supreme"—that was the homily last week on prophet,
priest, and king—but then look at the second part of the second verse:
"And at Cana, wedding guest/ in thy Godhead manifest/ manifest in power
divine/ changing water into wine." So it's pulling that one event in too.
And then the
third verse kind of implies that there's always this manifestation going on,
but now it involves us: "Grant us grace to see thee, Lord/ mirrored in thy
holy word/ May we imitate thee now/ and be pure as pure art thou/ That we like
to thee may be/ at thy great Epiphany,"—implying that all of this is a
"great Epiphany". Kind like how you have the Greater Omaha area, well this is the "greater epiphany area". Okay, now you can close your
books. So in some sense, Epiphany isn't just January 6th or the closest Sunday.
It really is something much bigger.
So I checked
out the Catholic Encyclopedia on "Epiphany" and let me tell you, that
is a deep dive with a lot of stuff, and don't go there unless you're really got
some time on your hands. But in there are talks about Epiphany with all sorts
of different names. It calls it "epiphany" which literally means
"the showing upon", like "epidermis", like the top layer—the "upon" layer, so "a showing upon the people". "Theophany" which is "showing God" to the world. "Manifestation."
"Apparition." "Illumination." "Illustration." It
also calls it "a day of light" which works for all three, right? There's the Magi following the light of the star, also the light of Jesus'
glory is shown at the river with John, and then you now have these enlightened
apostles who know what's going on with Jesus. It also used the word
"Declaration" which is weird because that doesn't fit super well with
the Magi. Like, the baby Jesus can't talk. At the baptism there's a
declaration of God the Father, and at Cana it's kind of an unspoken declaration
like Jesus shows himself but he doesn't say anything.
Again these
were debates especially the 300s and the 400s: "What is connected with
what?" There was certainly a connection of Nativity and Epiphany all
along. But then there is kind of a sense that you've got the Nativity, where
he's born; the Epiphany is something later. Nativity is he's born here; Epiphany
is he is revealed here. But which revelation? Is it when a couple of wise men
sneak in and then scurry home without talking to Herod? It is when a handful of
people see him at the Jordan thirty years later? Is it when the locals see what's
going on it Cana? You know, he's only a couple miles from Nazareth. Mary's
there, and the people who grew up with him, you know, now they know something
about him. We don't really know.
What is
interesting is we've never had a feast day of the wedding feast at Cana. Unlike
the feast of the three kings and the feast of the baptism, we didn't have a
separate feast, but there's always a sense that these three were connected. And
in fact at Vespers, in the prayer of the church, for Epiphany it says this:
"We keep our holy day adorned with three miracles: today a star led the
magic to the crib; today wine was made water at the marriage; today in the
Jordan Christ will be baptized by John and save us." But that's saying one
day: today...today...today. But they are spread over 30 years. So see in some
way that's all still "one day".
It's a
constant theme in both the East and the West that these are connected.
Sometimes you pull them more closely together: this all is the manifestation of
God. And sometimes we see them as very distinct feasts. But there's both there.
And the key is this: God is revealing himself in Jesus in his humanity whether
as a little baby to the Magi or thirty odd years later in public. God has made
himself known in the flesh. God has made himself known to the people. God is
going to make himself known to the greater world. So these three moments,
together, make this perfect transition, as we leave the world of Advent and
Christmas and transition into his public ministry at Ordinary Time.
And as the
song pointed out, it's not enough for us to say, "Oh there he is; he's
manifest." We're also saying. "Let me be a part of that." We see
that as he is light, let me also be light. Let me give a revelation of
God's mercy in the world. As he comes into the world, let me go out into the
world—not as God to save it; we can't do that—that but as a disciple to proclaim it.
That's our job. If we've seen the revelation, if we've become aware of God made
flesh, then it's our job to go out and proclaim it. And that's part of all
three slices of Epiphany.
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