Epiphanic Homily Pope

Cologne Cathedral - Shrine of the Magi

SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Matthew 2:1-12

Chapter Sermon after Lauds.

The liturgy Solemnity of the Epiphany

A Christmas greeting is from a friend, Vera, from Johnstone, Scotland, tells me that Fr D. Cotter of the three parishes is still giving fine Biblical Homilies. You remember he was our retreat giver last year.

Homilies vary.

The Glenstal Bible Missal has the Epiphany meditation is by William Barclay - Barclay’s very neat commentary on the Magi and gifts of gold and incense and myrrh. In fact it is almost exact from the Golden Legend by the medieval Dominican Archbishop of Genoa.

Even more, the details are embodied in the famous shrine of the Magi in the Cathedral of Cologne.
Dating from c.1200, the beautiful Shrine of the Magi is the largest reliquary in the western world. Pillaged from Constantinople during the Crusades. Inside are three golden-crowned skulls, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, believed to belong to the Magi. These relics were taken from Milan by Fredrick Barbarossa and given to the Archbishop of Cologne in 1164.

 

If we carry on with the Trivia Pursuits among the good Biblical Homilies can keep us up to date with the Raymond Browns etc.

In Bethlehem. the Holy Family remained about two years.

We do not know that the men were kings. All Matthew tells us is "magi from the east arrived one day in Jerusalem."

Tradition has us speak of the magi as three. Yet Matthew does not use a number. We say three since he speaks of three gifts. Happily Matthew specifies the gifts for us - gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

·        In the 8th century, Venerable Bede, gave us the traditional interpretation of their symbolism. However, someone prefers the charming explanation of the 13th century Frenchman, Bernard of Clairvaux. The gold was to pay off the bills at the supermarket. The incense was to fumigate the house. The myrrh was intended to be a herbal medicine against worms in the Child.

 

Beside all this, Trivia or Treasure to pursue, there is better nothing to compare to Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope, and surpassing so many Homilists.

 

These are excerpts  from

  Pope Benedict XVI’s Epiphany Homily: January 6, 2008.

The liturgy Solemnity of the Epiphany

. . .

The source of this dynamism is God,

One in Three Persons, who draws all things and all people to himself.

The Incarnate Person of the Word is presented in this way as the beginning of universal reconciliation and recapitulation (cf. Eph 1: 9-10).

He is the ultimate destination of history, the point of arrival of an “exodus”, of a providential journey of redemption that culminates in his death and Resurrection. Therefore, on the Solemnity of the Epiphany, the liturgy foresees the so-called “Announcement of Easter”:  indeed, the liturgical year sums up the entire parable of the history of salvation, whose centre is “the Triduum of the Crucified Lord, buried and risen”.

Christmas an entire “epiphany”.

In the liturgy of the Christmas season this verse of Psalm 98[97] frequently recurs as a refrain:  “The Lord has made his salvation known:  in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice” (v. 2).

These are words that the Church uses to emphasize the “epiphanic” dimension of the Incarnation:  the Son of God becoming human, his entry into history, is the crowning point of God’s revelation of himself to Israel and to all the peoples.
In the Child of Bethlehem, God revealed himself in the humility of the “human form”, in the “form of a slave”, indeed, of one who died on a cross (cf. Phil 2: 6-8). This is the Christian paradox.

Indeed, this very concealment constitutes the most eloquent “manifestation” of God. The humility, poverty, even the ignominy of the Passion enable us to know what God is truly like. The Face of the Son faithfully reveals that of the Father. This is why the mystery of Christmas is, so to speak, an entire “epiphany”.

CHURCH context of Epiphany

The mystery of the Church and her missionary dimension are also revealed in the liturgical context of the Epiphany. She is called to make Christ’s light shine in the world, reflecting it in herself as the moon reflects the light of the sun.

The ancient prophecies concerning the holy city of Jerusalem, such as the marvellous one in Isaiah that we have just heard:  “Rise up in splendour! Your light has come…. Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance” (Is 60: 1-3), have found fulfilment in the Church.

The Church is holy, but made up of men and women with their limitations and errors. It is Christ, Christ alone, who in giving us the Holy Spirit is able to transform our misery and constantly renew us. Christ is the light of the peoples, the lumen gentium, who has chosen to illumine the world through his Church (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 1).

MARY

“How can this come about?”, we also ask ourselves with the words that the Virgin addresses to the Archangel Gabriel. And she herself, the Mother of Christ and of the Church, gives us the answer:  with her example of total availability to God’s will – “fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum” (Lk 1: 38) – she teaches us to be a “manifestation” of the Lord, opening our hearts to the power of grace and faithfully abiding by the words of her Son, light of the world and the ultimate end of history.
So be it!

Cologne Elder Bible Window (c.1260) Adoration of the Magi

Conclusion.

Pope Benedict xvi will give us another EPIPHANIC HOMILY this morning in St. Peter’s.

And we pray for the Pope, that he may be enlightened by the Holy Spirit in his great teaching.