Epiphany Homily, 1/2/05

See final homily here at the OLA website. You can listen, too.

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These were the preliminary notes, posted beforehand:

Readings for the Solemnity of the Epiphany

Scripture References:

Gospel -- Matthew 2:1-12
First Reading -- Isaiah 60:1-6
Second Reading -- Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6

The "chief priests and the scribes" were the professional "holy people" of that day. They were unmoved by the news of a newborn King that the Magi brought. These foreign pagan astrologers were moved enough to change their agendas and invest their wholes lives in the news brought by the star.

The great Danish philosopher, Soren Kirkegaard, has some pointed reflections on this:

Although the scribes could explain where the Messiah should be born, they remained quite unperturbed in Jerusalem. They did not accompany the Wise Men to seek him. Similarly we may know the whole of Christianity, yet make no movement. The power that moved heaven and earth leaves us completely unmoved.

What a difference! The three kings had only a rumor to go by. But it moved them to make that long journey. The scribes were much better informed, much better versed. They sat and studied the Scriptures like so many dons, but it did not make them move. Who had the more truth? The three kings who followed a rumor, or the scribes who remained sitting with all their knowledge?

What a vexation it must have been for the kings, that the scribes who gave them the news they wanted remained quiet in Jerusalem! We are being mocked, the kings might have thought. For indeed what an atrocious self-contradiction that the scribes should have the knowledge and yet remain still. This is as bad as if a person knows all about Christ and his teachings, and his own life expresses the opposite. We are tempted to suppose that such a person wishes to fool us, unless we admit that he is only fooling himself.

We -- I as a Catholic priest and pastor, and, frankly, anyone who is interested in reading this -- we are the "professional holy people" of our time. Are we missing the revelation of God's work today because we are so convinced of our own righteousness?