SUNDAY’S GOSPEL AND THE EPIPHANY

We are at the start of the new civil year and beginning again is an invitation to look in two directions. What happened for me in the last year, both in my ordinary life and in my life as a believer, a person of faith? For what do I ask forgiveness? For what do I give thanks? We also look forward and the new beginning gives us a chance to start again on the Way of discipleship. Both thanksgiving and renewal are to be found in today’s readings. The Gospel is an invitation to wake up, to keep watch, to live fully the present moment under God, in whom we live and move and have our being.

SUNDAY’S GOSPEL – John 1:1-18.

  1. John opens his Gospel with a profound reaction on the meaning of creation, of life and of Jesus. Remember when you had a special awareness of the gift of life that filled you with gratitude to God for creation and the beauty and wonder of the world: ‘All things came into being through him and without him not one thing came into being.’
  2. We hear the gospel message frequently. Sometimes it goes in one ear and out the other. Then there are occasions when it made us feel more alive, times when it helped us see the way ahead, like a light that shines in the darkness. Recall when the gospel gave you hope in the midst of anxiety or sadness and helped you to see what action would be most life giving for you and for others.
  3. “No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son of God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” Jesus came to us to teach us about God and put a human face on God for us. For the people of his day, and for us, that was a mission of getting us to think again about how we see God and to believe in a God who is a God of love. Recall how the life and ministry of Jesus have changed your picture of God.

FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY – Matthew 2:1-12

  1. What is the star (the vision, hope or purpose) which lights up your journey?
  2. Like the wise men, our life journey is not one we travel alone. Who are the people who share your life journey now?
  3. The wise men travelled bearing gifts. What gift do you bring with you on the journey?
  4. At times the wise men lost sight of the star. What clouds have obscured your star?
  5. Who, or what, might be Herod for you now? What forces, within or without, could subvert the dream or goal?

In our deepest selves, each of us is a mystery: Where do I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? How should I live? The risk in our present culture is to sleepwalk through life, to be satisfied with a merely material existence. But the human “project” is much greater. Each of us is really on a pilgrimage, or better on a quest — a quest to become my true self, in the image and likeness of God. My truest self is found by being open to God, in whom we live and move and have our being. By following that star, by listening to our conscience and our inner selves, we come home to God.