Homily: Epiphany 2016 - Bringing gifts for worship

In keeping with the ancient practice, following the proclamation of the Epiphany Gospel, I just chanted the announcement of Easter and the Movable Feasts for this liturgical year. 

As the Magi made procession to honor the Christ child, the Church announces on the Feast of the Epiphany the procession of liturgical feasts throughout the year.  Sunday after Sunday and on the other Holy Days of Obligation the Church does exactly what the magi did that first Christmas, guided by the revelation of God, we journey to worship Christ. And, as the wise men offered gold, frankincense and myrrh, we off ourselves to Him. 

The Church Fathers saw the gifts of the Magi as symbols pointing to Christ’s true identity. St. Ireneus says the gift of gold signifies the Kingship, the royalty of Christ.  Frankincense is used in worshipping God and points to Jesus’ divinity.  And Myrrh is a burial ointment, pointing to the humanity of Christ, who would suffer and die for our salvation.

There is another tradition saying that the gifts of the magi are gifts that each Christian is called to make to God. St. Gregory the Great said the gold represents the wisdom of God and the teaching of Christ by which we are to walk.  The Frankincense is the prayer and adoration we are to give to Him.  Myrrh is our daily sacrifice to the Lord. Daily sacrifice needs to be made to God too, as Paul says, in Romans 12, offer your minds and bodies as living sacrifices to God. 

After coming to worship the Lord, and offering him their gifts, St. Matthew tells us how the Magi returned to their homes by another route.  I always think of Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen who said, of course they left by another route, no one encounters Christ and leaves the same. Encountering Christ changes us.  Every time we go to Mass, or make the Holy Hour, or encounter Christ through Scripture, or in serving Him in the poor, that should change us, so we go home different person.

No doubt the Magi would spread the good news of the savior’s birth. So in this feast we see a sort of model of the Christian life: we are drawn by God to Christ, we bring him our best, we offer him our lives, and after encountering him, we are propelled out into the world to spread the good news about him until it is time to return back to the altar to offer our worship again.

Now most of us are not involved in any formal evangelization: most of us aren’t called by God to go to a foreign land to spread the Gospel. But that doesn’t mean we are exempt from the mission to evangelize. Rather, most of our evangelizing is really done from the home.  People come to know Christ through our hospitality, the ways our families come together for prayer, for study.  The way that spouses and children love each other, and forgive each other, and our generous with each other, and pray with one another really is one of the primary ways the Church spreads the Gospel.  The world shall know we are Christian by our love.

Since much of our evangelizing takes place at home, on this feast of the epiphany there is the venerable practice of blessing the home with blessed chalk.  So after Mass, we will have available at all the church exits, blessed chalk and the short ritual for blessing your homes for the new year.  By this act, we ask Christ’s blessing upon the home and those who live there and those who will visit.  By visibly marking our homes with the church we identify our homes as Christian homes, and invite others to come to know Christ in our homes. 

In a sense our homes are meant to be like the Christmas star, as the wise men followed the star to find Christ, those seeking Christ should be able to find Him in our homes. There are people out there who do not know Christ or do not know him as they should, who are meant to discover Christ in your homes.  The home is also meant to be like the stable of Bethlehem isn’t it? A place where Christ is honored and adored constantly. 

So again, use the gold, frankincense, and myrrh of your families: the wisdom of God, frequent prayer, and personal sacrifice to show the world that Christ has come, that he is God and King, and that he is the savior of the world, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.