Again today, we have a unique opportunity to focus our attention on beginnings, endings and on what might have been revealed to us during this holiday season. Within the period of the next seven days, we will celebrate three special feasts of the Church: The Holy Family, Mary Mother of God, and the Epiphany of the Lord. We will have the opportunity to evaluate the end of another year in our pilgrimage of faith, to set our sights on the beginning of a new dimension of our call to discipleship and to reflect on what we have learned throughout this last year, living through war, fear, and uncertainty.
The Feast of the Holy Family is a celebration of all families. Not perfect families, not constantly serene families but families just like ours.
They were, in fact, ordinary working people, called to an extraordinary mission. They were a typical Middle-Eastern family, living in their own homeland, subjugated by a foreign power, simply trying to survive each day as it came. And they were subject to the ordinary failures of miscommunication, disappointments, worries, and disagreements of every family. “Ordinary families” have more than enough pressure on them in their daily lives, as we all know too well. The Holy Family was not immune to this.
Today especially, we pray for all families - small and large families, those coming to grips with sickness or death, those struggling to find employment or a home, dysfunctional families, single-parent families, those torn apart by disharmony or anger.
Mary, as the Mother of our God, becomes our mother. It is she in whose arms the Babe nestled at birth, and in whose arms the crucified Son lay at the foot of the Cross. "Mary, the Mother of God" is perhaps the most significant of her titles. She was an ordinary teen-aged girl chosen to bring forth the Word of Salvation. She was called to care for Him, to nurture Him, to feed Him with the fruits of this life, so that He could feed others with the gift of Eternal Life.
Her presence in the Advent/Christmas experience makes our fears and anguish comprehensible. The uncertainty of life is overcome by the sure hope of God's Light given to those who are waiting.
Longing for the light eventually brings the light. Faith opens into trust, and trust is not disappointed because the love of God is poured forth in the hearts of the brokenhearted.
Epiphany brightens the Light of Christmas. It is a new beginning, and it takes several forms. Magi come from afar and a new revelation of salvation comes to light. In yet another epiphany the hushed-tones of Bethlehem shift to explosive manifestations about Jesus. The magi cause quite a stir with their arrival at Herod's palace and their question about the "newborn king of the Jews." Thus a new beginning for the young and holy family unfolds in a foreign land as exiles.
Epiphany awakens us today from any glow that might remain from our Christmas celebrations. The Season of Advent ushered in the new liturgical year. Christmastime reflects our affirmation of God made flesh. And we now begin the cycle anew.
Today is another gospel-illumined day. Three interconnected feasts of the Church allow us to put aside the past, to let ourselves be guided by the Star of Wonder and to make our journey to the place where our truth can be revealed.
Leaving the past behind and looking forward we have nothing to fear.
