Finally, the infamous “2020” is finished! For many of us, this will be remembered as “the year of the pandemic” – even though the virus is still wreaking havoc around the world – and we have only begun the process of vaccinations. A calendar year, after all, is one way of framing a block of time; that December 31 was “last year,” and January 1 is “this year” makes the New Year’s celebration poignant, the sense of passing from one year to the next is fraught with emotion. The ways we experience time have been deeply affected by the pandemic, as weeks of quarantining turned into months, and still life has not returned to normal.
As I have gotten older, I realize the same thing about my birthday. Last month, I turned 65 on December 4. Even though my age was “64” prior to December 4, it is not the reality that I “aged one year” on that day. The truth is that each measurable instant of time is the “now,” and it is always “now;” that is the only reality we can know.
This Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany and hear the timeless Gospel account of the mysterious Magi from foreign lands, who were guided by a star to visit the infant Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Scripture scholars differ on the “time” of this visit. It does not seem to be the day of his birth, but tradition says it was the twelfth night following Jesus’ birth.
We have no way of authenticating the precise date of these events. In the years immediately following the earliest days of the Christian church, December 25 was fixed as the date to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Before this, the Church had already fixed March 25 as the date for celebrating the Annunciation from Gabriel to Mary. Nine months from that date brings us to December 25. To focus on the calendar, however, is to miss the point.
On Epiphany, we celebrate the manifestation of Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of Mary. The significance of Epiphany is to recognize the precise “now” of the Word made flesh and dwelling among us. This incredible truth was revealed to the mysterious Magi and was confirmed when they recognized the child and offered their gifts and their adoration. We can experience Epiphany every time we attend Mass. Eucharist is our “now” and it does not depend on the calendar or precise dates. Emmanuel – God is with us- is always “now.”
Fr. Gary
