Manifestation of Jesus to the Peoples of all Nations

Epiphany saves Christmas from sentimentality. The God who comes to us in the birth of Jesus will die as Simenon foretold and Matthew prefigures today when threatened by a tyrant. There is the paradox of being rejected by his own and accepted outsiders. It is to recognise that Jesus is present in a manger surrounded by messy and smelly animals in a poor town. It is as the Magi found after following the star, that we can learn to look for him, not in a palace, but in the most ordinary people, places and situations. Taking a different route as did the Magi, means not returning to the symbols of power as in Herod, and coming home to ourselves.

Feast of the Holy Family

Luke has told us because of God’s intense love for us God has entered our world: dwelling among us, dining, rejoicing, crying, healing, bleeding, and triumphing with us. We see Jesus being introduced to a wider faith community by his parents, to be part of a new creation –a new family. But as Simeon prophesies, it will not end happily for Jesus, his parents, and certainly not for many children slaughtered at the time. It continues in a world that can be dark and hostile in form of ongoing hostility between nations, between groups, the arms trade and vilifying language And God cries with those distraught mothers as well as those today.

Fourth Sunday in Advent

Pope Francis, in Fratelli Tutti, speaks of the need for an open heart. He writes, ‘the guarantee of an authentic openness to God….is a way of practicing the faith that helps open our hearts to our brothers and sisters.’ It the key for building peace in our world. Francis has tried to address breakdowns in human relationships which lead to violence and a culture of indifference by calling for a culture of encounter. It is a call to develop a culture of kindness especially in the face of divisions made evidenced by hateful language, mean-spiritedness, prejudice, and neglect.

Isaiah and St Paul tell their communities to hold on and wait in joyful hope for the coming of Jesus despite their circumstances. Yet, many people are trying to find reasons to rejoice in what seems a crazy and ever-changing world. Our reality is distorted by a constant inundation of bad news. It seems that where we look it seems that the bad guys are winning – something that John would also have felt before his death. No doubt many of us feel the same way. Jesus’ followers were drowning in bad news as we are today and some were reviled, ridiculed, persecuted and sidelined. There seems little reason to rejoice in the face of human suffering. 

We are invited to proclaim a hope to our world by addressing issues of justice, peace, and genuine human development for all God's people despite war and terrorism, an ongoing pandemic, poverty and injustice, dishonesty and manipulation of the truth and propaganda, political expediency, and the harsh effects of climate change. The stories of Advent are meant to shape how we are called to be as followers of Christ as the truth teller, the God-bearer the forbearing elder, the righteous ‘mensch’ and the faithful questioner. In playing these roles, we must also look to the other players around us in a community of supporting roles to one another.