The Solemnity of the Epiphany invites us to rejoice at the great light that has come into the world – this light is the Word of God made flesh, Jesus Christ himself.
This light shines in the darkness. As the prophet Isaiah says in the first reading, “For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the people.” Yes, there is darkness around us, thick darkness indeed, but a new light has dawned.
The Gospel of this Solemnity, from the book of St. Matthew, brings to us the wise men, the Magi, who come from the East to search, find, and pay homage to the Child. Let us for a moment put ourselves in their shoes. Can you imagine leaving your own country, your own people, your own language, perhaps your own family, to search for the truth? Can you imagine leaving the comforts of your home to set out on a pilgrimage that will lead you to the source of truth? These wise men did so because they were convinced that something completely unthinkable had happened in human history, the birth of a King who would be above all kings. They were ready to leave behind their comfort, their luxury, their status to search for this King. In fact, according to some Christian traditions, they even gave up their lives for this King, becoming martyrs, after returning to their homelands. As we hear of the journey of the Magi, I am reminded of the first settlers of these lands, the Polish-Kashubs, who came here searching for liberty, land, the ability to make an honest living, and the possibility to raise their families in freedom of religion and conscience. Is it any surprise, then, that people still come to this part of Canada looking for liberty, land, the ability to make an honest living, and the possibility to raise their families in freedom of religion and conscience?
The second reading, from the Letter to the Ephesians, ends with the phrase “the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Jesus Christ through the Gospel.” We try to share that Gospel, focusing on efforts of evangelization, also under the leadership of our own Bishop Guy. Yet, as there is the true Gospel, there is also something that Cardinal Karol Wojtyła (the future St. John Paul II) called the “anti-Gospel.” He called out this “anti-Gospel” when he was preaching a retreat to Pope St. Paul VI and the Roman Curia in 1976. As Christians evangelize, the world, too, seeks to impose its values, its forms of darkness. What are some examples of this darkness? We are seeing violence in our society, some of it unprovoked and indiscriminate. Violence towards children in the womb spills over to violence in streets, schools, stores, and subway stations. Powerful ideologies are trying to manipulate societies, to extend the darkness. Among them is the ideology of gender. As Pope Francis said, “The complementarity of man and woman…is being questioned by the so-called gender ideology, in the name of a more free and just society. The differences between man and woman are not for opposition or subordination, but for communion and generation, always in the “image and likeness” of God. Without mutual self-giving, neither one can understand the other in depth” (Pope Francis, Address to the Bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Puerto Rico on their “Ad limina” visit, June 8, 2015). Gender ideology causes grave harm to our young people, because it denies them this possibility for “communion and generation,” as the Pope said. Finally, there is also the darkness of some people living as if God did not exist, people who have not yet discovered that God loves them, and wants to lead them to the light.
What is to be done, then, in face of darkness? Do we withdraw into ourselves and our chosen small communities, as we await the second coming? Do we engage in endless speculation about the schedule of the end times? Do we become anxious and depressed? Hopefully not. I’d like to leave you with words of the late Pope Benedict XVI, from his first encyclical letter “God is love – Deus Caritas Est.” He writes, “Love is the light—and in the end, the only light—that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working” (Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 39, Dec. 25, 2005). Love – charity – is that light that illuminates the world. We are to keep living and working with courage. Pope Benedict also wrote in the same encyclical, “Faith tells us that God has given his Son for our sakes and gives us the victorious certainty that it is really true: God is love! It thus transforms our impatience and our doubts into the sure hope that God holds the world in his hands and that, as the dramatic imagery of the end of the Book of Revelation points out, in spite of all darkness he ultimately triumphs in glory” (Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 39, Dec. 25, 2005). Faith leads us to transform our impatience and doubt, and trust that God “holds the world in his hands."
As we continue our walk into this new year, 2023, we entrust ourselves to the one who held the infant Christ in her hands – the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is the Mother of the Light of the World. She can assist us with her prayers and intercession, so that we don’t stumble in the darkness.
Fr. Paweł Ratajczak, OMI, Jan. 8, 2023