Seek the Lord with Courage

+ FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY
Today’s Readings: Isa. 60: 1–6; Ps. 72; Eph. 3: 2–6; Mt. 2: 1–12


Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany: the day when it was revealed to the Gentiles that the Messiah had come to earth. As we just heard in the gospel, the Magi were the first of these non-Jews to discover Jesus Christ.

Actually, the three wise men did more than just discover or stumble upon Jesus. They went to a lot of trouble to look for him. They journeyed from Persia to Jerusalem, perhaps on camels. If you check an atlas, that’s a distance of about 1000 to 1200 miles. Imagine riding a camel from Cullom to Miami. That’s about the same trip. You’d have to be pretty determined…

And not only that. The roads in those days were brutally dangerous. You could run into wild animals. The main travel routes were also notorious for their robbers—and don’t forget, the Magi were carrying valuables: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

On top of all that, their quest was kind of fuzzy. They came before Herod with only sketchy details about some newborn king of the Jews. And we mustn’t forget that later on, Herod would be mighty interested in finding the Christ child so he could slay him—so in addition to everything else, the wise men became sort of fugitives.

Yes, I think you have to agree that all in all, the Magi’s adventure was pretty bold and courageous.

Consider by contrast our own rather soft lives. Are we at all like the wise men? Do we boldly and fearlessly seek to encounter Jesus in our lives—or are we kind of timid in our faith journey?

If you look up in the sky, I doubt you’ll see a bright star that will guide you to Jesus. Yes, we have the church to help us find him and follow him as disciples… but wonderful as church can be, this is really a place to prepare for the journey, not our final destination. St. Paul in his epistles, the popes through the ages and so many of the saints keep reminding us that we’ll find Jesus in the faces of others: strangers, and maybe even friends and family. Not in church, but out there—in the real world. Mother Teresa always spoke about the sick and dying people she found in the streets of Calcutta as “Jesus in his most distressing disguise.” She loved them and cherished them and pampered them as if they were Christ himself—which they really were… and still are!

Maybe a spark of faith will get you excited about this so you promise yourself, “Yes! I’m going to go out and live boldly too.” But sadly, you never know where that bogey man Herod might be lurking! He’s always out to destroy Jesus. Maybe the way he’ll do that with you today is by laughing at you for your idealism, or for teasing you about being a goody two-shoes, or simply by gently diverting you from the Lord with other enticements—money, sex, popularity, TV, shopping, or who knows what… whatever turns you on.

Basically, if we are going to make our way in this tough world, what we need is a good dose of courage. You know, today is the actually the last day of the Christmas season, so maybe we can imagine that courage is a unopened special gift we just found in the bottom of our Christmas stocking.

Courage helps us look problems in the eye, rather than look the other way. God wants us to live heroically and bravely—like the Magi.

Courage is kind of like a muscle. The more we use it, the stronger we will become. If we cower in fear, our courage muscle will atrophy and waste away from lack of use. To know what to do and not do it is the worst cowardice. There’s an old Italian proverb that reminds us it is better to live one day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep.

Great courage is needed by each and every one of us to confront injustice in our world. We’ve got to speak out against familiar prejudices like racism, sexism, ageism, and all the other -isms. It takes courage to feed your enemies, rather than use food as a political weapon. It takes courage to love your enemies, rather than try to blow them up or oppress them. Only the brave will change old ways of thinking and acting, while learning how to treat people with respect, equality and dignity. Why bother? Because just as Mother Teresa knew, they’re Jesus.

Courage is needed to stand up and speak the truth, and it’s needed to sit down and listen to each other. So often, in a quest to win souls, people can be horrible and nasty to each other, condemning them, tearing them down, pointing out with glee that they’re going to hell. So yes, it often takes courage to stand up to our so-called friends and allies and remind them that whenever we possibly can, we should be gentle and kind and accepting of each other, rather than condemnatory, mean-spirited or vitriolic. Great strength and courage are needed when we strive to work together to find peaceable, nonviolent ways to bring about reconciliation, forgiveness and healing.

It’s a big task. You might ask, where does such courage come from? From God, of course. God is our source of strength and confidence and courage. And at the times we may not sense it, that’s when we’re called to wait alertly and patiently for it.

Like the Magi, let us pray with humble expectation, confidence and wonder that you might bravely seek the Lord in your own corner of the world. May the Holy Spirit richly endow you with all the gifts you need to do just that.