Homily for the Solemnity of the Epiphany
Jan. 7, 2024
Matt 2: 1-12
Villa Maria, Bronx
Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
“Herod inquired of the chief priests and the
scribes where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written
thru the prophet’” (Matt 2: 4-5).
St. Matthew gives us an ominous indication when the magi arrive in Jerusalem: “King Herod was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him” (2:3). This doesn’t bode well for Jesus, recently born and now sought by strangers as “king of the Jews” (2:2).
“Where is the Christ to be born?” Christ is the Greek translation of
“Messiah” and means “anointed one,” i.e., one anointed by God. For Herod and the Jewish people that can mean
only a king, someone whom God anoints to rule over Israel.
King Herod was infamous for jealousy of his
power and his brutality in suppressing anyone who might threaten it, including
his wife and sons. So the people tremble
with fear at what might happen now when some rival to Herod may be at hand.
St. Matthew is also giving us a premonition
of Jesus’ future. When he comes to
Jerusalem at the end of his public ministry, the city will be troubled again,
1st acclaiming him as the one who comes in the name of the Lord (21:9), then
denouncing him: “We have no king but
Caesar” (John 19:15), and demanding his crucifixion. A different ruler of Judea, Pontius Pilate,
will mock Jesus as “king of the Jews” at his trial and in the placard attached
to his cross; and Pilate will do what Herod tried to do but failed—to get rid
of this threat to those in power in Jerusalem.
Not that anyone can so easily be rid of Jesus, as countless persecutors
have discovered for 2,000 years.
The chief priests and the scribes, who share
influence with King Herod at the time of Jesus’ birth and with the Roman powers
during Jesus’ public ministry, know how to read the sacred Scriptures. They inform Herod accurately that God’s
anointed one can be expected at Bethlehem in Judea.
But that’s as far as they go. They know what the Scriptures say but have no
further interest in God’s anointed. His
birth means nothing to them. Herod
doesn’t even know the Scriptures, and his only interest in God’s anointed is to
eliminate him as a threat.
Brothers and sisters: we’re told over and over that we must read
the Scriptures and get to know them.
True! What’s more important is
not just to know what they say but to take in their meaning, to be penetrated
by their message, to find in them not directions to Bethlehem but directions
for our lives.
There are Christians of all denominations who
come to church more or less regularly, who receive Communion, who practice
devotions like novenas, stations of the cross, the rosary, who know the basic
outline of Jesus’ life—but who haven’t turned their lives over to Jesus; who
haven’t been converted to what Jesus teaches about centering their lives on God
and not on wealth, power, comfort, or their own smarts. Knowing the Scriptures, coming to the
sacraments, and saying our prayers is advantageous only if we—like the wise
men—“prostrate ourselves and do him homage” (2:11); if we set aside our
selfishness and the wisdom of the world in order to follow Christ; if we bring
the Jesus whom we encounter in the Scriptures and the sacraments into the
nitty-gritty of our daily lives; if we let Jesus govern our lives; if we love
God with all our hearts and minds; if we love one another as Christ loves
us—with a generous, sacrificial love that reveals him to the world.
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