Pope
Francis: Epiphany homily 2015
(Vatican Radio) Pope
Francis delivered the homily at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday,
January 6th, the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. Below,
please find the official English translation of the Holy Father’s prepared
remarks.
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Homily of His
Holiness Pope Francis
Solemnity of
the Epiphany of the Lord
6 January 2015
That child, born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary,
came not only for the people of Israel, represented by the shepherds of
Bethlehem, but also for all humanity, represented today by the wise men from
the East. It is on the Magi and their journey in search of the Messiah
that the Church today invites us to meditate and to pray.
These wise men from the East were the first in
that great procession of which the prophet Isaiah spoke in today’s first
reading (cf. 60:1-6): a procession which from that time on has continued
uninterrupted; in every age it hears the message of the star and finds the
Child who reveals the tenderness of God. New persons are always being
enlightened by that star; they find the way and come into his presence.
According to tradition, the wise men were sages,
watchers of the constellations, observers of the heavens, in a cultural and
religious context which saw the stars as having significance and power over
human affairs. The wise men represent men and woman who seek God in the
world’s religions and philosophies: an unending quest.
The wise men point out to us the path of our
journey through life. They sought the true Light. As a liturgical
hymn of Epiphany which speaks of their experience puts it:“Lumen
requirunt lumine”; by following a light, they soughtthe light. They set out in
search of God. Having seen the sign of the star, they grasped its message
and set off on a long journey.
It is the Holy
Spirit who called
them and prompted them to set out; during their journey they were also to have
a personal encounter with the true God.
Along the way, the wise men encountered many difficulties.
Once they reached Jerusalem, they went to the palace of the king, for they
thought it obvious that the new king would be born in the royal palace.
There they lost sight of the star and met with a temptation,
placed there by the devil: it was the deception of Herod. King Herod was
interested in the child, not to worship him but to eliminate him. Herod
is the powerful man who sees others only as rivals. Deep down, he also
considers God a rival, indeed the most dangerous rival of all. In Herod’s
palace the wise men experience a moment of obscurity, of desolation, which they
manage to overcome thanks to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, who speaks
through the prophecies of sacred Scripture. These indicate that the
Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, the city of David.
At that point they resume their journey, and once
more they see the star; the evangelist says that they “rejoiced exceedingly” (Mt 2:10). Coming to Bethlehem,
they found “the child with Mary his mother” (Mt 2:11). After that of
Jerusalem, this was their second great
temptation: to reject this smallness. But instead, “they fell
down and worshiped him”, offering him their precious symbolic gifts.
Again, it is the grace of
the Holy Spirit which
assists them. That grace, which through the star had called them and led
them along the way, now lets them
enter into the mystery. Led by the Spirit, they come to
realize that God’s criteria are quite different from those of men, that God
does not manifest himself in the power of this world, but speaks to us in the
humbleness of his love. The wise men are thus models of conversion to the
true faith, since they believed more in the goodness of God than in the apparent
splendour of power.
And so we can ask ourselves: what is the mystery in which God
is hidden? Where can I find him? All around us we see
wars, the exploitation of children, torture, trafficking in arms, trafficking
in persons… In all these realities, in these, the least of our brothers
and sisters who are enduring these difficult situations, there is Jesus (cf. Mt 25:40,45). The crib
points us to a different path from the one cherished by the thinking of this
world: it is the path ofGod’s self-abasement, his
glory concealed in the manger of Bethlehem, on the cross upon Calvary, in each
of our suffering brothers and sisters.
The wise men entered into
the mystery. They passed from human calculations to the
mystery: this was their conversion. And our own? Let us ask the
Lord to let us undergo that same journey of conversion experienced by the wise
men. Let us ask him to protect us and to set us free from the temptations
which hide the star. To let us always feel the troubling question: “Where
is the star?”, whenever – amid the deceptions of this world – we lose sight of
it. To let us know ever anew God’s mystery, and not to be scandalized by
the “sign” which points to “a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a
manger” (Lk 2:12), and to have the humility
to ask the Mother, our Mother, to show him to us. To find the
courage to be liberated from our illusions, our presumptions, our “lights”, and
to seek this courage in the humility of faith and in this way to encounter the
Light, Lumen, like
the holy wise men. Amen.
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