2019

David Whyte, a local renowned poet, wrote a poem, entitled Old Interior Angel, which tells the story of a strong confident young man hiking in the Himalayas who comes to a broken footbridge, dangling hundreds of feet above a rocky stream. The cables were snapped and the wooden planks tumbled together uselessly. Clearly, he could go no further. He sits down and tries to talk himself into approaching the trembling, ruined bridge, but cannot bring himself to cross. Admitting defeat, he decides to turn back.

Just as he is about to leave, an old mountain woman, bent and barefoot, bearing an enormous basket balanced on her back, comes along, collecting dung for fuel along the path. Seeing the young man, she smiles and offers the traditional greeting, “Namaste, I greet the God in you.” (na-ma-stay)

The young man bows in response, but before he looks up again, she is gone, walking ahead straight across the crumbling bridge that seemed to him so impassable. Without thinking, swept in the wake of her courage and trust, he says, “Namaste,” and follows her across.

I like that poem because of the beauty and wisdom it contains. But I also like it for another reason. It helps me understand something very important about today’s feast.

When I read the gospels carefully and prayerfully, I find myself wondering at times, “Why did Jesus wait so long to begin his ministry? Why didn’t he begin preaching in his twenties instead of waiting until he was thirty? Didn’t he know the whole world was crying out to hear what he had to say? What was Jesus waiting for?

The answer to that question is simple, yet important. Jesus was waiting for John the Baptist to first call the people to repentance. To better understand even that scenario, I ran across an insight on the Jews that was new to me.

Until John the Baptist appeared proclaiming his message of repentance, no Jew ever thought of being baptized. Jews practiced baptism, but only for converts, that is, people who became Jews. William Barclay explains, “No Jew ever conceived that he, a member of God’s chosen people, could ever need baptism. Baptism was for sinners, and no Jew ever conceived of himself as a sinner shut out from God.

“Now for the first time in their national history, the Jews realized their own sin and their own need for God. Never before had there been such a unique national movement of penitence and of search for God. This was the very moment for which Jesus had been waiting. Men and women were conscious of their sin and conscious of their need for God.”

The Holy Spirit had at last awakened the Jews to an awareness of God’s intimate presence in their midst and Jesus now knew this was the time for him to venture forth and proclaim a gospel of repentance. At his baptism, Jesus bridged the gap between God and humanity, enabling us to know God intimately.

How then does this event apply to us in this time and place? Perhaps the lesson for us is this: Jesus cannot begin to act in our lives and transform us until, like the people of ancient Israel, we are ready to let him do so. Nor can Jesus do anything to make us ready. Only we can do that.

And the way we make ourselves ready to let Jesus work in us is to recognize that we cannot travel through life alone. We must first admit to our need for Jesus in our daily lives. When we reach that point, Jesus can then act in our lives to transform us into what God made us to be.

In the gospel, we heard that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus as he emerged from his baptism. When the heavens opened, God came into their midst and into ours. That same Spirit descends and rests upon us at our baptism, enabling us to know God intimately. It is what the people of the Himalayas call “Namaste,” which means the God in us. The spirit, Namaste, speaks to us in the deepest and most hidden parts of our hearts of the love and compassion of God. It is the very life of God animating us and leading us; it is the well spring of grace and wisdom, of courage and perseverance, enabling us to become people of justice, peace, compassion and goodness that out of love God created us to be.

I long thought this feast was an odd way to close out the Christmas season; after all, Jesus is now an adult, but now I see why. If the message we heard at Christmas, summed up by the angels as peace on earth and good will toward all, is to be manifested in the coming year, it can only happen through us. And that can’t be done unless we freely choose to do what we can, individually and collectively as a faith community, to heed God’s call to justice, knowing that God is in us to empower us for this holy undertaking.

The season of Christmas closes with this Mass but we are by no means finished with Christmas. There is much to be done to complete the great poem of Jesus’ birth. The good news spoken by angels continues to unfold as we venture in the year ahead to heal the sick, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger either in our midst or seeking to migrate here, liberate the imprisoned, and bring peace to others. And we can do so for Namaste, God is in us.

As we continue our celebration of Christmas, we observe the feast of Epiphany, God’s desire to reveal his son, Jesus, to all peoples. Not much is known about the Magi. The gospel tells us they came from the east searching for the newborn king of the Jews, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. We don’t even know how many wise men came but the facts aren’t important. What matters to us is what happened.

At his birth, Jesus was revealed to the Jews. He was born to be their Messiah. God could have ended the story then and there but fortunately for us, God intended the gift of his son to be shared with more than the children of Abraham. The good news of Epiphany is that God would reveal his son to anyone who sincerely searches for him.

That is what the Magi did. They came from afar searching for him. They told Herod, “We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” Distance and time did not stop them from seeking what really mattered to them.

Seeking God is what people of faith continually do. They know static faith cannot endure for long. Those who don’t seek to enrich their faith risk losing what faith they have. A teacher at a Catholic school once admitted, “To tell the truth, I feel like a hypocrite. I’m not sure I believe everything the Church teaches. I go to Mass but my mind wanders and I’m not into it. I have my doubts about lots of things, about faith, about religion, about the church.”

I suspect that teacher struggled more with a lukewarm spirituality than hypocrisy. Real hypocrisy refers to those who deliberately do not practice what they preach. Herod was a hypocrite. He had no intention of ever paying homage to Jesus. Hypocrites are good at lip service.
Seekers, on the other hand, practice what they preach, although perhaps not with much conviction. Such a person, maybe for the sake of their children or social pressure, keeps saying prayers and going to Mass, but struggles with the faith, or may simply be going through the motions.

They may feel like hypocrites but more likely they have lost sight of what really matters on one’s life journey. Like the Magi of the gospel, they are following a star, but at times that star is not so visible, just as it wasn’t always visible for the Magi. Recall that when the Magi left Herod’s presence, the star that had been guiding them reappeared. While they were with Herod, surrounded by the glamour of his worldly ways and possessions, the star could not be seen.

When we surround ourselves with the glitter of power, lust, materialism, and sin, we are bound to lose sight of the star of the Lord. But when we tune out these deceptive distracting lights, then the Lord can and will make himself known to us, just as he did to the Magi ages ago.

We believe that the Magi were either astronomers or astrologers. They were men supposedly from Persia who studied the stars. For centuries, navigators charted their course at sea with the help of constellations and especially, a certain star located at the end of the Little Dipper, found in the northern skies, known as the North Star. Unlike the many other stars that fill up the night sky, the North Star does not move. It remains directly above the North Pole. That is why this star is so important to navigators; it remains steadfast.

What star are we using to guide us on our spiritual journey? Do we navigate through our lives by the stars of socially acceptable wisdom and sensibilities, that is, stars that change, and eventually flame out of the sky altogether? Or do we fix our lives on the steadfast eternal star of peace, mercy, love, compassion and justice, namely Jesus Christ?

Like the Magi, true seekers come to pay him homage. They come to worship him, not to be entertained. They come to offer God something of themselves, their time, their hearts, their love, their talents, their treasure, and their prayers. And having offered what gifts they bring, they move on with their journey, as did the Magi, returning home by a different route. That is, they leave this space, changed by their encounter with Christ. Not only do they seek to better know the Lord through scripture, prayer and study, they reveal God’s love through holy moments to those around them.

True seekers do encounter Christ and are apt to change their ways because of that. When we leave here and return to our usual routine, can we let go of the distractions, those other stars that do little or nothing to enrich our relationship with Jesus the Christ? Of course we can by setting spiritual goals to ensure that we take time daily to listen intently to God through prayer, scripture reflection, or meditation.

The Epiphany of Christ invites us to travel with him in the year ahead to listen with open hearts to his message of forgiveness and compassion, allowing him to guide us on our daily journey until our rebirth in heaven. This is an opportune time for us to examine our attitudes and priorities.If we want the Lord to be our guiding star, a good New Year’s resolution to make would be to search for God’s presence each day through prayer and scripture; then strive to fill our day with holy moments that make us and others conscious of God in our surroundings.

As many Christmas cards boldly proclaim, “Wise men still seek him.” Follow his star and you won’t get lost.