Day: January 19, 2025

“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us”

The Epiphany event of the Magi-Kings coming to Bethlehem focuses on the gifts they bring. The gifts manifest the meaning of the one whom they seek and find in Bethlehem. The gifts they present belong to the nature and meaning of adoration. Adoration is a kind of focused wonder. It belongs to the highest feature of our humanity as contemplative beings. Adoration speaks to the greatest dignity of our humanity in the contemplation of the greatest good in itself and for us. The gifts they bring belong more profoundly to the gift that has brought them to Bethlehem. The greater and greatest gift is Christ. Our finding him is really about our being found in him.

The Magi-Kings found him in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph found him in the Temple. But all because we are found in him. Christ is the gift through whom all gifts are given, the gifts that adorn and dignify our humanity as found in God’s love for us. This is truly astounding, an astonishment that should awaken in us philosophical wonder. It is what we see in the readings both today and last Sunday.

To be recalled to the God who is the giver of every good gift is the deeper meaning of Epiphany. God makes himself known to us and makes known the qualities of our life in Christ by virtue of the gifts that are given to us. The gifts differ according to the grace that is given to us, gifts that vary with the differences in our created being. Yet the gifts belong to the restoration and perfection of our humanity.

Epiphany signifies the manifestation of God in Christ but also in the world as creation. It is not by accident that the Second Sunday after Epiphany presents us with the first miracle of Christ. “This beginning of signs,” John tells us, “did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory.” It is an epiphany which makes known the divinity of Christ as the Lord of Creation who seeks the greater good of our humanity. There is in these readings a sense of cosmic consciousness, of creation itself as partaking of the divine nature. Our good is inseparable from the good of creation itself. In this way, we might begin to make sense of the idea of miracles as essentially making known the greater miracle of life itself, the greater miracle of creation as given by God.

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