Homily for Epiphany

There is a tradition in the Church that today, the Epiphany, the Magi are placed at the manger scene in the Church or in people’s homes. Some will actually have the Magi begin Christmas in the back of the Church or in an obscure room in their house and each day move the statues closer to the manger scene as to symbolize their journey to Bethlehem as they give the Lord, the gifts of Frankincense, Myrrh, and Gold.

In some cultures, they give gifts on Epiphany and not Christmas as a way to remember the gifts of the magi to Jesus Christ. I know the Italians celebrate in this way, and they have a good witch that flies around on a broomstick giving gifts to all the good boys and girls. This sounds strange to us, but I suppose a big fat man dressed in red and white giving gifts on Christmas would sound strange to them.

If we think that the Epiphany is only about the Magi and gift-giving then we would be really missing the point. Truly, today the Epiphany is about the revelation of God to all of mankind. It is about his entering into visibility so that we might know him as God. So, the Epiphany is about the birth of Jesus Christ, it is about the revelation to the magi, it is about the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, it is about the changing the water into wine at the Wedding Feast of Cana, and it is about the transfiguration of Jesus Christ before Peter, James, and John. All of these are deliberate moments when God revealed himself to us. This feast is about all of these and more for God continues to reveal himself - even at this Mass, he reveals himself to us. This is what today’s feast is about. It’s about our Epiphany of God’s existence.

I would like to make mention about today’s Gospel. It contains really two people juxtaposed to each other. We have King Herod and the Magi. King Herod symbolizes all that is about pride and self-preservation. Everything in Jerusalem revolved around him. People watched his move, they talked about where he spent money or exercised his power. They wondered what he knew. And everything in Herod’s life revolved around keeping himself propped up to be influential. He wants to keep his wealth, he wants to keep his power, he wants to keep his knowledge and anything that is a threat to this he wants to do away with. We know what he did after the birth of Jesus. He killed all the babies two years old and younger in bethlehem and the surrounding area to end a threat to his. We know that when living a life of pride and self-preservation, the end result will not be life and will not be joy, but one of a slow death and sorrow.

Over Christmas, I was with my family talking about the good old times. My brothers seemingly like to bring up the bad things that I used to do. This past Christmas, they brought something to my attention that I had forgotten. My brothers, my dad, and I went to Philmont to hike around the mountains. At one point when we were lost and had gone through a lot of our food, I was so hungry, I could eat anything. I had finished all of my food and out of a desire for self-preservation and pride, I sought to do what I could to get more food. I complained and complained until my dad gave me his squeeze cheese and I ate it up. At that moment, I was being Herod. Don't we all do this in some way?

For all of you have had children, you know that children try this at a very early age. They want something. They go to mom and then ask. When she says no, they then go to dad to see if he will relent. They are trying to get what they want instead of give. They are being like Herod and not the Magi.


The Magi represent those who are of humility and generosity. They know that what they have they have received from something greater then they. They have received from God. Their wealth symbolized by the gold, their power symbolized by the frankincense, and their knowledge symbolized by the Myrrh all come from God. They knew this and therefore was aware of the birth of the savior. They had scene it in the sky. They knew this truth and therefore went to pay homage. How different their attitude was from Herod. Herod who was bent on keeping himself in power and wealth saw everything as a threat but the magi saw that they had received as a gift from God all they had and therefore saw the birth of the King as something which they could rejoice and offer back to God what they had.

I remember one time in Rome a old lady at the bus-stop. I remember her saying to me. Remember the creator and not the creature. She was saying the exact same thing to me that the Magi represent in today’s Gospel. Remember that all is a gift and we are to give. This is the way of humility is the way to life, joy, and happiness.

One of the things that I like to do is to ask children what their favorite gift they gave to someone for Christmas. It usually stumps them because they want to tell me what they received from others. Yet, if we follow the Magi’s example the giving will bring us greater joy.

The Magi came to the crib and offered the Lord and saviour their treasures out of humility and generosity because of what God had done. We too do this when we give out of gratitude for what God has blessed us with.

Finally, I want to mention the last phrase of the Gospel. We hear that the Magi after paying homage to Jesus and giving their gifts went home by another way. Indeed, they could not go home by the same way. They had been changed by their encounter with Jesus and so had to go home different. We too when we encounter Jesus we will be changed and transformed. The question for us to ask is which way will we go?