Deacon Dave Etters
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In this reflection for the Feast of the Epiphany, Deacon Dave proclaims the heart of Christmas: the revelation of God’s love made visible in Jesus Christ. From the words of the ancient Christmas hymn Of the Father’s Love Begotten to the prophecy of Isaiah — “Your light has come” — we are reminded that Christ enters a world of darkness as the true Light from God.
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Deacon Dave:
Good afternoon. Oh, that birth forever blessed, when the Virgin full of grace, by the Holy Ghost conceiving, bore the Savior of our race. And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer, first revealed His sacred face, evermore and evermore. So goes a verse of the great Christmas hymn Of the Father’s Love Begotten.
This is Christmas. This is what Christmas is all about—the Savior revealed to us. A Babe in the womb, born and laid in the manger. It is the greatest gift that God could ever give. It is unimaginable how great this gift is. The love of God was revealed to us. God sent His only Son into the world to save us, to save all nations.
As we read in our first reading from Isaiah: Your light has come. Jesus, the Light of the world, came into the darkness and brought the true light from God into our world.
Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines. And what is our response to that? The Magi traveled diligently, sought diligently, to find this newborn King. When they came to the house, they entered, worshiped Him, and honored Him. They gave Him gifts: gold for the King He is, incense for the God—the divine Person—that He is, and myrrh, the burial anointing, foreshadowing the sacrificial death His life would become for us.
Now what is left for us to offer Him?
Thinking about this, I am reminded of the Little Drummer Boy. “I have no gift to bring that’s fit to give the King.” He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. All the gold of the world is His. What could we possibly bring to Him? He has no need of anything we could give.
But He desires our hearts. He desires what we can give of ourselves. He desires the gold of our hearts—our love; the frankincense of our prayers; and the myrrh of our lives—a living sacrifice of ourselves to Him.
When we give ourselves to Him, the light of the glory of the Lord will shine upon us, and we, as the Church, become an epiphany to the world. The world sees the revealed Christ. It is by love that they will know we are Christians. Our love defines us.
When that love becomes visible—through our giving, our prayer, and our loving service and sacrifice—the world sees Jesus, not us. He came, as we see today, to the Gentiles, to all nations. And that is our calling: that all nations might come to see the glory of Jesus Christ.
As Pope Benedict XVI said, the Church exists for this—to proclaim the Gospel to the world. Let us go and be an epiphany to the world. God bless you.