Epiphany: Hope Revealed

 

Can you hear it: The happy sigh of 2021 being over and the beginning of 2022 just a few days ago?  It is the sound of Hope Revealed just like Epiphany is the revelation of the Savior, Jesus, who brings hope to the world.

One, Holy, Catholic And Apostolic Family

Our Gospel story from St. Luke today on the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph focuses on a specific incident when the Lord was 12 years old.  It capsulizes how a family with a young child handled a missing child scenario and indicates for us how a Catholic family needs to consider their life’s journey path towards holiness.

Jesus’ Birth Calls Us To Peaceful Relationships That Creates Community!

St. Luke’s Gospel on the visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her cousin, Elizabeth, is a rich story of two women who not only share their joy of bearing a child, but are blessed to understand that the sons who they bear will change the world forever.  Mary’s son is the King of Peace of which the Prophet Micah writes about in the first reading.  St. John the Baptist, Elizabeth’s son, is the precursor of Jesus’ birth as the savior of the world. 

Christian Joy Is God’s Gift To Us So We Can Share It With Others!

“What should we do”?  That is the question in St. Luke’s Gospel today that the crowds are asking St. John the Baptist when he challenges people to repent from their sinful ways.  His response: Be Lovable to others.  This shouldn’t be so difficult considering we are approaching the official Christmas season with the birth of Jesus in two weeks.  The world decided in October prior to Halloween that we will have a Christmas of buying things to show our love for others.  This is not the love of which John the Baptist speaks.

Love Requires Us To Be Selfless, Sacrificial And Complete. As John The Baptist Proclaimed A Baptism Of Repentance, We Are Called To Follow Jesus By Letting Go Of Our Sinfulness.

In our baptismal promises to love God above all and all that He has created as Jesus loves us, we often lose focus because we confuse becoming a responsible Christian with a need for personal attainment.  When we do this, we fall into a type of entrapment in which sin overtakes our good intentions.  It is at this juncture that more than ever we need to ask God’s forgiveness, let go of whatever led us astray and follow Jesus by emulating what He taught us while he walked this earth.