Epiphany Sunday

            When we hear the word exclusive—as in an exclusive group—we have a negative connotation.  Yet there are times when being exclusive is a good thing.  For instance, businesses, classrooms and teams need to have limits to function well.  It is a good thing for your family to have your house exclusively.  I can’t just come over, walk in and eat all your food and beer.  Though I might!

            In God’s mysterious providence, exclusivism was a part of salvation history.  One of the most common ideas in the Old Testament is God’s chosen people.  The sacred authors infer, then, that other nations and people are rejected.  We take it for granted living after Christ that all are called to enter into a relationship with Him.  In the Old Testament this wasn’t so.  You were either a Jew—a chosen one—or not.  Period.

            Consider the covenants God makes with His people.  It begins in a garden with Adam and Eve—a couple.  God then makes a covenant with Noah and his family.  Later in Genesis we see God entering into a covenant with Abraham and a tribe, through which God promised Abraham’s descendents would be more numerous than the stars in the sky.  Next comes Moses and the nation of Israel in slavery.  Finally, in the pinnacle of salvation history in the Old Testament, God establishes a covenant with David and His kingdom.  Notice, God continually brings more and more people into His fold from a couple, family, tribe, nation and kingdom.

            Jesus Christ comes and blows the door open to who can be God’s people.  This continues God’s work and fulfills many Old Testament prophecies.  We heard from Isaiah: “Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance.”  This prophecy pointed to a day in which the Jews would not be the only ones to worship God, but all nations.  The Psalm we prayed said something similar: “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.”

            The magi show the first glimmerings of these prophecies fulfilled.  These wise men from the east came to worship Christ.  The men from the east were not Jews and not of the chosen people.  Yet Christ opens the doors to all the world to be His people.

            We can learn a lot from the magi.  First, they were very generous.  They brought the baby Jesus gold, frankincense and myrrh.  They didn’t reach in their pockets for a dollar or a couple of coins, or give out of their surplus.  They brought truly costly gifts over an arduous journey to present to the Lord.  Are we so generous?

            Second, the magi presumably didn’t hold their experience to themselves.  They went forth different men, disobeying Herod’s command to reveal the location of the King of kings.  They did not hold the experience of the King to themselves but brought this to the world.  Is our faith something we are exclusive about, leaving it in our own lives or the lives of our families?  Or, is it—as Jesus desires—an inclusive endeavor in which we strive to live in a manner that helps others experience His love and mercy?

            On this great solemnity of Epiphany we pray in thanksgiving for being one of God’s chosen ones.  We pray for the grace to be like the magi—to be generous in giving and evangelistic in our lives.  Above all we pray to not be exclusive in matters of faith but to include everyone we encounter—family, coworkers, teammates and schoolmates—in the good news of Jesus Christ.