Our Sermons
Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord
5 January 2025
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“Arise, shine for your light has come
And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
And thick darkness the peoples;
But the Lord will arise upon you
And his glory will appear over you”. (ISAIAH 60:1-2)
The image of the darkness turned into the light is so powerful. How and when do we experience that? More importantly, what enables us to live out this deeply and transformative spiritual experience? They are extremely important questions to be asked, otherwise, we would be at risk of missing out on the meaning of the feast we are celebrating this morning.
Recollection. This will probably be the answer we will get from Thomas Merton, one of the great Christian mystics of this century. What does he mean by that?
In his own words, ‘recollection makes me present to myself by bringing together two aspects, or activities, of my being as if they were two lenses of a telescope. One lens is the basic semblance of my spiritual being, the inward soul, the deep will, the spiritual intelligence. The other is my outward soul, the will engaged in the activities of life.’ Fascinating! Thomas Merton clearly states that recollection is one of the three key elements of Christian prayer, and can be seen as a spiritual intelligence enabling us to experience the darkness of our life turning into light. It sounds beautiful, does it not? But what does it mean for me, for you, for all of us in practice?
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You see, first we have recognized that we live in a spiritually fragmented culture. Too often our souls are broken and, as a consequence you might feel spiritually ill, which is a condition of being fragmented, especially from the centre of our self. That’s our darkness. When we are in the darkness, we are unable to see beyond the moment or to place things in a wider framework of meaning and value. For some people this can lead to despair, which can drive us to self-destructive behavior, the deepest form of spiritual stuntedness. In times of spiritual crisis, the whole meaning and perhaps the value of our lives is called into question. Stress and depression become our unwelcome friends. Some people may turn to drugs or alcohol for temporary relief. Other people become lethargic or dysfunctional, or even break down into madness.
Darkness is the denial of spirit itself. When this spiritual stuntedness becomes our condition it brings pain and often causes us to give pain to others.
We need healing. We desperately need to find a way to turn darkness into light. These spiritual crises should be seen as opportunities for recollection if we are able to face them courageously and see them as chances for transformation.
The Scriptures show us the way of spiritual intelligence to heal ourselves, and find the light. Spiritual health is a condition of centred wholeness. Spiritual intelligence is the means by which we can move from darkness to light, from being spiritually fragmented to be spiritually healthy.
Who are these wise men if not people who made spiritually intelligent decisions? They followed the light. They were looking for meaning and value. They wanted to see their lives in a wider context beyond their little fragmented world. However, I think there is room for imagination. After all, what do we know about the wise men? The tradition and the scriptures tell us very little. This lack of information allows us to be creative, to ask questions, to imagine their lives. What are their stories? We don’t know who they really are. The tradition tells us that they are stargazers -astronomers as well as idealists and maybe day-dreamers- and what they knew: they had to follow a star to get to the light.
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We can also imagine that they made a spiritual intelligent decision by following the star because it led them to Bethlehem, the city where Jesus was born. Their encounter with Jesus produces a twofold transformation in their hearts. First, it heals them from their sufferings, wounds and pains, if they bring to him their wounded hearts.
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Second, they receive the light, the wisdom of God, Jesus lying in a manger. We know that we still know very little about him, and we will always know less than we think we do. But that is a good feeling. It means that the longing for the light is still alive in our hearts and constantly brings us back to him. We can’t resist his attraction. What we need to do is to let our spiritual intelligence shine through.
The feast of the Epiphany is a strong reminder that when we are cut off from the deep centre of ourselves -through fragmentation, one-sidedness, pain or distraction- it is as though we are walking on a muddy path in the dark with only a very small torch to guide us. Instead, when we are using our spiritual intelligence we are seeing things from the centre and we see them as they really are. Everything, feelings and events, fits in an even wider context, which gives meaning to things that seemed separate so far. Likewise the magi meeting the Lord and feeling a deep sense of joy, we will see deep relationships and patterns and feel a sense of wholeness and purpose. The encounter with Jesus in the manger is a transformative event, because from the moment on their lives acquire a new meaning and value, their way of life is transformed. At the same time the tradition reminds us that the magi represents the world, and therefore the ‘epiphany’ has always been interpreted as the manifestation of Jesus to the world, a world that more than even needs to rediscover its spiritual dimension and let its spiritual intelligence shine through.
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As Rowan Williams, ex archbishop of Canterbury once said:
‘The birth of Jesus, in which that power which holds the universe together in coherence takes shape in history as a single human body and soul, is an event of cosmic importance. It announces that creation as a whole has found its purpose and meaning, and that the flowing together of all things for the joyful transfiguration of our humanity is at last made visible on earth.’ …and the wise men are witnesses and ambassadors of this truth to the world.