The Epiphany of the Lord

There is a story told of three farmers sitting around the fire one evening after a hard day’s work. Two of them were having an argument about what was the best way to plant their grain. After realizing that they were getting nowhere in trying to convince the other, they both turned to the third farmer whose name was Okoro to get him to weigh in on their side. Okoro rubbed his white beard and said thoughtfully, “Well, you know there are three ways to get from here to the old mill. You can go right over the hill. That is shorter but it is a steep climb. You can go around the hill on the right side. That is not too far, but the road is rough and full of potholes. Or you can go around the hill on the left side. That is the longest way, but it is also the easiest.” He paused and then added, “But you know, when you get there, the mill man doesn’t ask you how you came. All he asks is, ‘Man, how good is your grain?’”

Like the ways that lead to the mill on the hill, there are many different ways to come to knowledge of God. But it matters little which way we take, for when we are in the presence of God, the only question that really counts is “how deep is our faith?” The Nativity story offers us examples of people who have come to knowledge of God’s salvation in different ways. The first way is symbolized for us by the shepherds, who received a message from the angels announcing the Good News of the birth of the Saviour of the world. This represents the path of direct private revelation. We follow this path in our lives of personal prayer as we search for God and God reveals Godself to us in the intimacy of our hearts.

A second way is through studying nature and the world around us and then allowing the glory of creation to lead us to conclusions about the nature of the Creator of the World. This way is symbolized for us by the magi, whose study of the night sky led them to the conviction that a great King had been born. It is interesting to note that their science does not lead directly to Jesus. They need some help, and the help that they are given comes from those to whom the Holy Scriptures have been entrusted. It is the chief priests and the scribes that come back and tell the Magi that the King of the Jews is to be born in Bethlehem. This represents a third way to God – a way that is known as Public Revelation and is mediated to us through our Scriptures which tell the story of how God revealed Godself to the Chosen People gradually in a process that culminated in the birth of Jesus Christ.

Like the story of the three farmers, it does not really matter how we get to God. What matters is what we do when we find God. Some people ask me, how do I know that I have found God? They want to know how they can be sure it is God that they are hearing in their prayer. We can be sure that it is the true God that we have found, if our prayer, if our act of searching leads us to an act of worship, which is what we are told that the three wise men did when they found the infant Jesus. It is quite amazing when you think about it. The Magi had journeyed thousands of miles, a journey fraught with danger from brigands, a journey that took them far away from the creature comforts of their homes. At the end of it all, they are led to a stable, to see an infant born to a carpenter and an uneducated peasant woman from Galilee. Mysteriously, as they contemplate this scene before them, they are not in the slightest disappointed with the results of their arduous search. On the contrary, they are filled with delight and bow low in worship of the Infant King. How often do we let ourselves be disappointed with the results of our search for God when they turn up the unexpected? Perhaps the sign that we have found what we are searching for is the very unexpected nature of our find. If at the end of our journey we are led to worship, to an end to our ceaseless questioning, then we know that we have found God. When are content to let a serene contemplation of the reality of our lives fill us with joy and peace, then we know that we have found God. Our finding of God should also lead us to lay our gifts at God’s disposal. We will know that we have found God if we are led to put our talents at God’s disposal.

Ultimately, our search for God needs all three ways that we find in the Nativity story. We need to employ our reason as we reflect on our lives and the events of our world. This reflection should lead us to seeing a Transcendent Being at work in our lives and in our world. However, the power of reason has not always led us as a human race to worship. During the Enlightenment and its aftermath, our human intellect led us to a Promethean hubris regarding our own human facilities, as we imagined ourselves to be the masters of the universe. This is where we need to be enlightened by the Scriptures, the teaching of the Church that will help us align the power of our reason with our yearning for God. Lastly, like the Shepherds we need to take time alone in the fields at night where we are open to God touching our hearts directly and sowing into our hearts the knowledge of the salvation God has prepared for us.

Questions for reflection

1. Does my search for God lead me to interminable questions or to worship?
2. What gift is God calling me to place before the Infant Jesus?