Celebrate Epiphany!

The Feast of the Epiphany is upon us and with it the end of the great Octave of Christmas. We have waited and prayed through Advent, preparing ourselves for the coming of our Lord at Christmas. We celebrated the Nativity of our Lord with our friends and family with great joy, attended our favorite Mass, and praised our children’s efforts in Christmas plays and pageants and concerts. The whirl of New Year’s celebrations have also come and gone. Hopefully some of our resolutions are not gone already as well, and our dreams of self-improvement are still intact.

But what does it mean really, that we are still in the Christmas season after most of the world thinks the celebration is over and the humdrum of our daily work routine is reestablishing itself? Why leave up trees and nativities when the relentless retail and entertainment industries are now marketing Valentine’s Day?

The answer is the great feast of Epiphany, which we celebrate. The average person on the street does not seem to know much about this feast, other than that three wise men visited Joseph, Mary and Jesus, bringing presents. Many may not even realize, because of the depictions in popular culture, that the Wise Men did not arrive on Christmas day. Their arrival signals that, from the very beginning, even though Jesus was born into a Hebrew family of the line of David the King, his mission is to all men and women, Gentiles included. The gifts the Magi brought are presents customarily given to kings and remind us how our King would have need of all three before His mission was complete.

Take some quiet time today, give yourself a chance to catch your breath and contemplate the mysteries unveiled before us. How did you experience the mystery of waiting for the Lord’s coming to us? Were you able to share the waiting with someone in need, lightening the load for an in home caregiver, or an overworked single mother? How did the Lord reveal Himself to you in the glory of His incarnation? What present would you have brought to our newborn King if you only could have traveled to Bethlehem as the wise men did? What are you willing to part with today in honor of our Lord?

Today is also a day of continued celebration, as we welcome the presence of Christ in our hearts and our world. Plan a family celebration for this last day of Christmas. Bake a king cake, set out a feast, invite the neighbors in and show them that the Octave of Christmas are more than just an excuse not to take the tree down.