Born on December 28th, I entered this world during the Christmas season. Thankfully for that, I have always been able to celebrate Christmas as a season rather than just a day! My birthday presents as a child were usually wrapped in Christmas paper, and many times I received “combo” gifts that marked both Christmas and my birthday. Strangely enough this did not really bother me as a child, and now I can truly appreciate that my birth falls within this sacred season!
I celebrated a large part of the 2015/2016 Christmas season in Mexico – leaving on Christmas Day and returning on the Feast of Epiphany. Amidst the beauty of the culture and the landscape and the warm company of good friends, perhaps one of the most memorable experiences that I had was to gaze up into the Mexican night skies and witness the bright stars shining down on the invisible Mexican mountains. It’s a breathtaking experience to drive through the mountains at night, not knowing what the landscape around you looks like, only feeling the vastness in wonder, when a mountain’s shadow momentarily blocks the gorgeous view of the shimmering stars that seem to go on forever. You can feel the mountains presence even when you cannot see them in the darkness, and the many layers of starlight above only serve to bring the experience of wonder to a quite sublime manifestation – Epiphany!
In Epiphany, the people who walked in darkness, having seen a great light (Christmas Eve) now are themselves shining forth. As we heard this past Sunday from Isaiah (IS 60: 1-6), “Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow, for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you, the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.” Epiphany is the celebration of the all-inclusive availability of God’s love Incarnate. Richard Rohr describes this manifestation of God’s love as being “let in on a big and wondrous love secret.” And the secret is overwhelming in its power – it’s almost as if it cannot be contained! It is revealed, in all its mystery and beauty. So how can we attempt to keep this secret to ourselves…why won’t we tell the Secret?
As we near the end of the Christmas season, celebrating the “border-crossing” of the Magi (all those different than ourselves), who can be just as spellbound as us by the Great Wondrous Love of this season, we have Mark retelling the story of feeding the masses (MK 6: 34-44). At first glance it may seem to be a curious “epiphany” story, but I think it bears resemblance to, and perhaps brings the wondrous nativity/epiphany story into a very real everyday focus!
First, we see Jesus looking at the crowd that has been following him and being moved with compassion, as they seem to him as “sheep without a shepherd.” As it gets late, the disciples entreat Jesus to dismiss the hungry crowd so that they can go elsewhere to find food for themselves. Jesus responds promptly to the disciples, “Give them some food yourselves.” In their befuddlement, Jesus further instructs the disciples to find out what they already had within the crowd, by way of food. Once doing so, the amount seems scarce, but through gathering and blessing there was more than enough for everyone, even with some left over!
How is the presence of Christ manifest in our everyday lives? Many times, I think it is the most obvious things that are most difficult to see. It’s the invisible mountains that sit in the dark waiting for a flash of starlight to illuminate them. Jesus seems to be saying that we don’t have to send people away to fend for themselves, even when we think that we cannot help them. Perhaps our idea of what helping means debilitates us and causes us to turn away or turn others away to go “buy themselves something to eat.” At the risk of trying to sound clever, we could look at what Jesus tells the disciples to do….”Give them food – your SELVES!” What if everything we need to give to one another is always right here already and we just have to recognize what it is? As the Hebrew scripture scholar, Walter Brueggemann, points out “the central problem of our lives is that we are torn apart by the conflict between our attraction to the good news of God’s abundance and the power of our belief in scarcity — a belief that makes us greedy, mean and unneighborly.” (The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity, Christian Century, March 24-31,1999)
When we are moved by compassion, as Jesus in the Gospel, we are literally moved into the sacred environment of the ones in need (translation – EVERYBODY). Compassion seems to always be more a response than an initiative. Jesus responded to the crowd within the crowd. We each have unique gifts to give, like the Magi, but we just need to give them all together. Jesus “gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass.” Abundance seems to miraculously appear through compassionate sharing. This is Isaiah saying “Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow…” This is the secret of the Stars – Epiphany, manifestation, abundant Incarnation!
So… “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”
Peace,
Thomas