The Feast of the Epiphany
The following homily was given by Fr. Shawn Hughes at Dunning Auditorium, Queen's University on Sunday, January 4, 2004.
Our spiritual lives can never be stagnant, they must always be moving, always be seeking, always striving for that more intimate experience of Christ.This story is so familiar to each of us. We have heard it on this feast day every year of our lives. Sometimes we need to look at it from a slightly different perspective. T.S. Eliot's Journey of a Magi looks at the effect the experience of the journey had on one of the kings. Many, many years later one of the magi looks back at the experience they had on that journey following that star.
A Journey of the Magi
'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the
terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and
grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns
unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all
night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears,
saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a
temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped in
away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with
vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for
pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no imformation, and so
we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment
too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I
remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth,
certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had
seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different;
this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like
Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these
Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old
dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their
gods.
I should be glad of another death.
- T.S. Elliot (1888-1965)
T. S. Eliot first published this piece in 1927, the same year that he abandoned agnosticism embracing Christianity receiving the Sacrament of baptism. As Elliot reflected on the Journey of the Magi he reflects to us his own personal experience of his spiritual conversion.
On this feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation of the Christ child to the non Jewish world, I think that Elliot's personal conversion as depicted in the imagery of the magi provides some beautiful points for our contemplation. The essence of a religious conversion in Eliot's poetry is change; almost tortuous intellectual and spiritual growth that pushes the soul into a conflict between its old life of sin and its new life of grace.
This is exactly what this feast day is about…..change….transformation. Our spiritual lives can never be stagnant, they must always be moving, always be seeking, always striving for that more intimate experience of Christ. As Elliot depicts it it is not easy. There is the constant struggle between our old life and our new life. The old constantly pulls us back, the new constantly pulling us forward.
Elliot's poem emphasises just how difficult this striving is, this seeking, this journey. It is not easy. Each of us know this. The imagery suggests that a difficulty arises from the mixing of the old and new dispensations. The Magi are transformed by the revelation at the end of their journey, live on uncomfortably as a men of the new dispensation among people of the old. So true of each of us as we try to live our deep faith in Christ here on campus. There is a unease, a conflict of transformed faith existing in the unconverted environment. That is a life long spiritual tension with which we must all learn to live.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if each of our New Year's resolutions would be to be transformed in Christ? ... That we walk through this year with the adoration of Christ as the centre of our lives. At this time of year many customarily make solemn New Year's resolutions which have probably all been broken by this fourth day of January. These resolutions are usually pretty superficial. Losing weight, exercising more, studying a little more, giving a little more time to a particular course etc.,….each good in themselves but usually motivated by what Elliot would refer to as the old dispensation. Wouldn't it be wonderful if each of our New Year's resolutions would be to be transformed in Christ? To set out on a spiritual journey this year that ends in such a deep experience of Christ that like the Magi we go away transformed. That we walk through this year with the adoration of Christ as the centre of our lives.
This requires serious change….New Year's resolutions are about change, but are we really serious about them? Usually we don't really want to change and therefore we don't. This year I am asking you to make it your New Year's resolution to want to change, to grow spiritually. Transform the spiritual aspects of your life this year.
Spend more time in prayer. A quick hello as you climb out of bed and a quick good night as your head hits the pillow, with never another thought of Him throughout the day, just doesn't cut it Imagine if those few minutes were all the time you gave to other relationships in your life. They wouldn't last very long. It's true of our relationship with God. We need to spend some time with Him, in both formal and personal prayer every day.
Perhaps your New Year's resolution could be to commit yourself to praying part or all of the rosary each day.
Maybe your spiritual resolution would be to commit yourself to praying with Scripture each day through a disciplined daily reading of a paragraph, or a chapter of the Bible, especially books of the New Testament. Archbishop Meagher has challenged each of us to take the Gospel of Luke, because this is the Gospel we are following this year in our Sunday liturgies, and to study it and pray with it throughout this year.
Maybe your New Years resolution could be to commit yourself to learning more about the faith. Perhaps you might want to take one topic from the catechism and read that section over a period of time. It's divided into paragraphs that might take only a few minutes each.
Commit yourself to some spiritual re---ading to deepen your understanding of prayer, scripture and the teachings of the faith. Father Raymond and I would be delighted to help with some suggestions. We are here on campus as resources to be used by you. Don't hesitate to email one of us and we can get together or discuss the issue by email.
Is there that one nagging question that you have always wondered why the Church teaches what it does about it? Commit yourself to finding out the answer by either seeing Father Raymond or myself or by looking it up yourself. Don't have a rosary, a bible, a catechism? All of these can be found on the Internet. There are many links to various sites on our website www.newmanhouse.ca.
Like the Magi. The spiritual journey is long. The Journey is difficult. But, like the Magi the reward is so great we leave completely transformed. The reward is not possible without the journey. I would like to challenge each of you to set out on a spiritual journey this year that ends in such a deep experience of Christ that you will walk through this year with the adoration of Christ as the centre of your life. This New Year resolve that in 2004 you are going to be TRANSFORMED IN CHRIST.
http://www.newmanhouse.ca/homily/epiphany.html
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