We Celebrate the Light of Faith: Epiphany

Today is the feast of light! "Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you." (first reading). We celebrate the gift of faith which is like a bright light shining upon our lives. We celebrate also the calling of all men, including the Gentiles, symbolized by the Magi, to receive the light of faith. Without the light of faith, we would really be walking in the dark.

All of us here have grown up with the gift of faith. That is why we so easily take it for granted. We don't realize what life would be like without it.

The most basic truth we receive through faith is the simple fact that God loves us! No pagan religion ever thought of God as loving us. For them, God was the creator of all things, in many cases he was the superpower causing good and evil in our world. People worshiped God not because they loved him or felt like praising or thanking him, but only to win his favor and appease him, lest he cause them harm. For them, God was very much the source of life and fertility, and the people offered him sacrifices to have good crops and be spared such evils as droughts and famines. But God was also a whimsical God who used his tremendous power to destroy through floods, lightning, hurricanes, etc. It was a nature god, identified with the forces of nature, but with no love, no feeling. A god, rather impersonal.

Against this background, we can appreciate better our God who is a loving person, he cares for us. He is close to us and his kindly providence watches over us, guides us. We can turn to him in prayer, knowing that he cares and wants to help. Prayer is not a magic ritual by which we try to bring God under control, as in pagan cults. God is a loving Father. What joy, what peace this simple, basic truth of our faith gives us!

Faith reveals the love of God and his fidelity throughout the Old and News Testament. Faith reveals also his designs for our salvation and happiness. "God so loved the world that he gave us his only-begotten Son, that all who believe in him may not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Faith gives us that wonderful, fantastic hope of everlasting life with God in Heaven. What a bright light to guide and sustain us in this life! Because of this great hope which shines like a beacon in the fog, we can find joy even in the midst of trials.

Today we celebrate the joy of knowing God, who reveals himself to us in Jesus, the light of the world. Epiphany means precisely the manifestation of God. God manifesting himself in Jesus, the God-Man.

The wonderful thing about Jesus is that he can be known by all men. He came to save all men. He is a light for all: the simple, uneducated, like the shepherds of Bethlehem; the learned and the wise, like the Magi.

Faith does not depend on our degree of intelligence or education. It is God's free gift to all who accept Jesus as their God and Savior. Jesus came to save all men and he makes his salvation available to all.

If you have a flashlight to guide your steps at night, it will be just as bright if you don't know a thing about electricity as if you do. And a simple man with his flashlight has a better chance to find his way in the dark than a man of science without the flashlight.

So it is with faith. Jesus came to save all men: the learned and the ignorant. That is why he made it so simple to know God and his plan for our happiness and salvation.

Actually, all it takes to believe is an open mind and an open heart; and also, of course, a bit of humility. And because of this, the less sophisticated people are sometimes better disposed to believe in God without understanding than people of science, who find it hard to accept what they do not understand, what they cannot explain rationally.

Faith is accepting the testimony of one who knows. This is a part of our everyday life. We read a book, for example, about Europe, the Holy Land, or any foreign country we have never visited. We take it for granted, without questioning, that the writer knows what he is talking about, and after reading the book, you feel you have learned many interesting facts. You know these by faith. You believe the testimony of the writer. Faith brings to you much valuable knowledge.

You read the newspaper everyday, watch the news on TV. You generally believe the facts reported as news; you accept the testimony of others about events and places you have not seen first-hand. That's how we learn in school also, very much.

We gain most of our knowledge by faith like that. And that knowledge guides us in life. It is a precious light. We don't complain that we have to take somebody else's word. We rather rejoice that other people have so much knowledge they are willing to share with us. And with such knowledge we consider ourselves truly "enlightened." We pride in our knowledge, not only the knowledge we gained by personal experience, but also the knowledge received from the testimony of others.

Now if we accept human testimony, writes the Apostle John, why not the testimony of God, which is much greater? (cf. 1 Jn 5:9).How much superior is that knowledge and wisdom to that of man! Walking by faith is not putting on a blindfold, and saying, "I don't know, but I accept it on faith." Faith is knowledge, it is divine wisdom shining upon us; it is walking in the light of God.

That is what we are celebrating today! Let us rejoice and thank God this day, for the wonderful light of faith he has given us in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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