Original Manuscript:
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There’s this beautiful painting by a Belgian Surrealist painter named James Ensor. It’s titled “The Entry of Christ into Brussels”.
You’d think what this depicts is a glorious entrance of Jesus into the capital of Belgium. There is lots of fanfare around, but it seems more of the typical busy city kind.
You really have to lean in close to the painting. If you do, you’ll see a tiny depiction of Jesus riding on a donkey right in the center. He has a nimbus around his head that is pouring looking like the crown of thorns.
Yet the vast majority of the people, except maybe one or two, don’t notice Him. They are so focused on their own activities that they miss this glorious event.
Now it’s not like Jesus isn’t completely unnoticeable in this painting. He has this aura of light protruding from Him. He is revealed and manifested.
Manifestation: that’s the literal meaning of Epiphany. It’s a word we are more familiar with than you may even realize. When we talk about an idea popping in our heads, we say “I had an epiphany.”
We typically connect Epiphany with the Magi, but it is actually about so much more than that. Originally it was about the Magi, the Baptism of our Lord, and the Miracle at the Wedding in Cana. The Magi we covered on the Epiphany, the Baptism of our Lord we covered on the 1st Sunday after the Epiphany, and the Wedding at Cana we cover on the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany in Year C of the Lectionary.
All these events are about Christ being manifested in the world. The Magi followed the star proclaiming Jesus’ birth. In the Baptism of our Lord, the voice of the Father declares to all who would listen that Jesus is “my well beloved Son with whom I am well pleased” as the Spirit descends upon Him. The Wedding at Cana shows the manifestation of Jesus’ first miracle.
These are all ways in which Jesus shows Himself to the world. Yet like Ensor’s painting, if you’re not paying attention, you might miss it.
That’s what happens with the Star. Only the Magi notice it. If people had been paying attention at our Lord’s Baptism, a lot more would be following Him afterwards than there were. Now in Cana, the wedding guests point out the gloriousness of the final wine at the event. That Jesus actually turned water into wine in order to create it is only really known about and seen by His mother and the servants at the wedding.
Today’s readings are about keeping our eyes open to witness the Lord being present with us. This is from our very births, as Isaiah tells us. It is as we wait for God, as we hear in the Psalm. It is as we hear the Testimony of the Lord, as Paul speaks to the Corinthians. It is as we remember the great events of Jesus’ life, as we hear in the reflection of His Baptism from last week in the Gospel. It is as Jesus beckons us to “Come and See”, as He tells the first Disciples in Matthew.
In all these situations, God is there. The Lord is being revealed. The question for us then is are we listening?
It can be easy to be like the people of Brussels in Ensor’s painting, too focused on our own lives to see the Glory of God right there in front of us. We can simply miss the Lord’s Epiphany like those in Scripture who weren’t looking.
Our call is to be different. Our call is to keep our hearts and minds open so that we God is made manifest, we will see it. We need to keep our ears open to hear God’s Word when it comes our way.
The Lord is made manifest in so many ways in this world. It can be easy to miss that if we are not paying attention. This is why our readings call on us to listen for the call. That way we will hear it and be able to answer it when our Lord deigns to come among us.