Epiphany of the Lord
The Orthodox Churches that follow the Gregorian calendar celebrate the baptism of the Lord in the Jordan River and his manifestation (epiphany) to the world.
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Homily
"Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses' arms." These words of the prophet open the feast of Epiphany. The Liturgy wants to show the path of men and women towards the Lord. There is a desire of universality and, at the same time an urgency that runs through this day: it is the deep desire of the Church that peoples would meet Jesus soon. At the bottom of the heart of each human being is a nostalgia for God that impels the Magi to tell Herod: "For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." They were men from distant lands, rich and wise, who had set off from the East towards the land of Israel to worship the new-born "king." And the Church, which wants to descend in the depth of the human heart, has always seen the entire humanity in the Magi. By celebrating the Epiphany, the Church wants to help each man and woman to meet that Child who brings us salvation.
The shepherds and the Magi were able to scrutinize the heavens. They were longing for a different, more just world; they raised their eyes and saw a "star." There is indeed a sense of relief in seeing a star, in feeling that we are accompanied and not abandoned to ourselves and our destiny.
The Magi urge us to rediscover the star of the Gospel, the Word of the Lord. As the psalm says: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (119:105). This light leads us to the Child. The Magi indeed followed the star and reached the place where Jesus was. There they "saw the child with his mother Mary, they knelt down and worshipped him. Their kneeling was the truest gesture. Along with Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds, the Magi understood that salvation meant welcoming the weak and defenceless Child into their hearts, and with him all the weak and defenceless ones even today.
The reaction of Herod and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem was quite different. As soon as they learned of the Child, they were all troubled and Herod was so troubled that he decided he wanted the Child's death. The magi save the child from Herod's cruelty. The wise men returned to their country by another route. When you meet the Lord, and welcome him in your heart, you are no longer as you were before, and you can no longer walk the road as you always did. Life changes and behaviours change with it. The magi are today next to us, rather, ahead of us, to help us raise our eyes from ourselves and direct them toward the star. They are ahead of us to guide us to the many places of this world in which lie the small and the weak. Blessed are we if, with the shepherds and the Magi we become pilgrims seeking the Child and taking care of him with affection. In truth, we will discover that he will take care of us.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
