We often use the word epiphany to describe an insight or an idea that seems to come out of nowhere. In scripture, an epiphany is an occasion when human beings encounter God. Sometimes it is in the form of dramatic meteorological events, the Hebrews being led by a pillar of fire in the sky. Sometimes less dramatic events, the small breeze in which the prophet Elijah encounters God. Today we find the magi encountering the reality of God in the most unlikely of places, namely, a fragile human infant laying in the feed trough of a barn.
On this feast we are reminded that we have been blessed with an Epiphany that others have been denied. Think of all the people who have been denied this Epiphany. Herod, the high priests of the temple, the many Pharisees, Pilate, and those who denied Jesus. We are among an honored group of people who have encountered the presence of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
One author I continue to go back to time and time again is the Jewish Rabbi and theologian Martin Buber. Buber writes in his masterpiece, “I And Thou”, about encountering Epiphanies in our lives. Remember, an Epiphany is a sacred encounter with God. Buber speaks of encounter these Epiphanies in three different places, he calls thresholds.
The first threshold is encountering God in nature. How many times have we been aware of God’s sacred presence looking at the sea, the mountains, the beauty of forests, and so many other majestic places that leave us with a feeling of awe and glory.
The second threshold is encountering God in out interpersonal relationships. Buber speaks of these relationships as windows in which we look upon the face of the “Divine Thou.” I think of my relationship with my wife, Ruth, who is for me, the greatest living expression of God. As I have said time and time again, in her arms I feel God’s embrace. From her lips I hear God say to me, “I love you.” and “I forgive you.” From her womb I have witnessed Creation as the birth of our four children. I have encountered God in the people I have served with and served over my 42 years of year ministry: the Latinos who I have served and have served me, in the nursing homes and the hospitals, in the county jails, in the homeless, the sick and the dying with whom I have spent time with and led in prayer, and everywhere I have served.
The third relationship has been than special place within me, where God and I meet. Often those encounters are in the silence of meditative prayer. I remember encountering God in the sound of one chord from Copland’s Appalachian Spring that left me weeping with joy, and in the music I have directed and have composed.
There are multiple Epiphanies in our lives if only we possess the ability to be aware of them. God encounters us in many different ways throughout our daily living. We don’t have to be magi, nor do we have to be Moses or Elijah to have Epiphanies. God is in our lives daily. All we need to do is notice and to adore God.
