THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD January 4, 2026

Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6 Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6 Matthew 2:1-12

The Epiphany celebrates light coming into the world. For us Christians, that light is Christ and He changes darkness into light so that we can see the world as it really is. Without His light, we can live only in darkness. The Prophet Isaiah reflects the hopes and dreams of many people of Israel for a future when everything is perfect and according to the heart of God. This hope and dream seems to appear in many cultures and religions. There is a longing for a perfect world in which there is no harm nor evil.

Some think that those who dream of a perfect world are simply avoiding the reality of the brokenness of our present world—for which there is no remedy. Others think that the only remedy is to seek human solutions to the problems of our world. We who have faith in Christ Jesus know that the only ultimate answer is faith in a God who loves us and whose power is at work in our world. But we Christians have a pretty sad history of “showing Christ to the nations.” So often all we have shown is division, greed, power and dominion. Instead of living out the love that God has for the world, we have used the revelation of God to achieve our own human goals of dominating others.

Today’s celebrations invite us to renew our commitment to God and to following God’s ways. We are invited to look at the new born Child and to recognize that the life that we have given to Christ in our own lives and in our world has become tarnished with our own brokenness. As always, we are not invited to despair, but to renew our faith and our hope in God. God can change the world. God does change the world through us. How the world is changed, for good or for evil, depends on the choices that we make: to follow the teachings of our God or to seek our own way of living. Just as the sages, the Magi, came from afar to seek the Lord, so we also come from afar to seek divine wisdom. The distance is never far, but we put ourselves far away from the divine in our own way. Let us ask that this Solemnity of Our Lord’s Epiphany might draw us to the light, might increase our longing for light and might invite us to change our lives to walk in God’s ways.

                 Fr. Terry