COLLECT SERIES
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The Mass: Collect Series Icon |
T
The
Collect for Solemnity of Epiphany of The Lord reads as follows:
O God,
who on this day
revealed
Your Only Begotten Son to the nations by the guidance of a star,
Grant in
Your mercy that we, who know You already by faith,
May be
brought to behold the beauty of Your sublime glory.
Through
Our Lord Jesus Christ Your Son,
Who lives
and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God
for ever and ever.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
In making
this prayer tangible the following reflection questions emerged:
How
does God reveal Himself to me?
Do
I long to behold God’s glory?
How
will I increase my longing for God and the things of God through this week/year?
How will I adore the Lord this coming
week/this year? ( Eg set aside a regular time each day/week at exposition of
the Blessed Sacrament. If you are not
able to do it in person use the one exposition of the Blessed Sacrament which
is 24/7.
How
will I keep the message of Christmas alive each day during this year?
GOSPEL REFLECTION
The 3 Kings adoring the Incarnate Baby.
Today
the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Epiphany. "The Lord and ruler
is coming; kingship is his, and government and power." With these words,
the Church proclaims that today's feast brings to a perfect fulfillment all the
purposes of Advent. Epiphany, therefore, marks the liturgical zenith of the
Advent-Christmas season.
Epiphany means manifestation. What the Church celebrates today is
the manifestation of our Lord to the whole world; after being made known to the
shepherds of Bethlehem He is revealed to the Magi who have come from the East
to adore Him. Christian tradition has ever seen in the Magi the first fruits of
the Gentiles; they lead in their wake all the peoples of the earth, and thus
the Epiphany is an affirmation of universal salvation. St. Leo brings out this
point admirably in a sermon, read at Matins, in which he shows in the adoration
of the Magi the beginnings of Christian faith, the time when the great mass of
the heathen sets off to follow the star which summons it to seek its Saviour.
The gospel is from Matthew 2: 1-12. We see the Magi arriving from the East to do
homage to the Incarnate babe of Bethlehem.
They recognise Him because of the signs they were shown and they acted
on the signs. They did not just see the
star and that’ that’s nice or that is unusual and then get on with their lives.
No, they recognised it as something unusual and they came to do Jesus
homage. We might ask ourselves ‘are we
like the Magi’ who recognize the signs of God and act upon them and them action
or will we make the resolve for the to look out for the signs of God in our
lives and go and do Him homage.
What about Herod in this
Gospel account? He probably did want to
give God homage at some level but his obsession with his own power made him
feel threatened when the Magi arrived asking ‘Where is the newborn king of the
Jews’?
He took action to protect his
authority by summoning the Magi to a meeting to find out about his perceived
enemy in his mind. However, Herod had
made up his mind that the newborn King was a threat to him. He did not allow the information that the
Magi gave him sway his made-up
mind even though this information had the potential to change his heart and his
perceived fear would have been dispersed.
We may wish to ask ourselves
how we react when we have a perceived idea of something or more importantly
someone? Is our perceived idea of this
person correct or if we were given different information, would it change our minds? How do we feel when we feel threatened by
position of power, of status? Perhaps
someone at work threatens our livelihood or our status in the office. Herod was
not interested in changing his attitude but plotting and making his position
more secure. What have we done in the past and what attitude will we change
this year?
This Solemnity therefore
challenges us to ask ourselves
Will we be a Herod in our
attitude or
will we seek out God in our
lives and look for the signs and follow Him to adore Him?
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