First post of the New Year. I wrote an entry on January 1st, but it got lost somewhere in cyber space. Epiphany celebrates a journey that leads to an experience which lifts us into a new awareness of ourselves and of life in general. We put on new spiritual glasses that allow us to see the bigger picture. People love to buy different glasses to change their outer “look,” and we now have two new eye glass stores on two short blocks on Armitage, on the street where I live. There’s a song in there somewhere…

It is much more interesting and freeing to put on a different pair of, not frames ,but lenses. Perhaps these new “spiritual lenses “need no frame or border whatsoever. Without the frame containing the lens, our ability to keep refining and enlarging our field of vision will be made easier. The Magi entered the stable and surrendered to discovering God in a baby. Their whole lives changed as they journeyed to find this new born King and the journey was just beginning when they found Christ. After all, they had to change course…routes…to bypass the malevolent forces of Herod.
The Magi had an experience of “epiphany,” that changed the way they saw everything. The star that guided them in the sky gave way to the inner “star” or Light that would guide them for the rest of their lives. But they were totally open to this epiphany. Think of all the opposition and questions that would hound them by friends and family back home. Changing religion and faith can be monumental and earth shattering. Epiphanies may be moments of enlightenment, but they frequently come with rejection and even loss. Let’s face it: if you have had a life changing experience that is not shared by your spouse or friends or co-workers, they can either react favorably, reflecting on the change , or they can turn away because they can’t engage in a new way of seeing life.

But to grow is to change, to be gently moved, in seeing the world with a broader vision. And once this journey has begun, there is no turning back, despite the cost. If God wants us to share in restoring the world around the gospel and the Beatitudes, He will “manifest” and make known to us how we are to concretely make this happen. God wants you to be a living, human “epiphany” in which others can enlarge their field of vision, seeing through new “lenses.” People can be changed and brought face to face with the God of love …..through you.
May the God of all Epiphanies bless you throughout 2015.

Peace and Joy. Fr. Frank