Homily by Br Luc for the Feast of the Epiphany
May the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be praised! Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany whereby God manifested or revealed His only begotten Son to the peoples of the earth by the leading of a star.
Our first lesson this morning comes from the book of the prophet Isaiah. “Arise and shine!” The prophet calls to the people of Israel and to us this morning. “For your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!” (60:1). This is a wake-up call that carries with it a lot of optimism, spoken to a people that were just returned from exile and who may have given up and most probably would have wanted to pull up the covers and continue in their slumber of the status quo. The prophet Isaiah presents a vision of hope and restoration, not just for the people of Israel but for all the nations… us included! He offers a vision of timeless majesty and the power of God’s reign breaking into our world and into everything.
Isaiah is trying to renew the hope of a community familiar with the imagery of light. Although this portion of the book, usually called 3rd Isaiah, was written slightly after the first wave of exiles had returned home from Babylon, they still needed encouragement so that they could become fully alive to the doings of God. The imagery helps move them from moments and clouds of confusion and despair to a brightness full of illumination and splendor. Isaiah reveals for them the morning sunlight streaming in as through a window after a dark night and shouts to them that the glory of the Lord is shining, “Wake up and shine along!”
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