Epiphany at Mississippi Abbey

Scripture Readings: Is 60:1-6; Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6; Mt 2:1-12

Today’s opening prayer tells us what we celebrate on the Solemnity of the Epiphany: “Revelation to the nations by the guidance of a star…” What is revealed? The glory of God. What about the star? It shows that we each receive this revelation by the object of our faith. The contrast portrayed between Herod and the Magi shows the difference between faith in self and faith in other-than-self. The wise men came by one route and left by another. This shows that this revelation of gory is received by conversion.

“Glory” means the importance or ‘weight” that something or someone has. It seems that this gospel is telling us that it is our sense of importance, of what matters most, of what we are living toward that is converted. Jesus Christ, pointing to His Father, is what is most important and all else is subjected to that; things like gold, frankincense, myrrh, and the crowns of other kings.

Here again the contrast between Herod and the wise men can be instructive. This gospel is not about an historical event; it is a story of the interior life of the characters, of what the heart is set on, that is relevant for us today.

The interior life of Herod was centered on self-seeking through protecting his power. That was what mattered most. This required scheming by feigning piety to secure political position. His response to the news of the birth was violence. He invented “bad guys” and scapegoated them.

The wise men, on the other hand, were not seeking power. They were not seeking self, but one greater than self. They didn’t scheme; they followed a guide. Upon finding the infant they showed true piety by worshipping. They made sacrifice. They were not heirs to Jewish tradition, yet made a stunning display of the virtue of religion.

Which interior life appeals to you? Which do you admire? Which resembles you?

I think most of us would say that we’ve experienced some of both traits at different times and about different issues over the course of our lives. I know I can say that. Which traits we showed and under what circumstances tell us about our sense of importance…of value. A sense of the importance of the glory of God has not always been apparent to us. That can change when we become dissatisfied with it. Dissatisfaction often happens when we get used to the satisfying or when the consequences of our actions come at us faster than we can lower our standards. Then we become receptive to Grace…and to mercy.

Personally, I experienced this grace and mercy as God’s glory…His importance, His weight in my life that outweighed previous attractions.

This is the way it usually goes. Ones personal dissatisfaction is met by God’s grace and mercy… and today we celebrate that this is available to everyone. It is revelation “to the nations.” The revelation of the glory of God is available to those who have never heard of it; to those who have turned away from it; to those who need it and want it. Matthew tells of that. He, however, reports that those who respond to the infant Jesus are shepherds and foreigners; no religious leaders show interest or recognition. I take that as a caution that self-satisfaction can displace dissatisfaction. Not good.

Monastic life can become focused on performance rather than religions interior acts of devotion and prayer. Merton noted that it can create divisions as “one admires the distance between self and another.” Matthew reports that the Magi “prostrated and did Him homage… and offered their treasures.” These exterior acts of adoration and sacrifices were incited by the interior acts of devotion. It united them. Where Herod gave priority to his own personality, the wise men preferred shared principles. Where Herod reacted to his dissatisfaction with resentment, the wise men showed admiration. A focus on one’s own strong will and correct performance blocks awareness of the grace and mercy of God and thus His glory is never seen. Instead, let us live in the truth of our need for a savior. “Come, let us adore.”

Epiphany at Mississippi Abbey

Scripture Readings: Is 60:1-6; Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6; Mt 2:1-12

The Church has often interpreted the three kings as symbols of the universality of Christ’s saving act: Pope Benedict also noted that they represent the three developmental stages of life: infancy, youth, and old age. The point is: Christ came to save ALL people. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that we read today makes this clear: “…the Gentiles are co-heirs, members of the same body, and co-partners in the promise of Christ Jesus…”

We don’t know what sort of impact the visit had on the three kings. The experience of Christ is an interior one. He came to save us interiorly. By His teaching and healing He changed our interior and we manifest this in how we live exteriorly. In other words, we follow Him and live toward, organize our lives toward, the same end that He lived His: union with the Father. We call ourselves Christians. As we asked ourselves a few years ago: what is it like to be a Christian…on the inside?

By living toward this shared end we organize the use of and assure our freedom. The value of things we encounter in life, how they will affect us, are assessed by their contribution to the end that we share with Jesus Christ. Freedom and valuing are very important interior experiences.

Our freedom is motivated on the inside, as St. Augustine tells us, by a restlessness that persists until the end is reached. That restlessness is an unfulfilled love. The Christian would not be lulled into using temporary things to satisfy this restlessness. Instead she is given a mission and grace by which to live out the love.

The means used to reach that end is the imitation of Christ. “Have this mind in you…” Arguably, the most important use of our freedom is in who we choose to imitate; to be like. It is here, with the motivations and the means that we discover a discrepancy between what it ought to be like to be a Christian and what it is like. Unlike Christ, our love is divided. His love was so committed that He emptied Himself. Ours is selfish and so divided between the Father and our own personal self-satisfaction and things that give it. The tension between what it ought to be like and what it is like forms each man & woman’s personal solitude. We feel accountable for how we use our freedom. Freedom, by its very nature, reminds us that we could have used it otherwise.

The Christian life is not simply a matter of doing nice, loving things or having such an attitude. Rather, it is a concrete determination of who or what kind of person we shall be. It is developed throughout our lives. Our Christian character is formed by living out a story, the Gospels, that our community, the church, gives us. In this story we let God determine our character through His sanctifying work. Our Christian interior is formed by having certain intentions and beliefs and not others. “Have this mind in you…” We would like to be consistent about this, but find we often are not. Such inconsistency does not mean that we don’t have character; it only means there are inconsistent aspects to it.

So being a Christian on the inside also means having certain intentions and beliefs and not others. These are given in the gospel. Thus, Christian interior life has two poles: distrust of self and complete trust in God. We move from one end to the other by the virtues of faith, hope, and love. This trust happens when we experience God’s fundamental act of paternal love: liberation from Egypt. Then we know we have a savior. And when you know this, you know in a most personal and intimate way, as only you can know, what it is like to be a Christian…on the inside.

Epiphany at Mississippi Abbey

[Scripture Readings: Is 60:1-6; Eph 3:2-3, 5-6; Mt 2:1-12 ]

Pope Benedict writes in his new book Jesus of Nazareth: the Infancy Narratives, that the three wise men represent a unity of the races around Jesus Christ. The three are said to represent the three continents known to Evangelists at that time: Africa, Asia, and Europe. The Holy Father tells us the three are also representative of the three developmental stages in life: youth, maturity, and old age. The point is that Christ has come for all and all are moving toward Him. And they are doing so freely. It poses to us again the question that we considered at the end of Advent: What is it like to be a Christian?

To answer that, you have to get inside the mind of a Christian. And the only Christian whose mind you can get inside is your own.

Then what is a Christian? A Christian is thought to be someone formed by the traditional doctrines of the church. Traditional doctrines are what form a Christian; that is why some theologians want to change what doctrines are. They want to change what it is to be a Christian. So to know what it is like to be a Christian, we have to know what its doctrine does to one…on the inside. Furthermore, we would have to study someone fully formed in orthodoxy. That is not easy to find. So instead we ask ourselves, “What ought it be like to be a Christian? What ought it be like on the inside?” Evagrius asked himself this. So did Saints Benedict and Scholastica, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Teresa of Avila and every serious Christian since. It is what we asked ourselves when we deliberated about entering a monastery.

What it ought to be like on the inside is that we have an end that we are living toward. That end is union with God. Having that end is our center around which everything is organized. It determines how we will use our freedom. The value of things we encounter in life, how they will affect us, are assessed by their contribution to the end.

Our freedom is motivated on the inside by a restlessness that persists until the end is reached. That restlessness is an unfulfilled love. The Christian would not be lulled into using temporary things to satisfy this restlessness. Instead the Christian is given a mission by which to live out the love.

The means used to reach that end is the imitation of Christ. Arguably, the most important use of our freedom is in who we choose to imitate; to be like. It is here, with the motivations and the means, that we discover a discrepancy between what it ought to be like to be a Christian and what it is like. Unlike Christ, our love is divided. The tension between what it ought to be like and what it is like forms each man and woman's personal solitude. We feel accountable for how we use our freedom. Freedom, by its very nature, reminds us that we could have used it otherwise.

So to be a Christian on the inside is to live with that ongoing sense of tension…and downright failure. St. Bernard often wrote of our misery when the image and likeness of God is disfigured. This misery usually strikes when the consequences of our actions come at us faster than we can lower our standards. It is enough to make you think you need a savior! Thus, Christian interior life has two poles: distrust of self and complete trust in God. We move from one end to the other by the virtues of faith, hope, and love. This trust happens when we experience God's fundamental act of paternal love: liberation from Egypt. Then we know we have a savior.

And when you know this, you know in a most personal and intimate way, as only you can know, what it is like to be a Christian…on the inside.