GOD REVEALS HIS SALVATION TO THE NATIONS

SOLEMNTIY OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

Isa 60:1-6; Ps 72:1-2,7-8,10-13; Eph 3:2-3,5-6; Mt 2:1-12

Revelation of Salvation to the Nations

The solemnity of the Epiphany is about God’s revelation of the salvation he prepared for all peoples and nations. The prophecy of Isaiah concerning the great revelation is the first reading. God will reveal himself in Jerusalem and attract all peoples and nations to see the glory of that revelation for their salvation. “Arise, shine out, Jerusalem, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord is rising on you, though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples.” The darkness that covers the earth and the people is due to a lack of God’s knowledge on earth. The ignorance of God’s ways and will causes the people to wander in moral and spiritual darkness. When the people do not know the will of God on earth, forces of evil reign supreme and people lose hope of salvation or eternal life. The Lord, who is merciful and loving, does not deny us his light, for he made us for himself and not to be damned. Thus, the prophet Isaiah announces to Jerusalem the dawning of eternal salvation and divine light over her. “Above you the Lord now rises and above you his glory appears. The nations come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness.” The promised revelation of God’s salvation will not be for the Jewish nation alone, as in the Old Testament, but for all peoples and nations. God will draw or attract all peoples and nations to the growing and spreading divine glory over Jerusalem.

The Psalmist informs us of the mode of revelation of the glory. It will be through a son of David who will receive justice and judgement from God. We infer the original meaning of justice in this passage. According to St. Augustine, a man cannot be just who removes himself from the Lordship of his Creator for any reason whatsoever. Hence, the justice that God gives to the king’s son is the fear of God and the eagerness to accomplish the will of God. The same also explains his ability to judge the people and adjudicate between the nations. The one who is to judge justly must judge according to the will of God. Thus, his acquaintance with the divine will would cause justice to flourish and eternal peace in his days. Because of his knowledge of the will of the Father, he will live righteously and without end to his days. He causes the knowledge of God to fill the whole world as water swells the sea. His spreading or dawning glory will attract Kings and peoples as prophesied. We noticed these features in King David’s son, Solomon. His wisdom and peaceful rule attracted global attention and interest. Many kings and queens visited him with gifts. But the prophecy is about the true Solomon, Jesus Christ, who is the cause of our peace, for he restored justice in our hearts, and among nations. He builds the new Jerusalem that is his Body. It is the new Jerusalem that the prophet invites to look up and observe her children coming from all over the world. “Lift up your eyes and look round: all are assembling and coming towards you, your sons from far away and your daughters being tenderly carried.”

The beginning of the fulfilment of this prophecy is what the Gospel presents to us. The three kings from the east who saw the star signalling the glory of the great king born for all nations came to adore him. Following the star, they arrived in Jerusalem to inquire about the newborn king of the Jews. “After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews?’ they asked. ‘We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’” A little inquiry by King Herod revealed the birthplace of the new king. We understand that God never left his people in darkness concerning his will and the promise of salvation for all. Through his words uttered by many prophets, he guided his people and prepared them to hope for the salvation he promised from the moment of the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve. The few who longed and prepared for the promised salvation received the salvation when it came. But a great throng of the people of Israel to whom God entrusted the promise of salvation never desired nor prepared themselves to receive it when God revealed it. Even outside Israel, God prepared a people for himself who waited and longed for the revelation of God; they received him when he came. Among these were the Magi from the east, who came to adore the newborn king. When God, through the star, led them to the place, and they saw the baby and his parent, they adored him. “The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.”

Subsequently, those who learned about the birth of salvation for mankind are the children of Jerusalem who are being carried back to Jerusalem, as the prophet foretold. These children of Jerusalem are not all Jewish, for the Jerusalem of prophecy is not the geographical Jerusalem but a spiritual City of God. Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians explains this mystery further for us. In this new dawn of salvation, Jews and Gentiles have equal rights of participation and inheritance. “This mystery that has now been revealed through the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets was unknown to any men in past generations; it means that pagans now share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body, and that the same promise has been made to them, in Jesus Christ, through the Gospel.” We are celebrating the revelation of this mystery that Paul speaks of. God has called the Jews and Gentiles alike to the same inheritance in Jesus Christ. He is the king’s son who has received God’s justice and judgement to judge peoples and nations. He is the Cornerstone on which God is raising the new Jerusalem. The glory of this new Jerusalem, the Body of Jesus Christ, the Church, is spreading through the whole world, causing darkness of error and sin to disperse for the salvation of souls. With all the nations, let us fall prostrate before the newborn king of glory and worship him in words and deeds.

Let us pray: 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.