by Fr Raymond Raj
Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm 71:1-2,7-8,10-13
Ephesians 3:2-3,5-6
Matthew 2:1-12
Theme: Jesus the Light
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
Speaking of journey, our life, human life is a journey. The human life is not a destination but rather our life is a journey.
Lao Tzu from China, he says:
The journey of thousand and thousand of miles always begins with a first step.
If you wish to evolve in your life, then you must travel, my dear friends. To evolve, you must make journey. So speaking of journey and destination, a little story.
A young Catholic priest like me, he was transferred to a new village. So the next day he went to the morning market to buy some groceries. Since he is new to the parish and also to the village, the young priest asked a very young boy, a little boy in the market, how to go to the post office because he is new to this village.
The young boy immediately took a piece of paper and drew the direction how to go to the post office.
The priest in return said, “Thank you very much, my dear boy. Do you know my name is Father John? I am the new Catholic priest in this town. This Sunday I will celebrate my first ever Mass in this village and I am going to preach about how to go to heaven, how to go heaven and I want you to come and attend the Mass.“
The young boy immediately said, “No, thanks, Father. No, thanks. I won’t be coming for your Mass, Father.“
Father John got a little bit angry and he asked, “What do you mean you won’t attend my Mass this Sunday? I am going to preach how to go to heaven?‘”
The young boy said, “Father, you don’t even know the way to the post office. But it seems that you know the way to heaven? It is a little bit absurd, Father“
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, in today’s Gospel, the three kings, the Magi from East, took initiative, took effort to pay a visit to do homage to the King of Kings. They themselves they are kings but they took the initiative, they put down their effort to go and visit the King of Kings. Their initiative today was led by a rising star in the sky.
So brothers and sisters, Epiphany, the Feast of Epiphany is the best way, is the greatest way to begin our new year because Epiphany is a story about people making a journey of faith. Epiphany means not only manifestation but it is journey of faith.
So brothers and sisters, all of us here, we are on our journey of faith. And most interestingly, our journey of faith is not private. Our journey of faith is synodal, togetherness.
So speaking of faith, the journey of faith, in the Old Testament, our Father of Faith, Abraham, he journeyed through the wilderness to the Promised Land.
In the New Testament, Mary and Joseph journeyed through mountains through Bethlehem in order to bring Jesus to the world.
In the post resurrection story, Jesus Himself also journeyed from earth to heaven to prepare a place for you and for me.
Which means, my dear friends, journeying, traveling, is part of faith.
The point I would like to make today for each one of you is after these three kings encountered Jesus and worshipped Jesus, their lives changed forever. In this verse, they say:
They returned to their own country by a different way.
Which also means their lifestyle changed after they encountered the person of Jesus Christ.
So my dear friends, when you and I, we encounter Jesus, our lives will also change. If you encounter Jesus. Because we die to our old self and we experience new life each time we experience, we encounter Jesus Christ.
So my dear brothers and sisters, our journey of faith, our journey with Jesus, only begins when you take the initiative to read the bible.
Of course, you can say, “Father, I have traveled to Rome, Europe, here and there so many times. I also have journeyed every where” but if you ask me, as a baptised Christian, your journey always begins with scripture, Word of God. Why I say this? Because Jesus Christ manifested Himself, revealed Himself fully only in the scripture.
So brothers and sisters, I invite you to today as all of us begin a new year, we will encounter Jesus daily, who is waiting for us in the scripture. And I leave with these words again:-
Faith is a journey, not a destination.
If faith is a destination, according to you, according to your opinion if you say, “Faith is a destination, Father, not journey“, then my next question is “Why do you delay to arrive at the finishing line?“
If you say faith is destination, why do you delay to arrive at the finishing line?
Amen.
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