If you listen to the popular commentaries of the day, they will tell you that the fastest growing religious demographic is the “nones”, those who do not have any particular faith. They are not atheists, but they are just ambivalent about manners religious. While their numbers are growing, it helps to remember in context that this pool is very small to begin with. A far more dangerous threat is a lax Christianity that the Feast of the Epiphany helps to combat.
What is the hallmark of this lax Christianity? While you will hear many opinions, I believe this aspect of it is important. The lax Christianity in fashion in our Church today treats God as some passive being which we discover, typically through our own feats of genius or endurance. We go on spiritual journeys and expect at the end of them to find a spark of the divine which will give us some life changing truth. They might even point to the story of the Epiphany, where a few wise men embark on a journey of spiritual fulfillment.
This only tells half the story, and the propers for today’s Mass help tell us the full story. They present a God who actively calls us, and uses everything at his disposal to get our attention. For these wise men, it was a star in the sky which guided them every step of the way. Just as they were guided by the star, so the Collect asks God to guide us to Him, to “contemplate the beauty of Thy majesty.”
What is the purpose of this contemplation? Contrary to the popular narrative, it is not some “spiritual fulfillment.” As we are led to contemplate God, such a point is not the destination, but the beginning of another journey. The epistle helps us to understand this when it speaks “the gentiles shall walk in thy light.” After commanding us arise, Israel encounters God and is enlightened, and then itself serves as light for those seeking God. We not only light the way, we guide people along the way to God. When they have this encounter, they begin the process anew. Like us, they “return home” in the Gospel, albeit a “different way.” They as well become part of God’s call.
This is the Epiphany we celebrate: that of God calling the world to “come and see.” We find this not just with the story of the Magi, but even the original calling of the Apostles. Andrew encounters Christ, and is immediately sent to Peter. Phillip also experiences this, and immediately tells Nathaniel “come and see.” When Christ is revealed to the Samaritan (John 4:29), she returns to her village, telling all to “come and see” the man who has told her everything she had done. Even in the Apocalypse, the four creatures call us to witness what God is doing by, you guessed it, “come and see.”
Are we doing this in our Churches today? Is the Church as an Institution doing this? Far too often, in a display of faux humility, we shy away from this role of evangelization, stating that “it is the Holy Spirit” that draws souls to God, rather than ourselves. This is true in a big picture sense, but how do you suppose the Spirit draws souls, if not through the created world, which includes us?
Suppose that we are brave enough to tell people “come and see.” Come and see what? Come and see our youth group? Our charitable services? Our organist? Our dynamic pastor? Our “faith community?” There’s nothing inherently Christian about any of these things. The only answer that is acceptable is “come and see the one who knows everything about you, and once you meet him, changes you to be able to do what you were called to do, bring light and goodness to the world.” Come and see Jesus Christ. All those good things we do are meant to help draw people to Christ. Church music sets the tone and helps lead people to Christ. (This fact should be a stinging condemnation of most Church music.)
The empty Christianity we often preach doesn’t offer any of this. If it mentions Christ, it mentions it in the sense Herod mentions it in the Gospel. He’s treating Jesus as more of tourist attraction, something big and important, but in his land. He wants the Magi to go see the tourist attraction sure, but make sure to come back, and tell him how the experience was. Tell me what great things are present in my land! He wants to co-opt the message of God for his own ends. Notice he only tries to eliminate Christ after this attempt.
This is the second great temptation the Epiphany is meant to combat, and it is every bit as deadly as the first. God wants to call the wise men to see the infant child to transform their hearts and to become witnesses in their own lands. Herod wants to use God’s call for his own ends. Today there are those who seek to use the call to evangelize and preach the Gospel for their own ends. They empty the Gospel of its transformative power, and replace it with a call of simply mercy and forgiveness. They transform the church into just another do-gooder social institution. She’s no longer meant to save souls, but simply to care for their temporal needs. When pressed, they will certainly uphold a belief in the transformative power of the Gospel. That transformation just isn’t a priority. This kind of thinking cuts across ideological and factional lines.
It is for this reason that the Communion verse puts the focus of God’s call upon calling us to worship Him. We have seen his star, and we come to adore Him. In this way, the Epiphany takes up a Eucharistic dimension. Creation (including us humans) is the star that guides people to the Divine Liturgy known as the Mass. It is there the baptized encounter Christ, being changed by Him in the Eucharist. We are then set out to evangelize the world, guiding them in the light of Christ that now exists within our souls. When the Postcommunion asks that we “grasp the meaning of the solemn rite we celebrate”, that is what they mean. In every Mass we experience the Feast of the Epiphany, and we end every Mass like the wise men, leaving “a different way” to bring others to experience the same thing they did. To “come and see.”
