World literature is filled with stories of "the search" - the voyages of explorers, the hunt for hidden treasure, the quest for the Holy Grail or the fountain of youth, and the never-ending search in the hearts of all for quality of life, for freedom and justice, and for peace. The Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord epitomizes all of the longings in the human heart for intimacy with God.
The Hebrew Scriptures were filled with promises about the coming of the Messiah. For the people, this meant liberation from oppression, from enemies, from poverty and slavery. But word of this promise filtered through to foreign nations and touched a universal need for redemption and reconciliation.
The search goes on, even in our own time. People hunger for truth, for a sense of the nearness of God and for an understanding of the mysteries of life. But they often tend to look in the wrong places. They fail to recognize the face of God in ordinary circumstances. All they can see is a broken world around them.
We can be so easily misled in our search for God. We look for miracles, for visions, for extraordinary manifestations. And all the while, God continues to show Himself in very ordinary ways - in the quiet heroism of those who suffer patiently, in the manifest heroism of those who risk their lives to save others, in the vigilance of those who defend our land and our values, in the gentle compassion of those who seek out the poor and the hungry. Most especially, God is with us in the day to day faithfulness of spouses, of workers, of leaders, of scientists, of advocates of all kinds, in all segments of our society.
The Christmas season comes to an end much more quickly than all of our preparations for its arrival. The Good News of Christmas and Epiphany is that God is with us - Emmanuel. And He manifests Himself to us in the most unforeseen, unexpected and yet most ordinary circumstances.
Our search goes on but so does Epiphany! God is never far away, never hidden from those who look with with the eyes of faith. But faith is not primarily about what we do. It is rather about what God does. More often than not our search will lead us to recognize His presence and His power in the sunrise and sunset, in the storm and in the calm, in the faces of children and in the wisdom of the elderly, in moments of elation as well as heart-break.
The Gospel tells us that God led the Magi to the Christ Child by the light of a star. Let us pray that God will give us the light that we need and guide us to what is good so that we can make our lives a gift to bring Emmanuel to our broken world.
