The Scripture texts offered to us during this time between Christmas and Lent draw our attention to the Lord Jesus' appearance--"Epiphany"--in human history. The gospels and the Hebrew texts point in several different ways to God's faithfulness to the ancient promise, "The virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14).
This liturgical season is one of great joy and wonderment. We come face to face with the almost unbelievable fact that God has so loved the world that the only son is sent to us. Creator touches creation in the most real way--in the person of Jesus the Christ. And he has made himself clearly known to us in his many epiphanies.
January 5: Epiphany Sunday
Jeremiah 31:7-14; Ephesians 1:3-6,15-18; John 1:1-18
These January Sundays begin, fittingly, with the prologue of John's gospel, that penetration into the very life and being of God: "In the beginning was [already] the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The passage goes on to announce the great Epiphany of the Word who is God, stating that this person who is with God was made flesh and pitched his tent among us. We cannot exaggerate the magnitude of this assertion. The divine, eternal, omnipresent--God--joins with that which is transitory, mortal, and imperfect--flesh. Because of this incarnation, "of his fullness we have all had a share."
The Hebrew scripture for this day and the reading from Ephesians help us to believe the great good news proclaimed in the gospel. The book of Jeremiah speaks of Israel's return from that horrible and unexpected exile from the promised land. If God can forgive and return the chosen people to their homeland with such a triumphant restoration ("They themselves shall be like watered gardens, never again shall they languish"), can God not raise up humanity itself, in and through the Word made flesh?
Likewise, in today's reading from Ephesians, Paul is lavish in his description of our incorporation into Christ. "God chose us in him...to be full of love; he likewise predestined us through Christ Jesus to be his adopted children...."
The negative reality of this is that whole segments of humanity suffer indignities of all sorts. The Word made flesh, who dwelt among us, dignifies every person and is the overriding motivation for the struggle to bring about a world where each person can live a fully human existence.
January 12: Baptism Of The Lord
Isaiah 61:1-4; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The second Sunday of January places before us the baptism of Jesus by John. We are prepared for Luke's narrative of this event with the reading from Isaiah, in which the prophet refers to the restoration of Zion. "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me... [the Lord] sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted...." The Isaian text is a distant mirror of what we shall read today in Luke's gospel about God's spirit descending upon Jesus at the Jordan River. The implication in the joining of these texts is that Jesus will announce and inaugurate the final restoration of the chosen people, indeed of all humanity.
In Luke's account of Jesus at the Jordan, little is mentioned of the baptism itself. Rather, Luke directs our attention to the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus and the voice proclaiming him to be the "beloved Son, on whom [God's] favor rests." The evangelist uses the title "Son" here to affirm Jesus' divinity. Later, Luke will link baptism to Jesus' death and resurrection: "I have a baptism to receive. What anguish I feel until it is over" (Luke 12:50).
Finally, in Acts we hear about the gifting of the Spirit to those who have heard and accepted God's word regarding Jesus, a confirmation of their incorporation into his body. Two of the apostles, Peter and John, ritualize the gift of the Spirit by laying hands on the new converts.
The presence and work of the Holy Spirit in salvation history is unmistakable throughout today's readings. She is the motivator, the consoler, and the seal on Jesus' life and work. She plays the same role in the lives of all of us who, down the corridors of time, accept Jesus and strive to follow him faithfully.
January 19: The Wedding Feast At Cana
Isaiah 62:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11
We are in a very different setting for the third Sunday of January, that of the wedding feast at Cana. It is nevertheless an epiphany of the Lord, his first public miracle. The role of Mary rivets our attention: She notices the wine's short supply; she takes action; she overrides Jesus' appeal to the fact that his "hour has not yet come"; she directs the steward to "do whatever he tells you."
Furthermore, Jesus uses the title "woman" in addressing his mother to indicate her crucial place in salvation history. She is the woman whose offspring will crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15); she is the one to whom Jesus will entrust the church (John 19:26); she is the one to whom "great things have been done" (Luke 1:49).
The Isaian reading for this Sunday uses the image of a wedding covenant to highlight God's care for the chosen people, even after their infidelity and exile to Babylon. "And as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you." The prophet prefigures the beginning of the messianic age that is pointed to in the wedding feast of Cana. There Jesus makes use of Jewish ritual objects--the stone water jars for purification--to make more wine for the celebration.
As is often the case in the lectionary, the middle reading offers a very different reflection from the first and third. Paul lifts up the challenging image of the variety of gifts with which the Spirit graces the church. All gifts are for "the common good." In an age where "me-ism" predominates, the reminder of gifts given for others comes as a healthy corrective, especially for church people.
January 26: Jesus Returns to Nazareth
Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-30; Luke 4:14-21
To prepare us for the remarkable story of Jesus' return to his home town of Nazareth, the Hebrew Scriptures describe the priest Ezra reading to the people from "daybreak till midday." Once again the context is the end of the terrible Babylonian exile. The people are exhorted "not to be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength."
Luke's gospel then portrays Jesus in his epiphany at the synagogue of Nazareth, selecting Isaiah for the reading and applying the text to himself: "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." It is the Lord's magna charta. He is the one sent to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, sight to the blind, and release to prisoners. He will "announce a year of favor from the Lord," a clear reference to the Jubilee year mandated long ago in the levitical texts (Leviticus 25). He is the one sent to bring justice.
One cannot read this text without remembering its modern application--the gospel call to the church for a preferential option for the poor. We find Christ infallibly in and among the poor; we experience in the poor what Jesus meant when he said "as often as you did it to one of these the least of my brothers and sisters you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40). After listening with our hearts to Luke's gospel passage of this day, we have to view religion and religious acts in a wholly new way.
Today's middle reading from Paul places before us the beautiful figure of the body and its members as an image of Christ and his followers. "It was in one Spirit that all of us, whether Jew or Greek, slave or free, were baptized into one body."
Joe Nangle, OFM, was outreach director of Sojourners when this article appeared.
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