Dear Caldwell,
I bet it’s the same in your life or where you work – we’re off and running hard. The holidays are fading fast in the rear view mirroir. The world beckons and pulls at us and the peace we knew at Christmas is fleeting.
The church’s liturgical calendar marks today as the Epiphany of our Lord. The 12 days of Christmas have now passed but not without the gift of an “epiphany” – an awakening, an enlightenment, a revelation. Thanks be to God.
In a sense, Epiphany completes the cross-shaped truth of the gospel. Christmas marks the vertical, the incarnation, God’s descent into the world as Emanuel; Epiphany introduces the horizontal element of that cross, the full manifestation of God’s will and the spreading-out of the Word across the world. That’s where the church comes, inspired always by the Spirit of God to be the Body of Christ.
Whatever today brings, find comfort and identity in the fact that you are part of what God is doing. In your own way, perhaps you can find a way to share the joy of our Epiphany with someone else.
In Christ,
John