SEEING THE INVISIBLE
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Seeing the Invisible.”
At various times I wanted to think about that reality and
then to say something about seeing the invisible.
On this the feast of the Epiphany – it might be a good time
to think about this theme – this reality of seeing the invisible, sensing the
invisible, realizing the invisible.
EPIPHANY
Epiphany is a great word.
It means seeing, grasping, getting, understanding,
intuiting, showing, knowing – what I didn’t know before – seeing what’s always
around me – and finally not missing the obvious.
It means revelation, manifestation, evidence, indication,
bodying forth, incarnation, theophany, Christophany, disclosure, indication,
evidence, make plain, make clear, illuminate, highlight, materialize, opening
one’s eyes, having an eye opener, appearance, bring to the surface….
It’s sort of like hearing a joke and people are laughing
at the joke and I don’t get it. Finally, I have the courage to ask, “What’s the
joke? What’s so funny? I don’t get it.” Then someone explains it to me and I
go, “Oh! Now I get it. Okay good.”
Today’s feast has a key message about how to get to the
invisible: sometimes we have to travel a
long distance to arrive at Christ – who brings us to God – who helps us realize
that He is God. Today’s gospel tells us
about the 3 wise men arriving in Jerusalem and asking “Where is the new born
king?” For epiphanies, we have to ask questions.
Who would believe God – the invisible God – would become
visible in the presence of a baby – the Christ?
Not everyone gets that – accepts that – grasps that – but
any of you who have had a baby knows, if anyone can change our life, it’s a
baby.
Being male, never having had a baby, I’ve often wondered
what thoughts a mother to be must have as a baby is growing, developing, moving,
kicking, in her womb.
I love the words in Psalm 139:13 – where the song writer pictures
God as a knitter and says, “It was you
who formed me. It was you who knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
How could anyone not be in awe, filled with amazement,
wondering, worrying, making acts of faith, praying – as a baby starts to grow,
push, start to say without words,
“Hello!” in the womb of her or his mother?
How can anyone expecting a baby – not believe in the
invisible?
Is that harder to believe than hearing the Good News that
God would appear and be in bread, wine, food – body, blood, divinity?
It’s a gift to see this – to get this epiphany – this revelation
to us from God.
It’s a gift.
That gift comes to us by faith – and hope – and love.
TODAY’S FIRST
READING
Today’s First Reading from Isaiah 60 is all about
Epiphany.
It’s all about being in the dark – and then seeing the
light.
It’s all about being surrounded by clouds – and finally
there is a break through.
Today’s First Reading is all about hitting the lottery –
with gifts – caravans of camels arriving in our mind – in our stable - with gifts of gold and frankincense – and
faith. Joy to our world, the Lord has come.
Today’s First reading is all about radiance – light.
I remember a baptism here at St. Mary’s one Sunday afternoon. The sunlight
found a spot to shoot through the stained glass windows – and light appeared on the baby’s face – in her carrying
case. Suddenly her face was bathed in
light – she smiled - and her whole
family saw the moment – all at once with the camera of their eyes – and all
said “Ooooh!” OOOO H – “Ooooh.”
I remembering visiting a family and their only son was climbing
up on the metal radiator – along one of the sides of the room – and I could hear
his shoes hitting the metal – but his parents didn’t even notice it. And he was
holding onto the window sill with one hand and with the other hand he was
grasping at something and I asked, “What’s Little Sal doing?”
His mom looked over – studied the moment and said, “Oh,
he does that all the time. He’s trying to grab the light.”
I thought for a moment and said, “Don’t we all? Don’t we
all?”
Aren’t we all trying to make the invisible visible?
LOST AND FOUND
It hit me once when someone lost their wedding ring –
that they could buy a new wedding ring.
Ooops – obviously – I didn’t put my foot in my mouth. A new wedding ring
would not be the same as the one they lost.
Of course.
Of course there is a difference between a wedding ring in
a jewelry story window or locked glass case and the wedding rings on the ring
fingers of the persons on the street going by the jewelry store.
You can’t see the difference – but there is a vast
difference.
Wedding rings scream to me – the invisible can become
visible – in time.
I do a lot of weddings and I know by now the significance
of words as in vows and the significance of rings – as in wedding rings.
My mother was walking down the street in Brooklyn once
and a guy came running down the street – behind her – grabbed her pocket book
and she fought him over her pocket book. He got it and ran into the cloud of
unknowing. I told her that I was taught when I was working BINGO at a church in
Manhattan, “If anyone tries to rob you of the money, don’t fight them. Let them
steal it from you. It ain’t worth it - compared to being hurt.”
And my mom said, “I know. I know. But I couldn’t let go. And it was just an old
pocketbook – with nothing worthwhile in it.”
Then she said, “Till I realized a rosary Jack Laffey gave
me was in my pocketbook.”
This parish has made over a million ranger rosaries – but
I bet there is a rosary out there that some Marine will hold onto for life –
because he felt it helped him through 3 tours of duty in Iraq and then 2 more
in Afghanistan.
You can’t see what’s in a rosary – but there can be a lot
in one – for those who see the invisible.
AT THE
GRAVESIDE
One last example and then a short conclusion.
A woman somewhere along the line asked me if I thought
she was crazy – because she liked to take a beach chair to the cemetery and set
it up on the grass above her husband’s dead body. She would face the head stone
and talk to him and pray with him to our God.
Wow! I could picture that. Afterwards, I realized I was
hearing the best Creed I ever heard. She
was making an act of faith in Christ – in his Resurrection from the dead. She
was making an act of faith that life is everlasting life – that when I die –
and my loved ones die, there is life for on and on and on.
Life is invisible – yet we know the difference between a
person who is walking down the street and a person in a coffin in a funeral
parlor.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily was, “Seeing the Invisible?”
If we think about it, there are millions of memories and
stories embodied in this church – in these benches – in these sacred places. I
can see it in the faces of people who visit this church from time to time and
say – pointing to the front of this church: “I was married here 45 years ago.”
I can also sense it in homes – hospitals – bars – beaches – parks – lakes and rivers – places where we
walked and talked.
Memories cling to stone and space – streets and schools.
If we think about it, a flag is cloth and a dish rag is a
rag – but what a difference even if both have red, white and blue in them –
even stripes – but what a difference.
If we think about it, all those dates on a calendar, are
somewhat the same – but then - some have great significance – our birthday, the
death day of our mom or dad, or a day like September 11.
To be human is to know these things. To have faith is to
know God is here and watching us and after us – and into the beyond – into the
forever.
To pause to get that – at least glimpses of this - is an
epiphany. Thank you God.
oooooooooo
Concerning the picture on top of this blog piece. I found this wood engraving on line. Below
it was the following comment: “The Flammarion engraving is a wood engraving by an unknown artist that first appeared in Camille Flammarion's L'atmosphère: météorologie
populaire (1888). The image depicts a man crawling under the edge of the sky,
depicted as if it were a solid hemisphere, to look at the mysterious Empyrean beyond. The caption underneath the engraving (not shown here)
translates to "A medieval missionary tells that he has found the point where
heaven and Earth meet..."
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