EPIPHANIES

  

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Epiphanies.”

Epiphanies:  Appearances, Manifestations, Showings, Seeings, Insights, Moments of Light, Figurings, Enlightenments, "Aha" moments, Revelations, Realizations, Apparitions’, The Curtain Rises, The Mask Comes Off, I finally see, I finally get it, Understandings, ….

Epiphanies….January 6^th  or so.

Christmas - December 25^th  - Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds see Jesus….

Epiphany - the Magi - the wise men - the 3 Kings  - the outsiders - the non-Jews - the Gentiles see Jesus….

Epiphanies. 

QUESTION

Have you ever said, “I had an epiphany.”

Translation: “I saw something I never saw before.”  “I got an insight.” “Oh, now I get it. Now I see.”

It’s like someone tells a joke and some people get it and laugh. Others don’t get it. They scratch their head and sometimes they admit, “I don’t get it.”

Then - when they do get it - they go, “Oh…. Oh now  I  get it.”

If they really get it, they got an epiphany.

I knew an old priest and he loved to say to people, “How Long is a Chinaman.”

And they would always answer, “I don’t know.”

So he would say it again, “How Long is a  Chinaman.”

And the person would say, over and over again. “I don’t know.”

And he - with a devilish smile on his face would say it again, “How Long is a Chinaman.”

They still wouldn’t get it - till he shifted gears and would say, “It’s not a question. It’s a statement of fact.”  They wouldn’t get it till he would say, “It’s like saying, ‘Geronimo is a native America. How Long - that’s his name - is from China. He’s a Chinaman.”

It’s then they go, “Oh, Okay - now I get it.”

QUESTION

Have you ever had an epiphany of God.

When my brother got cancer - melanoma - at the age of 49 - the doctor told him, “You have 18 months to live.” It was Good Friday - 1984. And the doctor was right. He got all the treatments - chemotherapy - the works - but he died in 18 months. I just happened to drop in that Good Friday and I heard the bad Friday news. I asked him - in a one-to-one moment - “How are you going to handle this?”

He said, “I don’t know. I’ll let you know.”

Just before he died he said to me, “Remember when you asked me, ‘How I’m going to handle this?’ and I said, ‘I’ll let you know.’  Well, I found out, ‘Thank God for mom and dad. They gave us the gift of faith.’”

That moment was an epiphany for me. I too said, “Thank God for mom and dad - for giving us the gift of faith.”

I told my mom that and thanked her.

I also thanked whoever it was - their grandparents - their great grandparents - their great, great, great, great, grandparents. Was there someone way back when - who decided on God - decided on church - decided on letting it go and accepted God. Thank you.”

In the last few years I’ve noticed and I’ve thought about this gift called faith - that I’ve been given.

It was a given - but it has become an epiphany as I think of my brother and my mother - who was killed the following year in a hit and run accident.

Thank God for the gift of faith.

For starters, I think about it looking backwards.

I remember a sermon I heard a priest give.  He made a statement from the pulpit that went something like this.  Picture a little girl going to the bathroom on her own around 12 at night. She goes by her parents’ bedroom and she spots her dad kneeling down - with his back to her - and he’s leaning into his bed praying.

Then the preacher said, “That little girl seeing that scene by accident - is learning something that is much, much bigger than all the catechism lessons she will take - and all the Masses she’ll ever go to.”

Is that true? I don’t know. That’s something that can’t be proved - obviously. That can’t be measured.  It’s preacher’s exaggeration.

But you never know.

It got me to look back. I saw my dad with his prayer book - praying in the basement a few times. I used to have the 6 AM mass as an altar boy at OLPH Brooklyn and one time I had a side altar mass and I just happened to look out - and down the side aisle and there was my dad praying in a side bench.  I only saw him once.  I had assumed the was already half way to work by subway to the Nabisco Plant where he worked most of his adult life.

EPIPHANY - GIFTS

One of the messages of the Epiphany is that it’s gift day.

The 3 Magi - as the story - as the tradition - as the legend goes - brought gifts to baby Jesus - gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

In Latino and many other traditions this is the feast when kids get gifts.

For homework, this week, think about the 3 best gifts you have ever received in life - from your parents, whoever - your 3 best gifts.

I would say, Family, I would say Faith, I would say, Education.

When It comes to education I have discovered that I don’t have the math gene - but I got the imagination gift.

When it comes to sports, I have discovered that I wasn’t the best in sports, but I did get a great interest and enthusiasms for sports.

CONCLUSION

How about you? Today, this week, answer that question: what are the 3 best gifts you have received.  Next ask each other that question and listen to each other’s answers.  In fact, a good sign of listening is to ask another for clarification of the answers they have given.

Then say “Thank you” to parents, living and dead, former teachers and coaches and to God, and who have you, for the 3 top gifts you have been given. Amen.