Today, my brothers and sisters is Epiphany Sunday. The Magi, as narrated in the Gospel, journeyed to find the newborn baby Jesus. Leaving the security of their homeland, they ventured forth into a strange country in order to find the Savior. Like all men, these astrologers to were in constant search after human fulfillment, but they believed that only in the Savior Jesus they could finally find what they had been searching for all their lives. The Magi needed a star to guide them to Jesus, so we too need a guide for our spiritual journey. Our guiding star is obviously the Divine teachings of Christ. The more truly we follow our Lord’s teachings in our daily life, the more surely we will encounter
him and more easily he will be able to reveal himself to us.

In our journey towards a closer encounter with Christ, not all the time will be smooth and easy; neither was it so for the Magi. The Gospel says that when they set out on their journey they saw the “star as it rose”(Mt.2:2). The next time the star is mentioned is on the road to Bethlehem as they neared the end of their journey. “There in front of them was the star they had seen rising” (Mt2:9). The implication seems to be that in between they had travelled in darkness. It was for them like a night-time journey between two ports. It will be the same for us. As we start our journey on some road following our individual “vocation” in life, trying to follow the teachings of Jesus as our
guiding star, we may initially be attracted by a bright ideal or vision of hope. But when we are on our way, we must be ready to meet clouds that would blot out the light of faith and make us stumble and the darkness of faith may even discourage us from continuing our journey towards Christ. But we must not be discouraged or give up. We must keep going on. If we are courageous enough to keep going forward, we will see that the darkness will pass and once again we would have the glimpse of the initial star that we saw when we set out on our journey.

Happy Epiphany Sunday and Happy New Year 2009.

We will resume Adortation on Wednesday, January 7, 2009.

Fr. Seno