When I became a Dad for the first time and I first encountered my baby daughter Journey on the day she was born, the best way I can describe the experience was that I had this overwhelming sense that a new chamber of my heart had been opened and filled that I never previously even knew existed. For me, that encounter was a manifestation of the good and the beautiful at such an extraordinarily intense level that it was an epiphany. Something happened that day that changed my life forever. No longer, was I living my life for my own selfish purposes. Now, I was living my life for someone else. That experience has never left me. To this day, I still am moved by that encounter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carl Jung said, \u201cthe meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.\u201d We saw this principle at play today with the Magi\u2019s encounter with Jesus. After their worshipping Jesus, today\u2019s Gospel reading says this about the magi, \u201cthey departed for their country by another way.\u201d When we truly encounter the living God, we can\u2019t go on just existing as before. We can\u2019t go back to the same way of life as before. Our very beings and our path in life are changed forever. So, this explains how we are changed by an encounter with Jesus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how is Jesus changed by an encounter with us? As for Jesus, when we come to a place of worshiping Jesus, the Body of Christ also grows. Speaking of worshipping, I think the magi could teach us a thing or two about worshipping Jesus. When the magi left their country to follow the star, what were the magi looking to get from their journey? What did they expect to get from this journey? Their motivation was to get nothing. Their motivation was to give. The magi came to give Jesus their gifts and their worship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about us? Why did we come here today? To fulfill an obligation? To get eternal life insurance coverage by making premium payment? To get something out of it? This way of approaching worship would have been very foreign to the magi. When it came to their faith journey and their worship, their motivation was to give. To give gifts of great value; their worship, to give gold to the newborn king of kings; to give frankincense to God incarnate, to give the embalming oil of myrrh to the only baby who was born to die \u2026 for the magi, for you, and for me. Their motivation was to give everything to the only one worthy of their everything. The magi left their encounter with Jesus with less in their hands than when they came to worship him. A great pastor once told me that even if we feel like we left less in our hands, we always walk away from Mass with more in our hearts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When was the last time we approached worshipping by focusing on what we are going to give Jesus? All too often, we come to worship focusing on what we expect to get. Do we ever actually listen to the words we sometimes say after Mass? I went to church, but I wasn\u2019t fed. I went to Mass, but my spiritual needs weren\u2019t met. I went to Mass, but I don\u2019t like that teaching. I went to Mass, but that Mass sucked, the homily didn\u2019t inspire me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we walk into Mass, we get to hear God almighty speaks to us. Jesus gives us his very body, blood, soul, and divinity and while we still have Jesus present inside us, Jesus has to listen to us complain about not getting enough and whining about not being fed. In these moments, if we would just stop complaining, be quiet, and be still, I think we could feel and hear the newborn King weeping within us. Like a baby who weeps from feeling neglected, this baby who came into this world for you longs for you. This baby longs for each of us to have an epiphany and for us to realize that this baby came here to be reborn in each of us. This baby, his goodness, and his beauty never ceases to draw a people to himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to receive what our hearts are longing for, we don\u2019t have to walk a long distance like the magi. If we have faith, ears to hear, and eyes to see, we can hear the voice of the one we long for and we can see the body of the one we long for here with us today. When we truly worship God, we realize there is nothing more that we are waiting for. The one who has already given us everything he had to give is here today to give the only gift that truly keeps on giving, himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The baby that has come to fill and grow our hearts bigger than we ever thought possible wants nothing more than to have the gift of your heart, to be adored by you, and to be loved by you. When we have the epiphany that this is the only gift that Jesus truly wants, we realize that Jesus came not so we would have less. Jesus came to bless. It is when we give our gift to Jesus that we discover our salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Epiphany of the Lord <\/em><\/strong>Christmas Cycle A \u2013 January 8, 2023<\/strong>
Mass Readings:<\/em>
Reading 1: <\/em>Is 60:1-6<\/a>
Psalm:<\/em> Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13.<\/a>
Reading 2: <\/em>Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6<\/a>
Gospel: <\/em>Mt 2:1-12<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I became a Dad for the first time and I first encountered my baby daughter Journey on the day she was born, the best way I can describe the experience was that I had this overwhelming sense that a new chamber of my heart had been opened and filled that I never previously even … <\/p>\n

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