Sunday January 4th. 2009
who really search will find him. He will shed light into our darkness and make us new.
As the Christmas season draws to a close with faded holly and sagging decorations, the Epiphany reminds us of our journeying into another year following the individual path which we alone tread. Life is a pilgrimage, a long journey, but we need not necessarily travel alone as we make our way towards heaven. The Epiphany story concerns the many varying circumstances of joy and sorrow in which we encounter Christ. It calls for us to look around and search for our Lord who is always in our midst, in so many of our ordinary situations. He comes in the needs of many of the people we meet daily, and in places and times we would least expect him to be. God stands in our very midst revealing himself and inviting us to enter his company. Nothing is ever the same again for those who have discovered this Light. The responsibility we bear is to let the divine Light within us shine through us to others, like the sun shining through a stained glass window The gospel of love, forgiveness and redemption is something we are asked to practice in our every-day life. May Christ's Light lead us all safely through this new Year of 2009, and may he accompany us in all we do, and may we see him present in the poor, the needy, and indeed, in every situation.
In our present age, there are so many people now seeking a meaning to life, for they are no longer fulfilled by the glamour of wealth and materialism. The collapse of the stocks and shares market in the city, and of the banking world, have brought financial ruin to so many seriously rich people and made them stop and question where the present life-style is leading them, for it appears to be rudderless, with no moral compass to guide it. God has been so neglected in the world where people seek power through wealth, only to realise that wealth cannot buy true happiness, only pleasure. The feast of the Holy Family at Christmas points to the true reality of life—the humility of God becoming one of us in the person of the Christ Child, and the beauty and sanctity of the human family bound together in love. The peace and joy of the Holy Family, despite the trials that lay ahead of them, was the abiding presence of God in their midst. It is this that is so lacking our present day secular world.
Many converts to the Catholic Church have made their way humbly, like the Magi, to the manger at Bethlehem to seek that peace and direction in their lives which only the Church can give through the authority of its teaching conferred on it by Christ—whoever hears you, hears me, the Eucharist, and the other sacraments which are the source of so many graces. Our Lord’s words cut through the confusion of modern life-style:
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust can corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can not serve both God and Mammon.
Many converts to the Catholic Church have made their way humbly, like the Magi, to the manger at Bethlehem to seek that peace and direction in their lives which only the Church can give through the authority of its teaching conferred on it by Christ—whoever hears you, hears me, the Eucharist, and the other sacraments which are the source of so many graces. Our Lord’s words cut through the confusion of modern life-style:
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust can corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can not serve both God and Mammon.
Many Governments and politicians have assumed a false authority to legislate contrary to the teaching of Christ, and as a result their is a moral confusion that attacks the sacredness of human life. The late Pope John Paul 11 warned us of the Culture of Death prominent in our society where the life of the innocent unborn can be terminated for any reason, and where euthanasia is sought to become legal. The profusion of murders with guns and knives has its roots in the killing of the unborn. If you kill your unborn children legally, where will it stop—and it hasn’t stopped! May the Light of the Christ Child shine brightly from the manger on this feast of the Epiphany, and it may it keep us close to Christ, through his Church, and lead us through the year that lies ahead.
