In the Birth of Christ, God has fully revealed Himself to humanity. The invisible God has become visible. The Divine Mystery is unveiled. 

The Lord has fulfilled His promise to save His people and wipe away their sins. 

The Father has sent His Son and we have become children of God, destined for eternal life. 

Epiphany is marked by three Scriptural events — the visit of the Magi, the Baptism of the Lord and the Wedding at Cana. 

These remarkable happenings reveal both Jesus’ identity as the Son of the Father and His mission to reconcile us to God and save the world from sin and death.

The three Scriptural events

 The Magi acknowledge the kingship and divinity of the Christ Child, and as Gentiles, their worship of Jesus foreshadows the universal nature of Jesus’ reign. He has come to save all people. 

In the Lord’s Baptism, a public event which points out the truth of Jesus’ identity as the Lamb of God and the Son of the Father, He is anointed with the Holy Spirit. 

In His Baptism, Jesus, who never knew sin, undergoes this ritual of repentance to identify with us in our sinful and fallen nature. This moment inaugurates and thematizes Christ’s entire public ministry. 

The first miracle Jesus performs is the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana. Even though this wondrous event is hidden from the guests, John’s Gospel tells it as a manifestation of Jesus’ glory and the beginnings of the disciples’ belief in Him. 

This narration teaches us that all the Lord’s miracles, preaching, and actions reveal the glory, power, and love of God. 

Christ’s very being is a living, visible epiphany of the Father’s presence and action in the world.   

Where He makes Himself known

Where and how does the Lord reveal Himself to us? 

As His sacred Body, the Church is the chosen location of God’s saving activity, for it is in the Church that we are baptized into Christ, fed with the Eucharist, forgiven in Confession, and nourished by the proclamation of the Gospel. In the Church, we definitively encounter the Son of God. 

We can certainly experience God through nature, other people, and our own inner life, but without the Church and our participation in Her life, we are radically incomplete. 

This truth is an important point, because the history of the United States reveals a strong strain of religion as a “do-it-yourself” exercise. 

The beautiful fact that thousands of people are flocking to the Catholic Church, especially the young, both in our country and around the world, shows that a purely subjective spiritual sense is ultimately incomplete and unsatisfying. 

Our path of Christian discipleship, however, would also be incomplete if we simply participated in the sacraments without internalizing our relationship with God. 

This fact illustrates our radical need to be consistent and generous in our prayer life, seeking to spend time each day with the Lord in Scriptural reflection, devotional attention, and silent meditation. 

As difficult as it may be to stay consistent and focused in our prayer, this precious time with God is the foundation and mainstay of our spiritual growth and union with Christ. 

How beautiful to ponder that, just as God chose the world as the stage upon which He has acted out the glorious events of salvation history, so too He has chosen our hearts and souls as sacred places where that ancient love story is reenacted for our eternal benefit. 

When we begin to perceive the reality of our interior life and begin to see how God dwells, speaks, and acts within us, then we understand that the celebration of Epiphany is not only about historical and wondrous events from the Scriptures, but that it is very much about how the Lord is revealing, acting, speaking, and saving us in the sacred terrain of our hearts. 

What are your sacred epiphanies and saving miracles? How has the Lord changed the water of your life into the choicest of wines?