For those who don't know, 6 January marks the end of the 12 Days of Christmas. In other countries, it also marks the end of the liturgical season of Christmas. Catholics in U.S. end Christmas on the Baptism of Lord. So, even after our observance of Epiphany, this year we will still have an entire week of Christmas.
An epiphany is a sudden realization, perhaps even a revelation. It might also be described as a moment of heightened perception, a moment when you seem to see things in their true light, one might say, see things as they really are. Epiphanies yield an insights.
I am not a literary scholar, but I believe it was James Joyce who brought the term "epiphany" into English literature. In in his novel Stephen Hero, published in 1944, but started in 1904 and likely finished not long after that, Joyce set forth his idea of epiphany.
It has been said that in Finnegan's Wake Joyce tried to epiphanise everything. A notoriously difficult read, Finnegan's Wake, which must be read out loud, is written a bit like speaking in tongues, which seems to me a fitting way to speak and write about epiphanies.
Of course, this all makes the arrival of the magi at the house in Bethlehem in Matthew 2, at least in literary terms, seem pedestrian. But there is nothing pedestrian about it. The so-called wise men traveled westward, following a star, seeking the King of Jews. This led them first to Herod, who, in political, that is, human terms, was the King of the Jews or at least a king of Jews. While these men from the East didn't know who exactly this King of Jews was, but they knew it wasn't Herod.
Winding up as they did in Jerusalem at the royal palace they did not find the real King of the Jews. Eventually, the magi found who they sought, the real King of Jews. Herod, with the help of his experts, directed them to Bethlehem. Despite his helpful demeanor, Herod was desperate to find and kill this potential rival.
Jumping forward to the penultimate (love using that word!) chapter of Matthew (27:37, to be exact), Jesus is once again designated "King of the Jews." By nailing a sign with that title on it to Jesus' cross, the Romans mocked the Jews. They engaged in a bit of political taunting: "This naked, beaten, bloody, peasant is your king, idiots." Yet, what was meant to be a mocking title was not just this man's real title but His true identity. What the magi, who represent "the nations," show us is that Jesus isn't only the King of the Jews, He is Lord of all.
This all revolves around reality, what is really real. Things aren't always as they appear because appearances can be deceptive. If you reduce to reality to what isn't only empirically demonstrable but what is perceptible to your senses, you live pretty far from reality. And so, despite all appearances, Jesus, not Herod, is the real King of the Jews. This tells us a lot about God (See Philippians 2:5-11).
I am reminded of an exeprience shared by our professor pastoral counseling in my doctorate program at Mount Angel Seminary. While a priest, this professor works primarily as a psychologist. And so, he doesn't usually wear clericals. He wears an open neck collared shirt, dress trousers and shoes, and a sport coat. One morning after teaching his class at seminary, where he is an adjunct and teaches only seminarians during their last year (and doctoral students), he was asked by the rector if he could say Mass for the seminarians because the seminary's regular faculty needed to have a meeting.
This priest, psychologist, professor agreed and proceeded to the sacristy of the chapel. Once in the sacristy, he was looking at albs, seeing which one would fit him. As he did this, a seminarian, dressed in clericals, came in and, seeing him, asked, "Are you a priest?" He replied, "Yes." The seminarian responded by saying, "Well, you don't look like one." This prompted the professor to say, "Isn't that funny. You look like a priest but aren't one and I don't yet I am one."
During this time Eucharistic Revival, we talk a lot (I mean a lot) about Jesus' "Real Presence" in the Eucharist. Very often this is done in an unhelpfully reductive way. By this I mean reducing His Real Presence to the consecrated species of bread and wine. Yet, in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium (see section 7), the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, sets forth four ways that Christ is truly (i.e., really) present in the Eucharist.
First it must be noted that "the Eucharist" does not merely refer to the consecrated host, or even the consecrated host and consecrated wine. It refers to the Eucharistic Liturgy in its entirety. It was renewal of the Liturgy that the Council fathers sought to bring about with this Constitution. As a side note, taking my cue from a lecture Pope Benedict XVI gave on the fortieth anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium in 2003, before becoming pope, the Church needs a thorough re-reading of this Constitution (See "The Liturgical Legacy of Pope Benedict XVI").
Mass, the Eucharistic liturgy, is the source and summit of Christian faith. Hence, we must overcome our reductive tendency. All Eucharistic worship outside of Mass needs to be tied to the Mass. Why? Because you can't have Eucharistic worship outside of Mass without Mass. For Mass, you need the Church, which is what it means to say "the Eucharist makes the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist."
And so, we recognize that Christ is present in the assembly, the gathering of the baptized. We receive Him aurally as well as orally in Mass because He is really present in the proclamation of Sacred Scripture. Christ is present in the person of the priest. Then, the culmination of all this is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, our simple gifts of bread and wine become His body and blood. This brings us to apex, the summit, of the Eucharistic liturgy: Holy Communion. It is by means of receiving Communion that the word of scripture is to become enfleshed in you.
When reduced to something akin to a magic trick, Real Presence becomes a struggle for many because it isn't obvious that this is what happens on the altar. Rather than reduce, we need to expand, to encounter Christ in our sisters and brothers, to hear Christ in Sacred Scripture (hopefully aided by decent preaching). Then, having had this encounter, during which you receive Christ, you bring Him to whomever you meet and wherever you go. This is what it means to really live. At its deepest, reality is the Paschal Mystery of Christ.
You and I, along with everyone who receives Christ in Holy Communion, are meant to be proof of the truthfulness of the Church's belief in the Real Presence. Therefore, each of us is to be an Epiphany.
It makes no sense to get bogged down with proving the unproveable. Sure, you can help others make sense of transubstantiation so maybe they can understand that it is intellectually defensible and not some crazy religious belief unmoored from reality. Ultimately, believing the sacred species are transformed is a belief of faith. As with other beliefs of faith, like, say, the Trinity, while not contrary to reason, it is not demonstrable by reason alone. Faith is required. Even for those who believe, this belief cannot be some discrete, disconnected, acontextual thing that happens in a vacuum and that has little or no bearing on your life.
The Eucharistic Liturgy is called "Mass" because this is derived from the Latin missa. Missa refers both to being, not just dismissed, but sent as well as what you're sent to do- missio- or mission.
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