Daily Devotional for January 6

​

January 6                                                     Matthew 12:14-21

          The Feast of the Epiphany

At one of his public lectures, Edward Schillebeeckx, the famous
Dutch theologian, was asked how he first came to an expe-
rience of religion and God in his own life. He replied that it
happened when his mother took him to the parish church and
he saw the Christmas crib.

It is a strange assembly at the Christmas scene: a poor family,
shepherds who were at the bottom of the social ladder, and
three royal figures from foreign lands with foreign gods.* It
was to these different and strange visitors that God first
revealed the helpless child who was later to proclaim himself
light for all people. The feast of the Epiphany invites us to
join this gathering of outsiders and to see the reign of God
in Jesus, the outsider whom paranoid political leaders and
complacent religious leaders seek to destroy.

The reign of God continues to break in upon us in the most
unexpected circumstances and people. God continues to come
to us as the outsider: the poor, the foreigner, the social out-
cast, the seeker. And when we ourselves are the outcasts, like
shepherds and seekers of old, we can also be transformed by
what we find in the Christmas crib of our hearts.

              Loving God, continue to reveal yourself to
        me in all those whom I encounter: in the poor, in
      strangers, in foreigners, in those who are different
        from me, and especially in the bruised reed and
                       smoldering wick - even when
                               they are part of me.

[* The wise men were not at the manger, but visited Jesus and his
  family at their house (Matt 2:11) when Jesus was around 2 years
  old. L.M.]  

​

From The Road to Emmaus - An inclusive devotional Edited by Joseph W. Houle

Emmaus House of Prayer - Washington D.