It may seem strange, but this is a Christmas Feast. Not if we think of Christmas only in terms of the Baby in Bethlehem, but if we have followed the ideas of the Feasts of Holy Family and especially Epiphany, and have seen the Season in terms of the growing manifestation or appearing of the Son of God: first to the shepherds and then to the wise men from the East. Now in the River Jordan, Jesus, Son of Mary, is revealed to all as the fullness of all God’s promises: “This is my Son, the Beloved”.
On this day we stand before the revelation of God’s love for us, such that he would send his only Son into the world. Christmas without the Baptism of the Lord, and the words that are spoken from heaven, would be incomplete, since it is only in them that we fully see the wonder of what happened in Bethlehem. As we come to the end of Christmas today, and look forward to hearing the Gospels in Ordinary Time, we do so having been shown who it is we listen to: the only Son of God, the Beloved.

Jesus is revealed as God.  This is the meaning of Epiphany.  Jesus comes as a baby born of Mary.  Truly God born of flesh necessitated an extraordinary revelation.  Some of us have types of spiritual experiences in which we come to recognize what God is asking of us.  Some of us never have those types of experiences that we recognise.  Yet, all of us are called to seek to live as fully and completely as we can in this life.   What is both marvelous and ironic is that this revelation of Jesus is the new New Thing that always was and forever shall be.



Jesus gives us a glimpse of God in our lives.  Epiphany can occur when we see something so beautiful that we believe only a God could have created it.  Or, it can occur when we have heard a beautiful piece of music that touched something with us.  In a direct way, someone speaking of God thus bringing us to belief is also epiphany.

Dear brothers and sisters,
the glory of the Lord has shone upon us,
and shall ever be manifest among us,
until the day of his return.Through the rhythms of times and seasons
let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.
Let us recall the year's culmination,
the Easter Triduum of the Lord:
his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial,
and his rising celebrated
between the evening of the Eighteenth of April
and the evening of the Twentieth of April,
Easter Sunday being on the Twenty-first day of April.

Each Easter -- as on each Sunday --
the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed
by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death.
From Easter are reckoned all the days we keep holy.
Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent,
will occur on the Sixth day of March.
The Ascension of the Lord will be commemorated on
Thursday, the Thirtieth day of May.

Pentecost, joyful conclusion of the season of Easter,
will be celebrated on the Ninth day of June.
And, this year the First Sunday of Advent will be
on the First day of December, 2019.
Likewise the pilgrim Church proclaims the passover of Christ
in the feasts of the holy Mother of God,
in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints,
and in the commemoration of the faithful departed.
To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come,
Lord of time and history,
be endless praise, for ever and ever.
Amen.