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.

During Advent, the Voice of the Word, the greatest man born of woman, St. John the Baptist calls for us to prepare the way for the Lord who is coming.  The Lord is coming by the straight path, whether we have straightened it or not.
The Baptist’s message has it its core his own mission statement: He must increase, I must decrease.
In life we experience many different forms of “straightening” and “decreasing”.
Chief among them is rejection, with the pain that comes with it.
The King who is coming sacramentally and liturgically at Bethlehem teaches us how to empty ourselves and how to endure the emptying which comes from the vicissitudes of our fallen state, our face to face and heart to heart meetings with cruelty, malice and indifference.

From Fr Zuhldorf

We are all desperately in need of a Saviour, a Redeemer who is capable of ransoming from the darkness of our sins and from the blinding and numbing wound of ignorance from which we all suffer.  In their terrible Fall, our First Parents inflicted grave wounds in the souls of every person who would live after them, except of course – by an act of singular grace – the Mother of God.  Our wills are damaged.  Our intellect is clouded.  In Christ we have the Truth, the sure foundation of what is lasting.  All else, apart from Him fails and fades into dark obscurity.  He brings clarity and light back to our souls when we are baptized or when we return to Him through the sacrament of penance.

At Holy Mass we face “East”, at least symbolically, so that we can greet the Coming of the Saviour, both in the consecration of the bread and wine and in the expectation of the glorious return of the King of Glory.  We turn to the rising sun who is Justice Itself, whose light will lay bare the truth of our every word, thought and deed in the Final Day. (Ed. Fr Alex)

This is the Solstice day, for the Northern Hemisphere the day which provides us with the least daylight of the year.  From this point onward in the globe’s majestic arc about the sun, we of the north, benefit from increasing warmth and illumination.  It is as if God in His Wisdom, provided within the framework of the cosmos object lessons by which we might come to grasp something of His good plan for our salvation.

Let us turn to the LIGHT, repent our evil ways and habits, and grasp onto Christ in His Holy Church,

From a reflection by Fr Zuhldorf

O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, iam noli tardare.

O Root of Jesse, that stands for an ensign of the people, before whom the kings keep silence and unto whom the Gentiles shall make supplication: come, to deliver us, and tarry not.

From a reflection by Fr Zuhldorf

O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina legem dedisti: veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.. 

O Lord and Ruler the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and redeem us with outstretched arms.

"Adonai" is "LORD."  It was the Hebrew word that the Jews used when they found the four-lettered word for God's name which they held to be too sacred to pronounce aloud.  Christ is Lord of Creation. We sang this yesterday in the antiphon "O Sapientia". Christ is also Lord of the Covenant with the People He chose. The Lord made covenants with Noah, Abraham, and Moses. He guided them and all the People. He gave them Law. He protected and feed them. The Lord delivered them from bondage to Pharaoh and unending slavery. He went before them with arm outstretched.

This was all a pre-figuring of the great work of redemptions that Christ would work on the Cross. He redeemed us His People from Satan and the eternal damnation of hell. He once appeared clothed in the burning bush that was not consumed by fire. He is about to appear again clothed in flesh in our liturgical celebration of Christmas.  He will appear again one day in the future to judge the living and the dead.  Each day He appears to us in the person of our neighbour.

What amazing contrasts we find in our Lord! He came in thunder and lightening to give the Law on Mt. Sinai. He comes now in swaddling clothes.  He will come again in glory.  He comes humbly in the appearance of Bread and Wine.

He still goes before us with outstretched arm and our foes are put to flight at the sight of His banner.

From a reflection by Fr Zuhldorf

From a reflection by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf