Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. Monsignor Fisher is a Catholic priest, a member of the Diocese of Dallas, and founder of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a nonprofit in Dallas, Texas, dedicated to to enriching your spiritual journey. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. This program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com. We’re celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord.
The Opening Prayer O God, who on this day revealed your only begotten Son to the nations by the guidance of a star, grant in your mercy that we who know you already by faith may be brought to behold the beauty of your sublime glory through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. A Reading from the Old Testament from the book of Isaiah, 60th chapter 1, 5th verse rise up in splendor, Jerusalem, your light has come. The glory of the Lord shines upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples. But upon you the Lord shines and over you appears his glory. Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance raise your eyes and look about.
They all gather and come to you. Your sons come from afar and your daughters in the arms of their nurses. Then you shall be radiant in what you see. Your hearts shall throb and overflow, for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you. The wealth of nations shall be brought to you. Caravans of camels shall fill you dromedaries from Midon and Ephah, all from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense and proclaiming the praises of the Lord, the word of the Lord.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you. O God, with your judgment endow the king, and with your justice the king’s son. He shall govern your people with justice, and your afflicted ones with joy Judgment. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you. Justice shall flower in his days and profound peace till the moon be no more. May he rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you. The kings of Tarshish and the isles shall offer you gifts. The King of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute. All kings shall Pay him homage. All nations will serve him. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you for he shall rescue the poor when they cry out, and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor the lives of the poor he will save. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you. A reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, third chapter, second verse in the fifth through the sixth verse brothers and sisters, you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for your benefit, namely that the mystery was made known to me by revelation. It was not made known to people in other generations, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and co partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel the Word of the Lord.
Alleluia Verse we saw his star at its rising, and have come to do him homage. Hallelujah. The Gospel for this feast of the epiphany is taken from St. Matthew, 2nd chapter 1, 12th verse When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising, and have come to do him homage. When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea. For thus it has been written through the prophet and you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, since from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod called the Magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word that I may go and do him homage. After their audience with the king, they set out and behold the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star and entered the house.
They saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way, the Gospel of the Lord. Please listen to the music and open your heart to the mystery and the beauty of these words, these images. In the opening prayer, we asked for mercy. Mercy is unmerited, love.
And we want to know. We ask to know by faith, the beauty of the glory of God. God’s glory is described in many ways, but the way I love to talk about it is God’s glory is human beings fully alive, fully alert, fully, fully aware, living in reality, enjoying every single part of life, both that which is wonderful and that which is difficult. And so we go to the first reading of Isaiah and we see something that is a beautiful image of what I’m talking about, of God’s glory. It’s light, its enlightenment. You and I are invited into a process of growing and changing, evolving, and that’s happened over the centuries.
It happens in each generation, and it continues to bring us to a greater awareness of simply what is the truth. And from the readings during this Christmas season, we realize that John, the disciple, the one who was most, I think, in tune with who Jesus really was, made it clear that this, this figure, Jesus was not just a person, he was also God. But not God just in the sense that we now know what he looks like, but God in the sense of his full revelation. So Jesus is seen as the truth. When Jesus enters the world, if you want to know what we need to know about being here, about living in this world, about achieving the goal that we’re here for, you focus on him. And the wonderful thing about him is what he brought to us, a way of seeing.
So Isaiah says, someday a great light will come. But darkness, he says, covers the earth and thick clouds cover peoples. I love those two images because it means that darkness was more prevalent than the light. Evil was winning, in a sense. Evil was everywhere. You go to Europe and you especially a country like Italy, and you’ll see center after center of a city, not in a valley, not in a flat plain, but always up on a hill with a gigantic wall around it.
That’s the way they lived for centuries, always aware that there was something outside dark that could come and destroy them. And then there’s a thick cloud over the peoples. And to me, that’s a perfect statement about unconsciousness. People living in a world that is dark, they believe it’s dark. They struggle to return evil for evil. And it doesn’t go anywhere, but it stays in the darkness.
And so Isaiah is saying, into this dark world, into this confusion, will come understanding and insight, wisdom, and also hope a light will shine. You’ll see it. And I love the image. When you see it, your heart throbs. It means you’re made for this. This is the thing that I’ve always thought the world should be.
A place of goodness, a place of love, a place of mercy, a place of forgiveness. And that’s what God has revealed to you and to me. And it’s up to us to believe it, to trust in it. St. Paul is saying something about this new world, this enlightened world. And one of the things about the world in the past, when it was in darkness, it was always us against them.
There was always an enemy out there. There was somebody that was considered the other. And throughout the Jewish tradition, you know, God had always called a special group of people. And that was the only way he could begin to change the whole world, by starting with a small community and getting them to believe. And then it would spread out of that core community of Christians. But what’s so beautiful about this image from Ephesians is that he’s saying that there is something so important about this truth that now is revealed by God.
And that is God does not have just a simple group of favorite people that he pours his love into and destroys all their enemies. He, in a way, destroys the evil in the world that is connected to separation, isolation. I’m here. These are my people. Everyone else is my enemy. So here we see Gentiles, which is like, we used to use the phrase a lot in our Catholic faith of, you know, there’s Catholics and non Catholics, which I always think is interesting.
And so Gentiles were non Jews, all of them Samaritans, all of them were all considered their enemy, impure, being punished by God. All of that is destroyed in this one simple statement that came through Paul, that Jesus wanted the world to know, deep in our hearts, that there is no separation between us and the people around us. We have no enemies unless we create them. And to be enlightened is the key. So when Jesus was born and he brought this new light into the world, there were groups of people that came to honor him and to say things to Mary and Joseph. And the first group was the shepherds, which happened in the manger.
And when they came, they had a message for Mary. We don’t know what exactly they said to Mary and Joseph, but they said things that must have affirmed for them what they believed in their heart. That was still hard to believe, and that is that this child was not of human origin, but divine origin. In a human body. And so they had to dwell with these mysteries. And what I think is really interesting about that manifestation, it showed that Jesus would become someday the great shepherd, the good shepherd.
But then we have this second manifestation of a recognition of who Jesus is. Not just another human, but someone who’s to bring wisdom and light into the world. We see not just simple shepherds. And there’s something about Christianity that a religion that we always say, well, simple people have it, but really wise people and smart people and powerful people don’t need religion. It’s just a little burden on the side and they can do without it. But here we have these wise, beautiful men coming from the east.
And they’re considered to be great rulers, kings, wise people filled with wisdom. And they have listened to something that is mysterious. The arrangement of the planets, the stars. They were astrologers. It’s so interesting that astrology doesn’t have a very high esteem in Christian circles, But there’s something to it. There’s something to the way the planets move and how it affects people.
Check with anybody that works in an emergency room. They’ll tell you if it’s a full moon, it’s going to be a busy night. But this was different. This was a star, a light. A light had been created to lead them to the light. And the light was Christ.
And the thing that is so beautiful about that image is that when they were brought to this child, they prostrated before him, they offered their treasures. And what they were really saying to them is that this child has a destiny that’s worth everything. Everything is nothing compared to him. You give gifts to someone to honor them. And these were all gifts that were both the image of riches and the image of anointing. Even one that’s anointed, used in anointing the dead.
It’s so beautiful when you look at all these stories and wonder, why are they there? They’re there because they all have one little element in this beautiful mystery of seeing who God really is. And through his son, his person, his presence in the world, he awakens us to the power of light over darkness. Now, I’ve never remembered exactly any time before in the world when I’ve listened to people talk about darkness. And there are many people that feel the world is filled with darkness, and they come up with all kind of theories and they think the darkness is caused by this one group of people, and they’re out to destroy the rest of us. And there’s all kinds of conspiracies moving around.
But the basic core thing that is creating that in them is a fear, a fear that darkness is winning and they need to know where it comes from, because then they can go and try to attack it. But what they have to really believe, and this is so basic to Christianity, is that, yes, darkness still is there, but darkness has been destroyed. Light wins, light has won. And those who know that are the ones who are filled with light enlightenment and they see the value of darkness. And I think everyone who has been through a dark period in their life, who have lost something very dear to them, have had some experience with something they don’t really want. If they deal with it, accept it, work with it, they’ll find that the darkness has an incredibly interesting role in our lives.
And that is, it tends to increase our awareness of light. It makes sense physically. I mean, a match that you light in the middle of the day doesn’t make much light. It doesn’t seem like much light. But put it in the darkness, in a room filled with no light whatsoever and light a match, and it seems to illuminate the whole room. Darkness is essential to discovering and believing in the light.
But there is one thing that I think that the darkness can create in you and me that you have to watch out for, and it’s fear, fear and doubt that things are really in the hands of a loving God. And when those things come, fear comes, darkness seems to increase, and we’re left in a place where we have a choice. Stay there, have a cloud of confusion around you. Stay in darkness or choose to believe. And the light is nothing but reality, as things really are. The news is not going to cover things that are positive and wonderful and you can lift our spirits.
It’s really interesting about human nature. No one wants to sit there and listen to the news about how beautiful the weather is in some part of the world, how happy some people are in certain places. Places. And the joy of some achievement by some group of people that changes the world. We don’t really want to sit there and listen to much of that. We want to hear something that’s dark and bloody and awful.
It’s a weird part of human nature. We’re curious about those things. Maybe it’s because it gives us an emotion of fear. And, you know, to feel an emotion is better than have no feeling whatsoever. But all I longed for you to understand from this great feast your heart’s made to throb be pumping with blood to make your organs and your body fill with oxygen and power and nourishment and you face the world knowing that it’s good, knowing that the darkness has a purpose, knowing that the light has won. God bless you.
The Closing Prayer Father, it’s your glory that we long to see more clearly and understand more completely how much you are doing for us in every single thing that happens to us during the day. Help us to be freed of fear and doubt. Fill us with this light of conviction, confidence that we are moving in the direction you’ve called us to move, growing in our awareness of the beauty of this world. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan for this show. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher, a listener supported program, is archived and available on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com and available anytime, anywhere and for free on our podcast Finding God in Our Hearts.
You can search and subscribe to Finding God in Our Hearts anywhere you download your podcasts. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a NonProfit in Dallas, Texas dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute Studios.
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