TEXT: The Epiphany of the Lord, January 5, 2025
January 5, 2025 Father De Celles Homily
The Epiphany of the Lord
January 5, 2025
Homily by Fr. John De Celles
St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church
Springfield, VA
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!
These are the greetings of the season–the Christmas season.
And they’re quite appropriate
because Christmas is a season meant to be filled
with great joy and happiness.
And while we don’t want happiness just once a year,
the joy of Christmas often fades quickly
after the presents are opened.
So much so, that for many of us this season of joy
is often followed by a season of depression.
Like the Magi of the East searching for the star,
each of us goes through life searching for something,
something to bring us happiness;
we all just want to be happy.
But what is happiness?
What does it mean to be happy?
Does it consist in wealth–like gold?
It can’t because wealth is just an instrument to purchase something else.
Okay, then, can happiness be found in that something else for which we save up our gold to purchase?
Something precious like frankincense or myrrh,
or a new computer game or a new SUV?
It can’t be that either because those things wear out, or get used up.
So, the present that brought such excitement on Christmas morning
soon becomes another trinket taking up space on a shelf.
Then, is happiness found in fame or honors and human recognition?
Could happiness be found in being a king
or being recognized as a “magi” or a wise man by our friends?
It can’t be that either, since, these things, too, are only temporary,
and as with King Herod, they can often bring with them a fear of losing them.
The truth is that the only time we really get a taste of true happiness
is from a relationship with another person or persons.
And our greatest happiness is found when we have a relationship
with someone that we believe is really special.
That’s one of the things that makes Christmas
a time of such wonderful happiness:
We get to spend time with our most special friends and family members.
If this is true, then the most perfect happiness we can find
is the happiness of a personal relationship
with the most perfectly special and wonderful person in the universe
–God Himself.
“They name Him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever,
Prince of Peace.”
So, our only true and perfect happiness is when we are in relationship with God.
As St. Augustine wrote so beautifully in the 4th century,
“You have made us for Yourself, [oh God], and our heart is restless,
until it rests in You.”
This happiness isn’t just some temporary happiness,
and it’s not some vague cosmic happiness we reach
by somehow tapping into the great beyond.
It is a spiritual happiness, what theologians call “spiritual joy.”
But it’s a happiness, or joy, that is also very human
and that every human being is created to experience.
In this Christmas season, we remember that God has come in person
and revealed Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit
–three divine persons in one God
who we can know and be in personal relationship with.
Most especially, we can know God as one of us
–one who walked in our midst and spoke in our words.
Jesus is the Incarnation of all joy,
so that when He came into the world we read
that even the heavens were so full of joy
that the sky above Bethlehem was filled with the angels singing
and calling the shepherds to come to see their God:
“Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy!”
And the words of today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah
take on a new meaning:
“Then you shall be radiant at what you see,
your heart shall throb and overflow.”
____
The happiness we experience with friends is usually experienced
when we do things with them.
But we don’t so much talk about going home for the holidays
to “do things” with family,
as much we talk about and remember, first and foremost,
just being with them.
Being in their presence, watching them, listening to them, talking with them.
–even, in a sense, reverencing them as we focus intently on them.
With God it’s the same, only He is our dearest friend,
our most cherished Father and Brother.
Being with Him is the center of our happiness, our spiritual joy.
Being in His presence, reverently and lovingly talking to Him,
most importantly, listening to Him, and
even just looking at Him who is so wonderful.
This is essentially what prayer is about
—especially the prayer of meditation and adoration.
It is how we begin and grow in our relationship with Him.
And so as the Magi come to Jesus,
scripture tells us the first thing that happens:
“On entering the house they saw the child with Mary His mother.”
And then, immediately,
“They prostrated themselves and did Him homage.”
Only after being with Him–looking at Him and adoring Him—
did they open “their treasures and [offer] Him gifts
of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”
So, four times in the last twelve days we’ve come together for special Masses
–come to discover our truest happiness by being with God—
entering into His house, seeing Him and kneeling before Him in adoration.
From this we learn how to do things with Him,
and we appreciate and cherish the things we do with Him
as having meaning and purpose and drawing us closer to Him.
Every day of our lives we are called first to be with God and then to do with God
–do everything with Jesus Christ.
Any time we separate ourselves from Jesus Christ
in who we are or what we do, though,
we separate ourselves from happiness and, especially, spiritual joy.
And who wants to do that?
Who in their right mind would settle for 90% joy
when they could have 100% joy?
“Oh no, God, I’m enjoying this way too much….”
Who would settle for second best, or nothing at all,
when they could be “filled with every grace and heavenly blessing”?
But still, it is hard to always be close to Christ.
Think of your life with your friends and family.
How many times have you been happy with someone you love dearly,
and yet you allowed yourself to do something to upset that happiness,
something that runs directly contrary to that happiness?
Husbands and wives, how many times do you hurt each other,
even though you love each other more than life itself?
Or how many times do we insult our dearest friends
when a kind word would have made them so happy?
We know what will maintain and enhance the happiness in our relationships,
and yet so often we sacrifice that true happiness
for some temporary or false sense of happiness.
Even the little things can separate you from your loved one,
and even the smallest things can separate you
from the perfect happiness with God.
______
Everyone spends their life searching for happiness,
and Christmas is a wonderful time of good cheer and great joy
because it is a time when happiness is experienced
in very dramatic and intense ways.
It’s a time of recalling and rekindling the closeness
of our very special relationships with family and friends.
But most importantly, Christmas is primarily a celebration of Christ,
God the Son, coming into the world to be with us.
As in all relationships of love,
the celebration of this relationship
should begin and center on just being with the one we love
—being with Jesus Christ.
Being with Him, listening to Him, praying to Him, and adoring Him.
And from that we extend our celebration to doing with Him
–acting with Him and for Him in everything we do.
As we enter into this new year, let us begin by adoring Christ the Lord.
And as we live our lives throughout the year ahead,
like the magi from the east,
let us continue to come together to be with Jesus in His house,
to see Him and His mother,
and prostrate ourselves before Him and give Him homage.
Then, let us do everything we do this year with Him,
never settling for anything less than the best,
never allowing anything to come between us and our joy with Him.
In doing this, in the name of Jesus Christ,
we will all truly have the happiest, most joyful New Year ever.