Ephiphany Sunday: We are the Light

Photo: Rene Ronquillo

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.  Isaiah 60: 1-6

“We who have seen the light of Christ are obliged, by the greatness of the grace that has been given to us, to make known the presence of the Savior to the ends of the earth…not only by preaching the glad tidings of His coming, but above all by revealing Him in our lives….Every day of our mortal lives must be His manifestation, His divine Epiphany, in the world which He created and redeemed.”  -Thomas Merton

Photo: Pax Christi

When Robert Louis Stevenson was a little boy he lived in a house on a hillside in Scotland. Every evening he would watch the lamplighter walk through the streets in the valley below lighting each of the village street lights. “Look, Mother,” he would say, “Here comes the man who punches holes in the darkness.”

Epiphany celebrates the time when God punched a hole in the darkness. The story tells us that Magi in the East saw this sign of God — a bright star — and left everything to follow the Light of Salvation. The gospel tells us too that the star which the Magi saw “filled their hearts with delight.” Mary Lou Kownacki, osb Read her full reflection in Pax Christi site.