BIG C CATHOLICS

Adoration of the Magi , Gentile da Fabriano, 1423, Uffizi Gallery, Italy. Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) The Feast of the Epiphany was celebrated in Eastern Churches before being observed in Rome. It seems originally to have been a feast of the nativity of our Lord. January 6th. For those Churches it was the equivalent of December 25th in the Roman Church. The Epiphany, as you know, celebrates the manifestation of our Lord to the whole world… the shining forth of the Light of the World… the manifestation of the Incarnation to the entire world beyond the Jewish world. The three kings symbolize the coming of God to the Gentiles… the entrance of God into all of the world in all of its history. Today’s Liturgy is surrounded with other epiphanies… the manifestation of God’s marriage to us, symbolized in the wedding feast at Cana, the manifestation of Christ’s Sonship in His baptism by John the Baptist in the River Jordan… and final

Adoration of the Magi , Gentile da Fabriano, 1423, Uffizi Gallery, Italy. Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) The Feast of the Epiphany was celebrated in Eastern Churches before being observed in Rome. It seems originally to have been a feast of the nativity of our Lord. January 6th. For those Churches it was the equivalent of December 25th in the Roman Church. The Epiphany, as you know, celebrates the manifestation of our Lord to the whole world… the shining forth of the Light of the World… the manifestation of the Incarnation to the entire world beyond the Jewish world. The three kings symbolize the coming of God to the Gentiles… the entrance of God into all of the world in all of its history. Today’s Liturgy is surrounded with other epiphanies… the manifestation of God’s marriage to us, symbolized in the wedding feast at Cana, the manifestation of Christ’s Sonship in His baptism by John the Baptist in the River Jo

I n Exodus 3:1-2 it is written: Meanwhile Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock beyond the wilderness, he came to the mountain of God, Horeb. There the angel of the L ORD  appeared to him as fire flaming out of a bush. When he looked, although the bush was on fire, it was not being consumed. The burning bush in which God appeared to Moses did not consume itself. This is a miracle precisely because the fire did not harm, alter or otherwise disfigure the plant in any way. Moses was rightly amazed. So to, throughout Scripture, whenever God intervenes in human affairs the people he touches are never destroyed or compromised. God never takes away free will when acting on the human stage. Just like the fire did not destroy the bush.   Consider the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God. While consenting to be the Christ bearer in no way was her freedom or her personhood compromised. This is the case even in regard to he