Let Jesus Guide Your Way: Epiphany Reflection

It’s the Epiphany. It marks the end of the Christmas season. The gospel chosen today recalled the journey the three wisemen took to find the babe in Bethlehem. Fulton Sheen puts this day well when he said, “The Magi came from the East...and they brought gold because he was king, incense because he was priest, but also myrrh. That’s the way he was buried, with a hundred pounds of spices and myrrh. What would our mothers have thought if the neighbors brought in embalming fluid when we were born? Everywhere, there was a shadow of suffering.”

The three wisemen knew what this little babe would bring to the world as he grew and start a church on the principle of God and love.

St. John Henry Newman reminds us, “The Epiphany is a season especially set apart for adoring the glory of Christ. The word may be taken to mean the manifestation of His glory and leads us to the contemplation of Him as a King upon His throne in the midst of His court, with His servants around Him, and His guards in attendance.”

In the gospel, there was a phrase that is so profound.

They departed for their country another way

The last line of the gospel may seem a bit vague to end the account of the Epiphany. However, we need to look at it from a different perspective. The Magi followed the star to Bethlehem. They sought the Christ child. Then, after they paid him homage, they went home another way. For us, Christ is the way. He is the light that guides us. He also wants to show us the way to heaven.

As we celebrate the end of the Christmas season, let us go and follow Jesus. Let him guide us to our spiritual goal in life and that is to obtain the glory of heaven.