This time before Lent is a time to reflect on what it means to be a disciple of the Lord. Each must examine his or her own heart in the light of the Gospel and the teachings of the Church. Perhaps you noticed how the liturgy today moves us away from our limited view into the generous unlimited view of the Lord. Jesus works to lift us from the merely human to the divinely human. That is why we love Him and follow.

It is often said these days that we live in a divided nation. Even sometimes these divisions are expressed in negative, hateful, even tragic ways. Regardless of where we stand, those of various points of view need to respect civil discourse. The late Archbishop Niederauer often said that it is one thing to disagree but another to be disagreeable.

In the tradition of the Church there are actually three epiphanies (a triptych as it were): the coming of the three Kings, the Baptism of the Lord, and finally the Lord’s first miracle at Cana in Galilee. The word “epiphany” means to “make manifest.” Liturgically, the celebration of the Lord’s Nativity soon gives way to the celebration of the Lord’s public ministry at the age of thirty. Remember, Jesus spent thirty years obeying, three years teaching, and three hours redeeming (Fulton Sheen).

This feast was for centuries fixed on January 6th. Whereas in the 1970 reformed calendar the bishops’ conferences were given the option of moving this feast to the Sunday after the Feast of the Holy Family or the Sunday after the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, as it is this year.