Today as we celebrate the solemn feast of the epiphany, the feast of the unexpected shining forth of the glory of God in an unexpected place, we complete the cycle of our advent and Christmas seasons. We hear the ancient, well-loved story of three wise men from far away who leave their comfortable worlds behind to follow a sign, the strangest and most beautiful of signs, the twinkling light of a new star. They wonder what this Star of Wonder means. I suspect after they saw its rising, they dreamed about that star, so dim yet so bright that it gleamed even in their sleep. They left what they knew to follow that dreamed-of star, and it led them to an unexpected place, to the feet of a poor baby, the infant king of the Jews sitting on his mother’s lap.
It should be no surprise to us that this story has a dream-like quality. Matthew’s telling of the birth of our Lord is a story filled with dreams. Joseph is ready to put his pregnant-not-by-him fiancée aside, to divorce her quietly. “Such was his intention” Matthew tells us, “when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.”
The three wise men from the east see a new star on its rising, and we can imagine what that vision stirred up in them. They studied their charts by day, and dreamed of its meaning by night, until finally they moved. They had to figure it out, had to move. They followed the protocols, went to Herod, the local potentate, who was secretly threatened by their mission. They continued along on their way, found the child, and gave him their royal gifts.
The angel of the Lord then appeared to them in a dream and warned them not to return to Herod. In the verses that follow which we did not hear this morning, we learn that the angel of the lord was busy that night, and warned Joseph to take the child and his mother and flee into Egypt, and to wait there, as refugees, until it will be safe to return home. When that day finally comes, Joseph dreams another dream, and moves again with Jesus and Mary, this time back into the world he knew and loved.
What unites these stories of Joseph the Dreamer and the Magi is that they trusted their dreams, and then acted upon them. They weren’t dopey, pie-in-the-sky dreamers, but people of action, people of effort who exerted themselves rather than sitting around and wondering what they could dream up next.
What unites us to Joseph and the Magi is that we too are dreamers. Inspired by the life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we dream of a world where threatened children are kept safe, where refugees are welcomed, not shunned, where the hungry are fed and the homeless are sheltered. We lament the lot of a new generation of Dreamers, children of refugees brought here as Joseph brought Jesus into a strange land to protect him. We dream of a world of where they, and their parents, might live in justice and peace.
Yet what we have to learn from today’s feast is a complex reality. Yes, the glory of the Lord will shine forth, and be revealed to the nations. Yet that revelation will continue to happen in and through people like you and me. Herod cannot save us, will not save us.
The new and ongoing epiphany happens when, and only when we are inspired by our dreams to move into action. Joseph moved, Joseph acted. The Magi moved, the Magi acted.
And so must we move into action, if we want the glory of the Lord to be revealed. We need to take up Joseph’s task of welcoming and sheltering the word made flesh as he continues to become flesh at this table, and in the people of our place and time, especially in the lost and forsaken. We need to dream big, as the Magi did, and then translate that dream of a new kingdom of justice and peace into action. We may not be able to change the heart of Herod, but we can change our own hearts and begin to reach out more and more to our neighbors in whom we see the faces of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
So today, as we celebrate this feast of the Epiphany, let’s pray that our dreams may inspire us into actions of mercy and justice and peace. Let’s pray that when we see the dim light of the star, we don’t turn over and go back to sleep, but get up, and get going and get moving.
Fr. Tom Lucas, S.J.