1-8-2012 Epiphany of the Lord How do we react to the kingship of Christ?

Do we worship the Lord as He reveals Himself, or the false gods we make in our own image? In today's Gospel, we are presented with two ways of responding to the news of Jesus Christ as a king, having infinite authority over us. Herod exemplifies our concupiscence, our tendency toward sin: afraid, he frantically attempts to destroy the child who would demand changes in his life. The Magi respond in faith: saying we have come to adore the newborn king of Israel, whose star we have seen, and bearing gifts of great treasure, signifying their own lives, talents, and hearts. How do we react to the kingship of Christ? We receive two other examples in today's feast of Epiphany, which means revealing, the revelation of Christ as Lord. We remember the wedding at Cana, where Our Lord's kingship is emphasized in the words of Mary: Do Whatever He Tells You. Finally, we remember the Baptism of the Lord, which we celebrate tomorrow (Monday), where the words of the Father come down: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. With this divine approval, we thus owe our homage to this one man Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, who will demand, for our own good, the conversion of our hearts to truth, goodness, and beauty: to God himself who encompasses all that is. How do we react to the kingship of Christ? Christ demands a choice of us he will not let us keep him alongside as merely an ethical teacher or spiritual consolation: no, he is God and Lord, king and ruler, but all in infinite love. We must put to death the Old man, the first Adam (the little Herod in each of us), so that we can fully clothe ourselves in the new man, the new Adam, Jesus Christ, to whom we have been united and into whom we have been incorporated through our Baptism. It is only in the frightening death of our selfishness, our weakness, our misplaced-pride, that we can experience the joy the wise men have in seeing the Lord, the joy the disciples have in following their newlybaptized teacher, the joy the wedding guests have in the new wine that Christ offers those who trust Him. At this time of new resolutions, we look toward another year. Tomorrow the Christmas season closes with the Lord's Baptism, and we begin to unfold the mystery of Christ's life in the rest of the liturgical year. May it be a year of grace, a year of death to the old man (Herod) in each of us, so that we may find life in Him who is our king and the new Man living in us, our Eucharistic Lord, whom from this altar we beg the grace for daily conversion.