Epiphany of the Lord A.  January 2, 2011.  Our Lady of Grace 9:30. 6PM.  Isaiah 60:1-6. Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6. Matthew 2: 1-12.

Have you ever stood in St. Peter’s square in Rome in a crowd of thousands and thousands of people from every corner of the earth?   There was a time when most Catholics could sing in Latin – a language that we all shared but very few understood.  I grew up at a time when the Mass was still in Latin. Yet I remember being in Rome and hearing thousands of people singing a hymn together each one in his or her own language.  I had the same experience at the Shrine of our Lady in Lourdes. A vast crowd sang “Immaculate Mary your praises we sing.”  They sang in literally hundreds of languages and dialects from around the world.  The experience of one hymn being sung by people from many races, languages and cultures was a very moving experience – Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Hindi, Swahili, Polish, Spanish, German, English, and hundreds more.

For a long time we have seen pictures of genocide in Rwanda and Somalia. We know about racial hatred in our own land.  We have heard about the Crusades, the Inquisition and Cromwell’s murdering ways in England and Ireland. Some would point to religion as the main source of hatred in our human family.  The facts paint a very different picture.  Approximately 15 million people were murdered by the Nazi’s in World War II apart from the war itself. A total of 50 million people died in World War II. The Nazis were violently anti-religious.  This happened during my lifetime.  Since 1918 approximately 150 million people where killed by their communist governments over and above actual wars.  Communism is strongly atheistic. 

The Gospel of Matthew tells us that a very strange thing happened shortly after the birth of Jesus.  Magi, Wise Men, pagan astrologers came to Jerusalem looking for the new born king of the Jews.  The Jews were much like most of us.  They protected themselves from outsiders and at very least shut them out of their lives. The pious Jew would have reacted in horror to the visit of these suspicious visitors from a dirty and polluted world.  King Herod received them, but King Herod was not a pious Jew.  Mary and Joseph were pious Jews and the shocking thing is that the Holy Family welcomed these astrologers into their home.  Jesus was like a divine magnet that attracted all sorts of people to himself.   While the pious Jew protected himself from the outside world, Jesus welcomed everyone. His mission was to teach the fullness of truth to every human being, affirming the truth wherever it was found, and proclaiming a gospel message that triumphed over sin, error and darkness.   The Church of Jesus Christ began to be Catholic at the moment that the weird Wise Men were welcomed by the Holy Family.

The word Catholic means universal, open and world wide.  According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, the word catholic comes from a Greek word meaning "regarding the whole," or, more simply, "universal" or "general." Just as the Wise Men brought gifts to the child of Bethlehem, the Catholic Church has received gifts of wisdom, organization, understanding and grace from all the people that have come to the Catholic Church from the very beginning.  Through the working of the Holy Spirit we have become a world-wide community of goodness and grace.  Being Catholic is still our vocation and our challenge.  We are growing in our awareness that a Church with Jewish and European roots is rapidly becoming a community of men and women on every continent and in every place.

Some people who regard themselves as Catholic are so strict and narrow in the way that they understand and live their faith that they are a barrier to the world-wide mission of Jesus Christ rather than a hand held out in welcome to all who would come to visit him.  The Catholic Church is very old, very deep and always open to the future.  Those who use their faith in Christ to shrink their world and hide from the rest of the human race have not yet found the Holy Infant of Bethlehem and his family welcoming strangers. 

Some Catholics see their world as so broad and open that they no longer distinguish between truth and falsehood, good and evil.  Catholic never means sloppy, uncommitted, insensitive to truth and indifferent to goodness.  Our Catholic faith teaches us to witness to goodness and truth always and everywhere even if that means death and martyrdom.  As Catholics we are called to walks on the tight rope between openness to the world and total commitment to the kingdom of God. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “the Church is also the sacrament of the unity of the human race. In her, this unity is already begun, since she gathers people "from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues" … (775)

The Catholic Church and the United States have a lot in common.  The Catholic Church is present in every country of the world.  The reverse is true of the United States.  Our country has as citizens people from every country in the world. The Catholic Bishops of Minnesota have designated the Feast of the Epiphany as Immigration Sunday. The Bishops asked priests to include in their homilies some reflections about immigrants and to underscore the urgent need to reform our nation’s immigration policy.   While Catholic social teaching recognizes a nation’s right to control and protect its borders, and does not condone unlawful entry or circumvention of immigration laws, it also upholds the right to emigrate for just reasons. Terrible suffering, poverty and violence often impel people to flee their homelands and to seek a better life. We know this instinctively as a nation of immigrants.  As members of Christ’s Body we are called to advocate for immigration policies and enforcement practices that are humane, just, and serve the common good. The bishops tell us that reform should include expanded opportunities to reunify families, a temporary worker program, and an earned legalization program for undocumented immigrants. If we truly believe that “the Church is the sacrament of the unity of the human race,” and that our nation brings together people from the whole world, let us work together to achieve justice for our immigrant brothers and sisters. For the Catholic Church and these United States we give God thanks and praise.