There is one God for everyone, and He is a God for all peoples.

“They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother.   They prostrated themselves and did him homage.  Then they opened their treasure and offered him the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

The Epiphany message is the universality of the Gospel message.  All are welcome at the Bethlehem crib including the migrants, the refugees from the East who came in search of the newborn king.

In the Epiphany account, the magi offered the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the Christ child.

As we pray over the gift-giving of the magi, we ask ourselves what gifts have we to offer to God, the giver of all good gifts?  God has given us all we are and all we have. 

Perhaps our greatest gift is the gift that the Holy Family gave to the magi – the gift of welcome, the gift of their love. 

What about us?  If the newcomers that we are to welcome come from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico and Honduras … dromedaries from Russia and Sudan, will we extend our welcome with open arms?  What about Muslims and Jews, immigrants and refugees, the poverty-stricken and the unemployed, the sick, the hungry and the homeless?   Will we offer the same welcome that each receives from God?  Will we reach out in love? 

The best gift we can give back to the Lord is the gift of self.  Can we give the gift of our self to the God who is present in the migrants, the sick, the hungry, and the homeless?

This kind of welcome to one and all is the Epiphany challenge and the grace we seek.

Last month, on Dec 8, 2015, Pope Francis declared the beginning of a Holy Year of Mercy, at which time he opened a Holy Door, a Door of Mercy, which will remain open for the duration of the year.  Those who pass through that door will experience the love of God, who consoles, pardons, and instills hope.  The Holy Father expressed his intent that church doors be similarly opened throughout the world so that all of humankind, without exception, may know what he has called the “visceral” love and mercy of God.

In this jubilee year of mercy, may the doors of the Church of the Holy Spirit be wide open to all who seek to discover the Lord in 2016.  May our hearts welcome all those who need to experience the love of God.  As at the Bethlehem crib, all are welcome – refugees, the magi, and the shepherds.  So too, may we extend a jubilee of welcome and mercy to one and all.

Perhaps darkness has returned to us as we discuss our fear of immigrants and refugees.  We live in fear of the threat of terrorism, do we not?  May we continue to believe that there is one God for everyone, and He is a God for all peoples.  Instead of being enveloped in criticism and fear, we need to do our best to accept all people as they are, to love them, and to help them, to care for them, and thus show that we are really Christian by our love.

The magi came to Jerusalem and asked:  “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?”  May the question of the magi be our question as well:  “Where are we to find Jesus who has come to save us?  Are we to find him in a stable?  Do we experience the presence of the Savior in our celebration of the Eucharist?  In the stillness and quiet of Eucharistic Adoration, do we encounter Jesus?  Are we to find the Word of God in the human words that we speak?    Are we to find the Son of God in one another --  in the least of these his brothers and sisters and to declare his glory shining there?

The Bethlehem crib helps to be aware of where we are to find Jesus in our lives.  God does not manifest his presence in the power of this world but speaks to us in the humbleness of his love.  The crib points to God’s desire to be discovered in self-abasement, in downward mobility rather than upward mobility.  His glory is revealed in the manger of Bethlehem crib, on the cross of Calvary, in each of our suffering brothers and sisters.

The wise men are models of conversion in they believed in the goodness of God rather than the power of this world.  They followed a star in search of the Christ child.  Where do we find the star in our life that leads to the Christ child.  Our stars may not be found in the sky in the dark of night.  Perhaps your star is a person who reveals the face of God to you.  Who is the person for you who leads you to God.  Treasure this person as a most beautiful star in your life.

May our faith community be a star that leads us to encounter Christ.  May our prayer and may the ministries of our parish life lead us to journey in faith to the Bethlehem crib.

It is also true that we discover the star of Bethlehem in the dark of night.  Amid the struggles and challenges and the darknesses of our lives, know that there is a star that leads us to God.  May we have the spiritual sightedness to discover the light of Christ.

God is made manifest in the Epiphany feast.  There is no darkness in life in which God is not present.  There is no one who is not welcome at the Bethlehem crib.