Season of Wonder

The Feast of the Epiphany—January 6th—every year, launches a wonderful season. Maybe we should say it this way: The Days from January 6 to Ash Wednesday are Wonder-Full. I’ll get to that, but first, some context. I was taught to see the Liturgical Year as two related, sequential cycles of Expectation—Fulfillment—Mission. (I gained this view and description of the liturgical season from the modern theologian Dr. W. Paul Jones.)

In the spring/summer cycle, the season of expectation is Lent; the season of fulfillment is Easter; the season of the mission is Pentecost, and the string of Sundays follows it. In Lent, we anticipate a redemptive mystery, in which God ushers in a saving, healing, new reality for the human family and the universe. That yearning is fulfilled in the Paschal Mystery, the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The cycle, however, does not finish with this announcement of fulfillment; it moves on to the mission of those who realize salvation. Believers are empowered by the Spirit to represent the Risen Christ in the world, bringing others into the reach of God’s saving embrace.

In the fall/winter cycle, the season of expectation is Advent; the season of fulfillment is Christmas; the season of the mission is Epiphany and the string of Sundays which follow it. In Advent we take up the language of the Hebrew prophets, expectantly looking for a redemptive mystery: we long for the appearing of the Anointed One of God, whose presence will usher in a saving, healing new reality for the human family, indeed for the cosmos itself. That yearning is fulfilled in the Incarnation: God’s Word made flesh, the birth of Jesus. By the joining of deity and humanity in the person of Jesus, the whole material order begins re-creation. The liturgical cycle does not stop here but moves on, commissioning believers to represent him to the nations. We become agents spreading the revelation that Jesus is the Incarnate Word.

Let us dive deeper into the winter season of the mission. The Christmas season shows us that the human race is saved as Christ joins heaven and earth. The Epiphany extols the revealed identity of Jesus and draws us into the work of spreading that divine mystery. Here, let’s review the wonders from the Gospels that engage us in our Epiphany celebration and on the Sundays after the Epiphany.

There are brilliant wonders in the Gospel narratives that point to the deity of the man, Jesus of Nazareth. 1. The star at his birth and the visit of representatives of the nations reveals that he is God. 2. The wonders at Jesus’s baptism, the Father’s voice, and the descending Spirit, show that he is God. 3. The miracles or supernatural signs from Jesus point to the reign of God, the eternal life he gives, and his divine nature. 4. He calls the apostles and other disciples to follow; their willing obedience reveals the divine character of the teacher that bids them to come to him and later to go out into the world. 5. He teaches the crowds, his steady followers, and the twelve the nature of God’s kingdom. The lessons are unprecedented and authoritative; in them, his divine nature shines through. 6. The experience epitomizing God’s nature shining through the human Jesus is that of Peter, James, and John when they followed Jesus up the mountain. They saw him transfigured: his robes glowing unnaturally with the uncreated light of God.

In the current flow of the season (We are in Year A for our Sunday Scriptures.) we have made our way through these glimpses of Jesus’s identity. Next Sunday we will have our third helping of the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew, chapter five, reminding us that Jesus is utterly unique. Learning from him moves toward completeness when we begin letting ourselves be united with him mystically as he encouraged. The sacred teaching is complete only as we commit to represent him to others in our lives, as he commissioned us to do.

The Sunday after that will be the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, which finishes the mission season of the fall/winter cycle. As always, on this Sunday (right before Ash Wednesday launches Lent) we are invited to follow Jesus with Peter, James, and John up the holy mount of Transfiguration. There, God’s light shines in our hearts and gives the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. All that we longed for is fulfilled in the mystery of the Word made flesh. That fulfillment moves us into the mission, because having received the revelation of who Jesus is, we can’t contain ourselves. We must share that word. The sacred Gospels and your lives are Wonder-Full.