6 January 2004
Today is the Festival of the Epiphany of our Lord. This is the day that the Magi were said to have visited the infant Jesus bearing gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The gifts were said to be something of an allegory for the Christ. Gold was representative of Jesus’ role as the King. Frankincense was indicative of the sacrifice on the cross. Myrrh was the foreshadowing of his humanity. Funny how my training as a liturgical pastor never quite escapes me. Epiphany means, literally, to shine upon. The word has taken the meaning of a divine revelation; the sudden intuitive grasp of reality through something; a metaphor in the existential moment.
I have no idea what that last sentence means, but, damn, it DO sound good! I digress…
I am aware than all calendars are artificial. They have no meaning in and of themselves. They, themselves, are metaphors for the time that they seek to reveal. Time… I have always been fascinated with time and eternity. The NT and Greek thinkers conceived of an eternal and encroached upon the momentary, one was organic while the other was linear. The eternal seems to kiss the existential in these flashes of intuition. It is as if for a moment you see clearly through the darkness and the fog… OK, I also read Calvin’s Institutes.
It has always amazed me that what we see, intuit, grasp, forever changes us. We can’t claim blindness or innocence once we have had our eyes opened. We’ve seen and what we’ve perceived has altered our consciousness by having become part of our experience. I’ve always wondered if this is why so many of us prefer to stay within the confines of what is known and comfortable. That conformity allows a consistency that does not require – or even want – innovation or investigation. This is the conservative that loves the status quo. It serves the needs of the privileged, majority, power-base (whatever the source of cultural bias may be) well. Change is intrinsically risky and therefore to be avoided when the risks that are known are too great for the power-base of the culture to bear.
That is why independent thinkers are such a pain in the ass… they see and have been changed. They cannot go back to the status quo, however much they may long for its comfort and promise of consistency. Aristotle was no dummy. He understood this. He knew that the essence was a constant and for that reason, nothing could change its essential nature: it was constant.
Then came Galileo, looking at the heavens and daring to say it ain’t the way we thought. In that moment of seeing , that epiphany, there was change as his eyes were opened.
It is part of our soul, I think, to seek those changes because the greater good is served by taking the next step, risking and growing…
“Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.”
– Albert Einstein.
Blessed Epiphany.
Ah, but I am just a fool…
