A New Year Awaits
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May the light of Christ guide you as Christmas comes to a close, as the days lengthen, as we enter into the season of Epiphany, and a new year awaits. May these words others have shared with me be an Epiphany gift for you.
“No matter how much we try to extend the holiday with traveling and vacation time and a last party or two, there comes a time when we need to return to our daily activities and responsibilities. School starts up again, work beckons, and we have to bid farewell to Christmas once again. It can be refreshing to reclaim the space that was filled with the Christmas tree and other decorations. We forsake the Christmas cookies and boxes of candy for healthier food choices in the new year. If we’ve traveled to visit family, we return home, put away the suitcases, finish vacation laundry, and settle into our lives.
Mary, Joseph, and Jesus traveled a great deal during the first years after the birth—back and forth to Jerusalem, a sojourn in Egypt, a return to their home in Nazareth. And in later years, Luke’s Gospel tells us, they traveled on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where Jesus was separated from his parents and found conversing with holy teachers in the temple. Perhaps we’re a bit relieved that Christmas is over for another year. But perhaps we discover that something has changed in us because of an encounter, a gift, a new insight into the meaning of the incarnation. We can keep a little bit of that with us through the coming year and let it bring light and peace to our everyday lives. Our journey with God doesn’t end with the Christmas season. Jesus is forever, not just for Christmas.
The Feast and season of Epiphany, beginning January 6th, makes clear that by taking on our human reality, God shows us how to move beyond our ordinary routines into lives that can make a difference in our world. The coming of the Magi to visit the holy family was a sign that Christ had come not only for the people of Bethlehem and Jerusalem but for all people in all times and places. It is a reminder that we’re called to be ever more inclusive, to be open to questions from all those who seek the love and the mercy and the peace of God."