Epiphany

Happy Epiphany. Mass was a surprise this morning, one might even say... well, and Epiphany. Saw lots of people I didn't plan on seeing. The music was especially good. I was especially happy. I sat next to a man whose breath could have been better, but whose voice was excellent and our pew blasted away "We Three Kings..."

So the sermon begins with the priest talking about how we doubt God, or doubt the goodness of God or... I don't know. All I know is that eight out of ten times whoever is doing the sermon starts it by talking about how difficult it is to believe which makes me wonder, if even the priests don't believe in thier religion, might there not be a problem?

I usually get up and leave the pew around the sermon. This Sunday is no exception. I hear about doubt and what has surprised me over the years is how all the other Catholics I grew up alongside of who were "better" than me or nicer than me or joined choir or campus ministry when I didn't want to always go on about how hard it is to believe....

Believe in what? I have never had a problem believing. for all my flaws I have always more or less expected God to be God even when I had no idea what that meant. Orthodox Christianity... I often doubt. The Catholic Church, I flat out ignore. God... Jesus.... I don't have trouble with them at all. Religions fight against each other, claim which is right and which is wrong. Tell you to believe in this or go to hell. The infant in the manger just offers himself as a gift and says, "Here I am." I have no trouble believing in him unless I stop believing in love.

Today on Epiphany, as we think of the wise ones and the three gifts I think of their gifts to me, what they are saying to me. Tonight I think of the first gift, the gift of gold. Gold is the gift of kingship? What is it telling me? That a king conducts himself with honor and dignity and that he can be relied upon, that there is royalty in everyone and everyone ought to be accorded that dignity. There are so many people out on the streets, at the grocery store or the mall who are amazed just when you treat them with the dignity they deserve... Just when you remember they are queens and kings... even when they themselves have forgotten it.

yechydda