Last year, I was enrolled in Revelation and Faith in Loyola School of Theology. It was a core subject
in our Baccalaureate degree in Sacred Theology. Revelation primarily points to the act of revealing and at the same time reveals the object of revelation. God reveals the Godself.
In the course of history, humanity tried to worship God in the beauty of nature and created various human-like images of God. Some have thought of heavenly or a perfect world where God dwells and lives forever and this became the ideal of an after-life.
In our Faith tradition, we believe that God inchoately revealed himself in Israel. It was Abraham, our Father in Faith, who personified what it is to respond to this revealing God. It was his response to God that paved way to the relationship of God and His Chosen people. In time, God chose Israel and liberated them from oppression and bondage of the Egyptians which later became a covenant. It was Moses who personified the role of the prophets as ambassador / mouthpiece of God to His people. God worked many miracles in order to reveal who God is, that is love and mercy. Time and again, God's people became proud and unfaithful, but God continued to show love and mercy.
In the fullness of time God sent His Son, as stated by the Letter to the Hebrews (1,1-2) "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a son whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world."
Jesus revealed God as 'Abba', Dad, Tatay! God is with us, "Emmanuel" Before, God's ways can be sought only through the mouths of the prophets, through the teachers of the Law, and other second hand source. With Jesus becoming a human person, God's mercy and love has been incarnated among us. If we will see Jesus' life, teachings, miracles and ministry; these only shows who God is. A God of Mercy and Compassion.
Salvation has never been nearer to us except in the arrival of Jesus. His life and ministry summed it all, we are all invited to participate in God's life of mercy and love to all. St. John Eudes invites us also to participate in the plan of God. Not only to live devout and holy lives, but most importantly, to live and continue the ministry of Jesus in our time and age!
Christmas is the time to rekindle that grace of Incarnation in our Faith. That to be Christians is to live Jesus in our lives. We have to act and pray like Jesus! We have to be the modern day Jesus. But how? St. John Eudes tells us to incarnate Jesus in our hearts. Like the Virgin Mary who conceived Jesus, we need to conceive Jesus in our hearts.
This Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, let us pray to God to grant us the grace of that first Incarnation, to incarnate Christ in the world and continue to reveal this loving and merciful God whom we call Father! May we shout the Gospel with our lives!
Amen.
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