Merry Christmas and Happy Epiphany! This Sunday we will celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, a celebration of the revelation of God to the world in and through Jesus Christ. The Greek word epiphaneia literally means "to show forth." Sunday we celebrate God showing or manifesting Godself in and to the world. As the Body of Christ, we are called to continue to show forth God's presence in our world.

I have been reflecting a lot on what image of what it means to be Catholic Christians we project to the world, and I admit, I am a bit disturbed by what I see. The image I often see is too often one of harsh judgment and vitriolic outrage. Sometimes it is compounded by ignorance and a total lack of compassion for others who might think differently from us or come from circumstances with which we have never had to struggle. Too often I see people who seem to be very angry rather than loving and hospitable. Suddenly there is a mentality of "defending our faith" in the "culture wars" that is militant and seems to breed hostility, bitterness, and resentment. It seems to me that we live in a very angry culture. If you ever saw the movie Crash, it did an excellent job of portraying the way in which people seem to be so angry today, and it takes so little for that anger to brim over into the world. I fall into the trap myself where I find myself suddenly boiling mad about the littlest thing, until I stop and ask myself, exactly what am I so angry about? As Christians we should ideally be a counter witness to this anger and hostility. As St. Paul tells us,

Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good. Rom. 12:21

Whatever happened to witnessing to the love of Christ? Whatever happened to the focus on feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and sheltering the homeless? Why is Christmas suddenly about whether or not a Nativity is set up in the town square instead of being about those of us who are Christian incarnating the love of God for ALL people? Whatever happened to the season of peace on earth and goodwill to all humankind, not just those who think like us and believe like us? The Epiphany is not the celebration of God's revelation to believers; the Epiphany is the celebration of the revelation of God's love to all of humanity. If only we could put as much energy into loving our neighbors (and remember in the story of the Good Samaritan, the neighbor is defined precisely as those we don't agree with) as we do into the so-called fight to defend Christianity, maybe we wouldn't have to work so hard at defense. Maybe we would engender an openness in people to the force in our lives that enables us to be loving and good and open to all people. I was listening to a song by Steve Camp this morning, and I think his refrain sums it up perfectly,

Don't tell them Jesus loves them till your ready to love them too;
Till your heart breaks from the sorrow and the pain they're going through.
With a life full of compassion, may we do what we must do;
Don't tell them Jesus loves them till your read to love them too.