Gifts to be Given and Received

So the Christmas season is drawing to a close and ends on Tuesday, the Solemnity of the Epiphany, a Holy Day of Obligation.  This is traditionally the date that the three wise men or kings arrived from the east with their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Just as Advent was a time of prayer and preparation for Christmas, I suggest that these days in which Christmas season closes are a good time to look back and reflect.  One area for reflection concerns presents.  Many of us will have given gifts at Christmas and received them as well.  This can be a time when Customer Services has long queues with people wanting refunds or change of colour or size of products!

But we need to move beyond a consideration of material gifts to spiritual and eternal ones.  The readings at mass all point us to the great gifts of our faith.  For the third time in these last two weeks we have heard the prologue of John’s Gospel.  This mysterious and poetic passage depicts Jesus as the Word, the gift of God who entered into humanity in order to redeem it.

This great gift is picked up in the second reading as St Paul writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world…”

But even before Jesus Christ came into the world, God was revealing himself to his people and bestowing his gifts upon them.  The first reading from the Book of Sirach makes it clear that God has gifted his people with wisdom and a place of worship and even a sense of eternity.  The psalm likewise lists the acts of God to his people which can also be seen as gifts.

So, at the turn of the New Year, it is good to give thanks to God for all his gifts to us.  Our God is so gracious that we need have no fear in praying for further gifts and graces especially to help us with the challenges and difficulties that we face.  And it is also good to look again at ourselves to see what gifts we can give back to God in the love and service that he calls us to.  

God bless, Fr Kevin.