Today, January 6, is the feast of Epiphany.  For four weeks prior to Christmas we moved through the season of Advent – a season of hoping and expectation.  The essence of Advent reflects our intuitive assessment that the world isn’t the way it should be.  It speaks hope into our situation because of our after-the-fact perspective on the nativity.  We know the savior of the world was born.  But Advent also gives occasion for our explicit hope for the savior’s re-appearing.  Then we finally reached Christmas (from the Old English Cristes Maesse, or Mass of Christ), the season for celebrating the reality of the nativity, the birth of God in flesh, the Incarnation.  And though we may feel exhausted physically, mentally, and liturgically, Epiphany must not be skipped over as a superfluity at the end of this long journey. Continue reading →