The Answer

Have you ever had an epiphany?

I’ll confess that I’ve never spent much time reflecting on the term “epiphany.” In my head, there has always been a strict separation of church and state when it comes to this word. I think of the religious feast of the Epiphany, when we celebrate the magi’s encounter with the Christ Child, as totally distinct from our modern understanding of the ancient Greek word epipháneia, which means “manifestation” or “appearance.”

“I’ve had an epiphany,” I have said many times before, and what I mean is that I have come to a long-awaited realization. I have received the answer to a question which has perplexed me, perhaps troubled me. I now know what course of action I must take.

“Today is the Epiphany,” I say to my children when we make a king cake and bring the little magi figures to our Nativity beneath the Christmas tree (which will, after today, be put back into storage, for the Christmas season has come to its fulfillment).

And I’ve always thought I meant I was saying two very different things.

But today, I ponder the journey of the magi, one that must have often been treacherous and uncomfortable. I think about their meeting with Herod, a situation that certainly was fraught with tension and fear. And I imagine the feeling in their hearts as they approached the young Messiah and fell to their knees. I think of the peace they must have felt. The new, vibrant awareness of what their own purpose was.

It was an epiphany for them — a discovery of truth. An answer.

It should be the same for us.

©LPi