The Meaning of the Epiphany of the Christ - Sunday Mass 5/1/14

Say, Last week I wrote about the meaning of Christmas. Therein I had basically covered today's gospel reading about the Magi (the Three Wise Men from the East) and Epiphany, which commemorates the manifestation of Christ to the Magi. So, today's discourse will be very brief and seeks to explain the meaning or significance of the Magi. Take special note that before the Jews became Christians, and therefore long before white men and Westerners became Christians, that the Three Wise Men from the East came to honour and pay homage to Christ. They came before Christ as Son of Man had yet to open his mouth! They came believing long before they could see Christ for themselves, and started travelling to Bethlehem long before Mary was told she was to have Christ for a baby, and even then when they came, they saw only an infant child and left even before the Living Word of the parables was spoken. If Christians today miss this salient point they will miss the vital point that God's Grace bears no colour, race or creed. To say that you have to be a Christian to be a Christian is missing the point absolutely and totally that God, strictly speaking is not a Christian, Moslem, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, English, Greek, Roman, Indian or Chinese! There is no room in the Christianity that arises from the Epiphany and Christmas for racism or discrimination of any kind whatsoever. God is beyond human judgement or perception or elucidation. In fact you are not a Christian unless you are also a good Jew, a good Moslem, a good Hindu, a good Buddhist, a good Atheist and so on i.e. you are a Good Samaritan, you are a good man, a good soul, a good filial son. Please take time to consider and ponder and contemplate on this critical point. Got it? Here goes. Have no ego of an 'I'. Be selfless! Just be a good father, a good son, a good husband, a good brother, a good friend, a good neighbour, a good citizen, in the 'abstract' 'without the ego'. A Magi or a Samaritan is not a Christian! But they are and were Christians before Christians became Christians! See the enigma? Sounds like convoluted nonsense? Read on! To be a true Christian you have to have believed before you saw Christ or heard Christ like the Magi. We should not be like a Doubting Thomas, believing only when we see. That is behaving like a man and not a spirit. A spirit comes and goes not like a man. You have to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil like the Three Wise Men comprised in the Magi. Do not treat the Magi like monkeys from the East! They know more magic than we ascribe to them. They know God! Ponder on why you are a Christian only if you see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. To be a Christian you have to be a Good Samaritan. Why? Jesus said so! You are a Good Samaritan if you see Christ in every poor, sick and needy, regardless of their colour, race, creed or religion. Ponder on this critical requirement of love and compassion or your idea of Christianity is the work of Satan! Like those Christians who go around singing mindlessly out loud, banging on their tambourines, shouting out vain repetitions of hallelujah, lost in their demonic trance like pagan worshippers. Jesus instructed us to pray quietly, in solitude and in secret (Matthew 6:6). We are to be filial, meek, submissive and diligent as children. Remember Jesus repeatedly saying that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to little children? Any joy or celebration to be had is the Father's and not the sons'. What is the utility, advantage or gain for a son to go around raving like a

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lunatic - I have a Father! I have a Father! It is different when the Father is elated and joyful and proclaims - I have a filial son! I have a filial son! To read and understand the Bible you have to have a 'helicopter' view, which is shorthand for 'spiritual wisdom', so that you can see the 'forest' from the 'trees'! Just reading the Bible literally with worldly wisdom and language you see the 'trees' but not the 'forest'. You will just be like a 'katak the bawah tempurung' (a frog under the coconut shell)! Ponder thus, when you read or see with worldly sight and knowledge, as a 'SON' who see with the ego of an 'I', you immediately 'S'I'N'! You immediately become a sinner! That ego of the 'I' is the Original Sin and which is what separates the Son from the Father. Compare 'Son' with 'Sin' again. Notice how the 'o' in God has disappeared when you have an 'I'? In the darkness of sin, you see the 'trees' but you can never see the 'forest'! So, how are you going to extricate yourself from the 'forest' of the web of deceit of Satan? In fact since God is the Spirit Father, you are not a Christian unless you are a good spirit son of God i.e. unless you are a 'sheep' and not a 'goat' and unless you are the Lost Prodigal Son that is found because he has turned his back to Sin City! Speaking of 'spirit son of God', the Epiphany of Christ also plainly shows that Christianity is about universal salvation, whatever your race, colour or creed or religion, whether you are a Christian, Moslem, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, English, Greek, Roman, Indian or Chinese. This is because the lost Prodigal Son is the 'spirit son of God'. And this is confirmed from the Second Reading from Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6. At 5-6 St. Paul said - 'This mystery, as it is now revealed in the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, was unknown to humanity in previous generations; it means that the gentiles now have the same inheritance and they are parts of the same Body and enjoy the same promise made by Christ Jesus through the gospel.' The 'inheritance' referred to is the 'spirit son of God' in all of us, regardless of our race, colour or creed or religion. Love and God Bless! Chuan.

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