Like a Christmas Season afterthought, epiphanies transform us. And, if we are blessed by them, though the landscape be the same we will have new eyes (with thanks to Proust).
聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淕od鈥檚 voice is usually nothing more than a whisper, and you have to listen very carefully to hear it. But other times, in those rarest of moments, the answer is obvious and rings as loud as a church bell.鈥澛�(Nicholas Sparks, The Last Song)
聽聽聽聽聽 Most of us have shared those rare experiences when the veil between heaven and earth is transparent and we sense real communication between the two worlds. Stories we share about loved ones who have gone before us come to mind.
聽聽聽聽聽 I鈥檒l share several examples recounted over the last holiday break. My niece recalls how a couple of days before my brother鈥檚 death she saw him in a dream. He gave her a warm hug. When she asked him how he was doing, he shook his head and didn鈥檛 say. Two days later he was born to eternal life.
聽聽聽聽聽 A brother-in-law recalls how after his father died in Saskatoon University Hospital his dad appeared to him. His father was wearing a plaid shirt when he appeared in the gold mine the son was working in up north. When the family collected my father-in-law鈥檚 clothing from the hospital, there was the plaid shirt.
聽聽聽聽聽 The daughter of my niece relates how her little girl came across a picture of her grandfather when she was older and could articulate the event. My niece had been boiling soup in a pressure cooker and there was something of an explosion. Scalding soup was everywhere but on the baby. Her daughter now said, 鈥淚 remember him. He protected me from the hot soup.鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽 The wisdom of this world can easily discredit some of these events and explain them away. But do we want to be 鈥渨ise for a moment and foolish for eternity鈥�? (John Tillotson)
聽聽聽聽聽 Even in the often tragic events of this world as reported by our daily news, we can know the presence of a loving God who does not abandon the world. James Riordan said, 鈥淲hat I learned in Rwanda was that God is not absent when great evil is unleashed. Whether that evil is man-made or helped along by darker forces, God is right there, saving those who respond to His urgings and trying to heal the rest.鈥澛�
聽聽聽聽聽 Faith calls us to share our epiphanies and to be heralds of God鈥檚 love to the world. That is the mission of Christ and all who follow Him. 鈥淐omfort, oh comfort my people,鈥� Jesus commissions us.
聽聽聽聽聽 If we would be wise, like the three Magi, we must go on seeking the Lord. There is no epiphany without there first being a search. And if we learn to respond to God鈥檚 urgings we will be transformed.
聽聽聽聽聽 Ray Lamontagne in Ray Lamontagne and the Pariah Dogs says,
鈥淣ow the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turnin鈥� gold
And like the sky my soul is also turnin鈥�
Turnin鈥� from the past, at last and all I鈥檝e left behind鈥�.
