January 7, 2024
The radiant Epiphany of Jesus was immediately followed by the flight of the Holy Family. And Jesus lived most of the rest of his life hidden in ordinariness. What is God teaching us by these long years of hidden life?
Key Points
- Human glory easily contaminates us.
- What were the immediate effects of the visit of the Magi?
- How does God hide His Son?
- Why does God hide His work on earth?
- What do we need to cooperate with His hidden work in our lives?
This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable. It has not been verified by the author.
“And having been warned in a dream, not to return to Herod, they departed for their country, by another way.” That’s an ominous end to this gospel, this gospel of this splendid feast, epiphany, which means manifestation, Jesus, Glory be manifested. And yet we have this, as I say, this very ominous note. And it would have seemed like this epiphany, we had the glorious prophecies of Isaiah, which announced this moment. And this visit of these Magi from the east such an exotic and men, so obviously so wealthy and so important, that couldn’t go unnoticed, even they stopped at Jerusalem and even the king became very aware. And so I was thinking that, you know, think of yourself in that situation, what would have been your thoughts, I might have imagined they say, Well, this is great. Finally, Jesus is getting the attention He deserves. now, things are going to be different. Now all sorts of people are going to know about Him and now His importance is going to be recognized. And now things are really going to change. And they did change, but not in a good way. This beautiful visitors, the Magi, King Herod turns it into this terrible massacre, terrible massacre of all the young boys there around Bethlehem. And so the gospel is very realistic. The gospel is not a fairy tale. It’s very realistic, and it’s happening in our world. So this is what’s happening. There’s this manifestation of God’s glory. But immediately, there’s this reaction from the powerful king, the powerful, cruel, vicious King, which ends up in a slaughter. And there’s a sign there of the danger, the danger, that always the danger, that God’s graces be contaminated by human ego, the desire for human glory. And we see this throughout the gospel, this danger of contamination. You know, even the mother of John and James, shortly before Jesus’ passion, comes asking to make her two sons, one at His right, and one at His left. And it seems like even the apart that those two apostles were consenting in this. So even there in the apostles, even among the apostle John, that there is this contamination. And this, we see this, throughout Jesus’ public life, this desire to make Him a hero, their king, but their king in a very human way. But it’s not just back then, it happens all the time in the Church too, where human ego and desire for human glory, contaminates and corrupts what should be works of God. And so what we see happening on this Epiphany is immediately, God, and God hides His savior, His son, and His family. So immediately after this, Joseph, because of this visit of the King, Joseph is warned to flee to Egypt. And so Jesus and His family seemed to disappear. And what must have been a terrible trial for them, leaving everything and fleeing with nothing, in exile to Egypt. But that’s what they had to do to avoid that massacre. And so then begin the long, hidden life of Jesus. And this long wait, you know, almost, we’re basically about 90% of Jesus’s life on this earth was what we call His hidden life. And so we forget that pretty easily because the gospel doesn’t say much about it, it was so hidden that there’s not much to say about it. But almost all of His life on earth was very hidden. And so St. Paul gives us in the reading today gives us a glimpse into these mysterious ways of God. He says the mystery was made known. So the mystery; he speaks so much of mystery. There’s so much mystery and in God’s ways, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation. That is, it’s not something that he could have figured out. It has to be God Himself revealing it, “was made known to me by revelation. It was not made known to people and other generations, as it has now been revealed to the holy apostles and prophets, by the Holy Spirit.” And so he’s saying that there’s something that had been hidden for centuries, it was just now being revealed. And so we can wonder also are there maybe mysteries also the Lord has kept – it actually the Book of Revelations makes it pretty clear that there’s a lot of mysteries. Yeah, even the Book of Revelation, there’s so much in it, which is still mysterious, we still don’t know exactly what things mean until the right time comes. And I think even today, we’re living great mysteries, special mysteries of God’s action today. And so this hidden life of Jesus, which begins at this moment, especially, is a sign for us. And there’s a lesson for us because Jesus is hidden, not in the sense of like, he’s hidden in a cave or something like that. Or he flees into the desert, or no one can see Him. He’s hidden, pretty much in plain sight, kind of like a camouflage. That is, He looks ordinary, but His divinity is hidden. And so how does that affect us? How are we supposed to live that mystery? So again, remember, if we’re called to follow Jesus, right, because that’s what we’re called to do, right? Follow Jesus. Think of that, when we think of following Jesus, we almost always think of following Him in His public life. But remember, that was only about 10% timewise, of His time on earth. And so most of the life of Jesus was hidden. So how are we called to share that hidden life. And so, as a little insight that I want to give you, I want to share some words from a mystic, because oftentimes, these type of words, help us penetrate into the mysteries. But before that, to understand these words I’m going to be reading to you, it’s good to recall what St. Paul says, talking about his discovery of God working in his weakness. St. Paul says, “The Lord said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. For my power, is made perfect in weakness. My power, My divine power, is made perfect in weakness.” And that’s very hard for us to understand. But then St. Paul, and I think it wasn’t easy for St. Paul either. But then he goes on to say, after hearing this revelation from the Lord, He says, “I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses,” boast of my weaknesses. See how different that is? We don’t like that, that’s not what we do. Right? We want to boast of whatever little talents or strengths we have and hide our weaknesses. And he says, I will gladly boast of my weaknesses. Why he says, “so that the power of Christ may rest upon me, not my own power, but the power of Christ. For the sake of Christ, then I’m content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.” And then there’s this very striking phase of St. Paul. He says, “because when I am weak, then I am strong.” When I am weak, then I am strong. So there’s so much mystery, to discover in that phrase, “when I am weak, humanly, it is then I am strong, by God’s grace.” So, now this passage from these words of a mystic. “We leave each of you weak, vulnerable, so that our work may be hidden until the hour.” Leaving you weak and vulnerable so that our work may be hidden until the hour like, like, what’s the case in the life of Jesus. “The training is hard, my little ones, I know. But your docility makes it possible for us, to rebuild you, strengthen you, prepare you in your spirit, while leaving the human shell so weak and broken.” So what he’s saying is that the Lord can be working deep inside of us, well, the human shell what appears on the outside and by outside, I don’t just mean to other people that often our own experience of ourselves, what we experience of ourselves seems so weak and broken. God can leave the exterior weak and broken. So that’s all that might be all that people see. It might be all that we see because we often have a very superficial look at ourselves. And the Lord to be doing that it says, to leave His work hidden. He says, “we always hide our work, that it may not be tempered by the enemy.” So that’s one of the main reasons that the Lord hides His work. So that to hide it from the enemy. The enemy who’s like, here, we see a great, great example of King Herod inspired by the evil and trying to kill Jesus and massacring all these children. But it’s not just that way that the enemy attacks. In other words, the enemy attacks us by our own pride and vanity, because as soon as the Lord gives us a little grace, a little success, boom, you know, our head explodes. And we really think, wow, I’m awesome. And so it’s especially dangerous in a spiritual life. If it’s a spiritual life, you think, Well, I’m really holy, because I pray so well, or I have such understanding, or I make so many sacrifices, or I’m so generous. It’s especially dangerous and spiritually, spiritual pride. Of course, we don’t have to worry about that, right. But other people have those struggles. “We always hide our work, but it may not be tampered with by the enemy. How surprised he will be when the trumpet call into the battle finally sounds, he will see all those that he tortured, that he thought insignificant, useless, turned into mighty soldiers, and vincible in faith, shielded by the power of the Most High God, so that those that the Lord has hidden, and seemed completely unimportant to the enemy, will be revealed, precisely because of their faith, their trust, their humility, be revealed as a powerful soldiers of our Lord.” And the greatest example we have of this is our Blessed Mother, who lives most of her life in such a humble, simple way, that she has now become the terror of demons. That can’t resist it, because she was so humble and trusting in the Lord, that she became such a powerful force to destroy the power of the enemy. And so I think that those of you who come here know that I often come back to this topic of hidden, because I think it’s very important for our time, and I think it’s very important, especially important for this little Mission of Divine Mercy. Because I think what the Mission of Divine Mercy, so it was about, I think, 22 years ago that we started, and I think I see why almost all these years at the Mission of Divine Mercy is basically hidden years. You know, not, again, not that we’re hidden in a cave or something, but our kind of a very quiet, low-profile community. And we don’t even have a sign out on the highway or anything. So I think, in many ways, our little mission has been living that, and the Lord has been forming us in that way. And it’s not always easy. It’s not always easy to be live in a hidden life. There’s a lot of trials in that hidden life, but it’s also a good protection in many ways from the enemy. And from the enemy of our own pride, again, in our own ego, which is always you know, it’s always an ongoing battle. But I think, as I’ve said, I’ve said recently, I think the time is coming, when like for our Lord, and like for John the Baptist, the time will be coming to transition from this more hidden life to life that is more public, and more public role of faith. Well, more high profile, we’ll have speaking about denouncing certain things, even denouncing certain things in the Church, and then also announcing that some of the mysteries of the Lord for our time. And so I think that time is coming soon, as I say, for our community. Because in many ways, the hidden life is often like the desert. And we’ve spoken a lot about the desert. So let me read you this other passage. “For all that has seemed a desert is in reality, a fruitful valley.” What seems a desert, what can often in our own experience, can seem like a desert to us, very dry. But he says what seemed a desert is in reality, a fruitful valley, full of goodness, but hidden from your sight and the sight of my enemy, so that he’s hidden this fruitful valley as a desert, hidden it from the enemy and hidden from our own selves so that we don’t get in the way of what He’s doing within us. “We must shroud everything in misery, aridity, and apparent nothingness until the hour comes.” So that’s what this hidden life means being shrouded in misery, aridity, and nothingness. And so we can experience that, right, we can experience misery, aridity, and feeling like there’s nothing going on spiritually in our lives. And so, this is a call to radical trust. “You, My children cannot see this power, yet. It is hidden still from your sight. Because you must learn to believe me, without seeing or feeling anything.” So that hidden life is our formation and faith, to believe, not because of what we see or feel, but to believe, without seeing or feeling. Remember what Jesus says to Thomas, “Thomas, you believe because you see, but blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.” We always feel like wow, I don’t see these things. I don’t experience these things like saints and so forth. But God blessed are you without if you believe without seeing, and that’s what the hidden life is forming us in, to believe, without seeing. And that’s what I think there’s, that’s why this is a time, these trials that we’re living now. For faith is so important so the Lord needs to form us in this formation of believing without seeing. Another passage, when he’s speaking about the enemy, he says, “the enemy is blind, to my hidden army,” hidden army again, hidden. “The enemy is so blind with pride in his plan, that he cannot see my forces.” Now think of the enemy, satan, who was so anxious to try to find out where was the Messiah because he wanted to destroy Him. And he didn’t see there, and our Blessed Mother and this humble family was St. Joseph, and Jesus, that he didn’t see the Messiah was right there. But he couldn’t see it because of his pride. “He is so blind with pride in his plan that he cannot see my forces. I must wait for the precise moment to unleash my action. I know when and how. And you must simply trust me. Trust beyond all reason, all evidence, all hope, all imagining boundless trust, absolute radical trust.” And maybe that again, trust, the message of that, so much that in the message of Jesus to Saint Faustina, it’s so much about trust, in His mercy, trust beyond all reason, all evidence, all hope, all imagining boundless trust, absolute, radical trust. So God knows when to hide His work. And when the time comes to reveal it, just as Jesus, for a long time was hidden, but not forever, then there came a time to be when He would no longer have a hidden life, but a public life. So today, much of His work is hidden, until the time of His great Epiphany, His great manifestation. And so, let us accept, God knows what is best. Let us accept when He hides us. And when the time comes for Him to manifest His work, and precise, so this is a call to believe in His hidden presence. And this very Mass that we celebrate, this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is so much hidden. Because we believe that Jesus becomes truly present in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. But it’s completely hidden. We don’t see His divinity at all. We don’t even see His humanity. All we see is a little host. And so what He’s training us in is faith without seeing, faith, which believes the hidden mysteries. And so we ask our Blessed Mother, St. Joseph and today with the three wise men, Gaspar Melchior, and Balthazar, to help give us this faith, this deep faith, firm hope, radical trust in our Lord. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen.
KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Matthew 2:1-12