Manifestation of Jesus to the Peoples of all Nations

Epiphany saves Christmas from sentimentality. The God who comes to us in the birth of Jesus will die as Simenon foretold and Matthew prefigures today when threatened by a tyrant. There is the paradox of being rejected by his own and accepted outsiders. It is to recognise that Jesus is present in a manger surrounded by messy and smelly animals in a poor town. It is as the Magi found after following the star, that we can learn to look for him, not in a palace, but in the most ordinary people, places and situations. Taking a different route as did the Magi, means not returning to the symbols of power as in Herod, and coming home to ourselves.

Feast of the Holy Family

Luke has told us because of God’s intense love for us God has entered our world: dwelling among us, dining, rejoicing, crying, healing, bleeding, and triumphing with us. We see Jesus being introduced to a wider faith community by his parents, to be part of a new creation –a new family. But as Simeon prophesies, it will not end happily for Jesus, his parents, and certainly not for many children slaughtered at the time. It continues in a world that can be dark and hostile in form of ongoing hostility between nations, between groups, the arms trade and vilifying language And God cries with those distraught mothers as well as those today.

Last-minute negotiations are taking place in Dubai at the UN's climate conference, as representatives from nearly 200 nations try to agree on the future of oil, gas and coal. A draft deal stopped short of calling for the phasing out of the use of fossil fuels - a position that countries including Australia, the US and the UK would not back. Pacific Island states said the draft deal would be their death certificate. It's hoped an agreement can be reached in the final hours before the summit ends. [Source: ABC]