January 6th Readings & Reflection: The Epiphany of the Lord

First Reading: (Isaiah 60:1–6)

(Reference: Isaiah 60:1–6, see the full text on the USCCB site.) 

Responsorial Psalm: (Psalm 72:1–2, 7–8, 10–11, 12–13)

Responsorial antiphon (USCCB): “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.”

Second Reading: (Ephesians 3:2–3a, 5–6)

Alleluia, Matthew 2:2 (verse)

Alleluia verse (USCCB): “We have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship the Lord.”

Gospel: (Matthew 2:1–12)

(Matthew 2:1–12)

Reflection

The feast of the Epiphany skates across the surface of the Nativity story and then plunges us into its deepest truth: God’s light is not for a chosen few but for all peoples. Isaiah’s soaring image of a city bathed in a new brightness anticipates the surprising direction of salvation, a light that draws nations, gifts, and pilgrim hearts toward the same tiny manger. The magi, foreigners who follow a star, model the human longing for truth and the humility to seek it beyond familiar borders.

Ephesians names the theological explanation: the “mystery” revealed in Christ, that Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body. The Epiphany shows that God’s covenantal love ruptures the walls humans build between one another. Worship at the manger is not a private devotion; it is the first public sign that God’s mercy reconfigures identity and belonging. The magi’s gifts, gold, frankincense, myrrh, are not merely exotic tributes; they are signs that the King’s rule draws the world into a new economy of giving, reverence, and sacrifice.

Practically, this feast calls us to three simple responses:

1. Look up and follow, cultivate the readiness to see God’s signs (in Scripture, in the poor, in the stranger) and to be willing to move.

2. Cross boundaries, let the gospel stretch your loyalties beyond tribe, nation, or comfort zone so that you, too, can receive and share God’s hospitality.

3. Offer what you have, whether small or costly, our gifts offered with reverence participate in God’s work of reconciling the world.

On this Epiphany, may we be led again by the star, not to a single place of nostalgia but into the ongoing journey of worship and witness. Like the magi, let us go home by another way: transformed, bearing the light we have seen, ready to point others toward it.