This Advent and Christmastide we have considered the need for hope, the cry for peace, the power of joy, the presence of love, and the waging war between Light and Dark (we encourage you to go back and read any reflections you might have missed).

As Epiphany begins, let us anchor our hope for the coming year in the glorious truth that Jesus is the Son of the most High God and he invites us all to his table.

As Simeon declares at Christ’s presentation at the Temple:

"… My eyes have seen your salvation

   that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

    and for glory to your people Israel.”

Luke 22: 30-32

Christ is the Son of God made present through the Incarnation. He is the Light that breaks through the darkness, and he is inviting us to a feast like none other. At His table, there is a seat for the uninvited, a place held for the homeless, a chair for the weak and those with disabilities. Theirs  is the feast!

As you celebrate Epiphany and the sonship of Christ today, reflect on these words from Thomas Merton:

“In this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for Him at all, Christ has come uninvited.

But because He cannot be at home in it, because He is out of place in it, His place is with those others for whom there is no room.

His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, who are tortured, bombed, and exterminated.

With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in the world.

He is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst ... It is in these that He bides Himself, for whom there is no room.”