You know what makes us humans great and wonderful? We are able to adapt and change and work on things in our lives. If we do not like something, we can change it. If something happens in our lives, we can change. We are able to do anything we set our minds to. We can overcome anything in our lives and thrive from it. All these things that we overcome make us who God wants us to be. It is a part of his plan for us.
I bring this to us today on the Epiphany of the Lord because we look at the Magi that traveled far and wide and spent probably weeks just to see and give their gift to the newborn king. And they only probably saw him for a little bit and then went back. They adapted and changed and traveled to just see the king because they would do anything to see God. Would we do the same? They did not have a car that could get them in a few hours but changed their whole plans to just see the king in front of them. We, on the other hand, can get to a church in a few minutes and receive the newborn king within ourselves, and sometimes it is not convenient to go to Mass every single Sunday, even when we are traveling for a few days. We might not change our lives for God, but we are willing to do that for other things.
For me, that is sad, that if we have family or visiting family for Christmas, we do not choose to go find a Mass to worship the newborn king. That if it is not convenient for us to go to Mass, then we will not. Or if we are working, but we can make this one Mass, but I am too tired to wake up or stay up for God. We only worship the king when it works for us.
I am not saying that you must travel weeks to go to Mass, no. Just travel some minutes to spend some time and receive Jesus, to spend some time and be with our God. We can adapt and change our lives to make it possible to make God a priority in our lives and make sure he is first before we do anything else in our lives. How can you make God more a priority in your life? What is stopping you from making him first?
Maybe it is because we do not understand the love that God has for us. Most of you have children or at least we love someone, would you love someone else so much that you would be willing to send your son far away and die for others? Allow them to sacrifice for someone else? I would hope that most would, but I have a feeling that would be too difficult for everyone here, but that is what God did for us. He sent us his son far away and to sacrifice for us because he loves us and we are not willing to adapt or make God our priority all the time? Maybe this is just me, but of course I will. Will you join me? I think understand this with our mind, but do we understand it with our heart?
The magi chose to travel weeks and do anything to see the king, but sometimes we do not make any effort to travel minutes to go to receive the same king. Let us all work on making God a more priority this year and break away from anything that is not helping us to do that.
Homilt given on The Epiphany of the Lord Year A