God is Not Afraid to Tell Us Who He Is (Epiphany B)

John Powell’s Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am? is one of my earliest favorites.  I read this interesting book at a time when I was beginning to feel the need to go out of my shell and find people who would lovingly accept me as I am.  Self-disclosure can be frightening.  In John Powell’s words: “I am afraid to tell you who I am, because, if I tell you who I am, you may not like who I am, and it’s all that I have.”  To reveal one’s self openly and honestly takes the rawest kind of courage as one exposes one’s self to a possible pain of rejection.  Yet one will have to risk because only through the process of revealing oneself that one can break free from an even more cruel experience of pain—the prison of isolation. John Powell’s words again come to mind: “To refuse the invitation to interpersonal encounter is to be an isolated dot in the center of a great circle... a small island in a vast ocean.”

We are relational beings.  We wither and perish in isolation. I’m beginning to realize that this is another aspect of being created in the image and likeness of God.  Our God is Himself a relational God.  He is the God of the Covenant.  As such, He cannot be in isolation.  In order to forge a loving relationship with humankind, He has to make himself known.  In Jesus Christ, in that mystery of incarnation we have joyfully celebrated in the season of Christmas, God has definitively revealed himself to human beings in the manner most intelligible to us—as a human being.

Epiphany is the Greek word for revelation or manifestation.  Today’s liturgical celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord calls to mind God’s risky act of manifesting himself to the world.  Indeed, the gospel reading (Mt. 2: 1-12) describes, in that creative story of the visit of the Magi, God’s act of self-revelation and the great irony that accompanied this epiphany in the history of salvation. The Son of God has been rejected by the Chosen People of God, the very people from among whom, ages and ages ago, He was prophesied to come and for whom He was believed to be sent!  Ironically, the wise men from the east, representing the pagan people, were the ones who travelled far and wide in search for the new born King and ended up accepting and worshipping him.  The Lord was rejected by his own people, only to be adored by all nations!

Some points for our reflection:

Self-disclosure and the longing for acceptance. Our relationships, including the relationship with God, are built upon the courageous act of self-disclosure which is met either with rejection or acceptance.  God, who loves us so dearly, cannot but go out of his own comfort zone as God in order to reach out to us in self-revelation.  Any acts of self-manifestation longs for acceptance.  God longs for our acceptance. All too often though, God is met with refusal.  In Jesus Christ, God experienced the utmost rejection on the cross.

In what ways have I refused God’s offer of himself?  King Herod, in today’s gospel, pretended to be interested in searching for the new born King.  But in fact, in his heart of hearts he rejected Jesus as he saw the child as a threat to his power.  King Herod refused to accept Jesus. King Herod was full of himself.  There was no room in his heart for the manifestation of God’s love.  There is room only for his poor self. Is this not the same reason that I refuse God sometimes in my life?  Am I not too full of myself to allow God to communicate his love for me? Am I not closing my heart because of fear that I might lose myself and God might take over the controls in my life?

Beyond the trauma of rejection. God can turn the pain of rejection into the blessing of salvation.  When the Chosen People did not welcome the Messiah, the blessed irony in salvation history transpired.  It was to the gentile world that the glory of the Lord was manifested.  When the Lord was rejected by his own nation, all the nations on earth adored him. In Matthew’s narrative story of the visit of the Magi, the wise men from the east saw his star and understood in it God’s universal invitation for salvation. Hence, the Church today proclaims the revelation of God to the whole world. God reveals and makes Himself known to all men and women.

We can be paralyzed by our traumatic experiences of rejection.  We can spend our lives hiding inside ourselves seeing to it that we will never be hurt again. So we refuse invitations to authentic relationships—sometimes even relationship with God.  But this is the surest way to the prison of isolation. 

Invitation to mutual self-disclosure with God. God allows in himself and in us the experience of being rejected, but he makes sure another door is opened for us.  Epiphany invites us to trust in the God of relationships.  His own act of self-disclosure encourages us to go out of our protective shells and reach out to him and to others.  True worship and adoration can only come from someone and from a people who have the courage to venture out of the familiar self in order to accept the invitation to a mutual self-disclosure with God—the God who is not afraid to tell us who He is.