Homily – January 8th, 2012
Saint Paul experiences a revelation, and he describes it as the realization of a mystery. A popular understanding of a mystery could mislead us. Edgar Allen Poe started the genre of mystery stories. Today we find that a mystery TV show involves a criminal, and we viewers must watch for clues in order to find the criminal.
Edgar Allen Poe, the first writer of mystery stories, composed a character named Auguste C. Dupin, the first-ever fictional detective. Dupin became the central character in Poe’s short story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” The plot deals with a murder, and the police are baffled. Witnesses come forward who have heard shouting, but the witnesses cannot tell what language was used. Then Dupin at the scene finds a strand of hair that does not seem to be human. Dupin solves the mystery by picking out the clues and by thinking through to a solution. Poe referred to this fiction as a work of ratiocination.
A mystery keeps our attention with plot twists that keep us guessing. Are we able to fit the clues and deduce a solution in advance of the detective? Can we outwit the murderer? A mystery is a type of game.
Saint Paul’s mystery is different, even if Paul uses the term “Mystery.” Paul employs this term to mean the wisdom of God who reveals these facts. We know these identities only by means of God revealing them.
Paul uses the term “mystery” quite differently than do the exponents of the various Roman and Greek cults that flourished at Paul’s time. The mystery cults were all esoteric; participants were bound by oath not to reveal the rites of the cult, especially the initiation rites. One such cult
was the Dionysian group; this cult based its rites on integrating
participants with the natural forces which suggest return from winter’s death to springtime of life. A person understood the mystery when the person knew the outcome of the ritual.
Saint Paul writes of God’s wisdom which is God’s plan for accomplishing our salvation. This is God’s secret that no human could fathom. But in this new age, God reveals this plan to us. Other people do not recognize God’s plan, but God shows this plan to the Church. Paul writes this in one of our favorite passages.
Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. Rather, we speak God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, and which none of the rulers of this age knew for, if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written:
What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
And what has not entered the human heart,
What God has prepared for those who love him,
This God has revealed to us through the Spirit. (I Cor. 2:6-10)
Those things that God reveals to us are known as “Mysteries.” Thus because God reveals it to us, the Trinity is a mystery. Also, the salvation effected by Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection is a mystery.
The mystery of Jesus Christ was previously unknown. It has now been revealed to us. The Holy Spirit reveals the mystery of Jesus Christ through the apostles and the prophets. Paul is one of those apostles. In today’s reading, Paul writes this.
It was not made known to people in other generations
As it has now been revealed
To his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
That the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,
And copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Ephesians 3:5-6)
Paul emphasizes the equal participation of Gentiles and Jews in salvation. Jesus Christ is the messiah for all people for these are with the Jews equal as though all share as heirs, as of the same body, as partners.
Recall that at His Ascension, Christ commanded that the apostles should baptize people of all nations and times. Paul has preached the universal salvation of all people. Our Church is not restricted to a country or an era.
Today we celebrate the Epiphany, the manifestation of Jesus Christ to all people. The three Magi suggest the recognition of Jesus by these wise men from the East, from beyond the borders of Palestine, beyond the borders of a language or a time.
The twentieth century poet T.S. Eliot in his “Journey of the Magi” depicts men coming a distance, a long distance, to find Christ. Eliot imagines the journey.
A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
These people came on camels that were refractory. But at length they rode down from the mountains and came to a temperate valley. Eventually they found the place for which they hunted. In time, these searchers, satisfied, returned to their home. Now it is years later.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly….
And this returned traveler finds that he has returned a stranger to his home, for now he can no longer be at ease; he has seen a new way of life.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death. The light of Christ has appeared to these travelers, and pagan gods no longer satisfy. Amen!!