I have noticed in observing our children playing on the plaza after mass that their favorite game is “hide and seek”.  That is entirely appropriate as it seems that “hide and seek” is also God’s favorite game.  Isaiah the prophet writes, “Truly with you God is hidden, the God of Israel, the savior!” (Is 45,15)  God has placed a desire for his presence in the hearts of every people and as St. Augustine wrote, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”  In watching the children play I have noticed that they often do not hide very well.  If fact, it seems like they want to be found.  Of course the game would not be any fun if nobody found you and you were just forgotten.  So it is with God.  As we are searching for God, God is also searching for us, calling us out of hiding and revealing his presence to us.  St. Paul spoke to the people in Athens about their “Unknown God” asserting:  “He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us.  For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17,26ff)  God is hidden but he wants us to search for him and to find him.  He is not far from any of us.  When Israel sinned, God hid his face from them so that they might turn away from their sins and seek his face once again.  Isaiah said, “For I will trust in the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob; yes, I will wait for him.” (Is 8,17)  In playing “hide and seek” the secret is to wait for those who are hidden to reveal themselves to the one who is searching.  God has shown us that he wants to reveal himself to us so that he might be found.

     The magi in the gospel of Matthew are seekers.  They are waiting for God to reveal himself to them.  They are “wise men” for they are searching for God in Wisdom.  Wisdom contains elements of understanding, foresight, discretion, and astuteness, but is different from and beyond all these.  It suggests a habit of profound reflection.  Wisdom indicates discernment based not only on factual knowledge but on judgment and insight.  St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans:  “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.” (Rom 1,20)  The wise men notice a light that is brighter than all other lights in the darkness of night.  They leave their homes and they follow this light.  They wisely discern that this light will lead them to the One God who is manifesting his presence on the earth in a new way.

     Our celebration this Sunday is the celebration of the Epiphany.  An epiphany is a manifestation or revelation of God’s presence.  In the birth of Jesus, there is an epiphany of light and truth that is being manifest to the whole world.  God is showing his face to the world in the face of a small child.  For a brief time, the face of God is a human face.  The way that we come to know God is through revelation.  God shows himself to us.  God manifests his love, his light and his truth in a brilliant epiphany of light.

     For a brief time, the magi seek to find the desire of their hearts in the world of Herod.  They seek guidance from the halls of worldly power but all they find are darkness and deception.  They look up to heaven once again and find their guiding light which leads them to the true king.  Our faith is not in human learning and understanding but in the ways of God and the revelation of his truth.  We cannot find God through reason alone but we need the gift of faith.  The light of faith leads us to Jesus the Christ.  Once they have discovered the light of faith the magi are filled with joy and they find what their hearts have been seeking.  It is in the light of revelation that we come to find the true God.  We find God because he wants to be found and he shows himself to us in Jesus.  As Jesus tells his apostles, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (Jn 14,9)  Once they have seen Jesus, the magi go home by another way, the way of faith in the child who the Father has sent into the world to reveal his love and to be our Savior.