January 2, 2022 (Epiphany)

by Fr. Bob Glynn, S.J.

[This text is an edited version of an automatically generated transcript.]

Six years ago, I was seated in the provincial’s office in Los Gatos, California, the Jesuit provincial. The good thing was, I was not in trouble. The thing that was going to happen was I was going for my last stint in Africa. And I knew that they would be my final two years. And so we were just going to talk about maybe what might be ahead. So he said to me, have you thought about what you want to do when you’re finished in Africa? And of course, you know, you have the thing in your head in my head, it was “Yes. Take a sabbatical.” Right. So I said, “Well...” and he said, “I think you should take a sabbatical.” I said, “Yes, yes. So great minds think alike, the Holy Spirit, obviously at work here.” So I got six months. It was supposed to I didn’t know I thought I only had three months. And I just kind of stayed on for six. But it turned out, I could have had a year if I’d wanted it. But then I wouldn’t have gotten the job here. So we will stay apart from that.

But so I had six wonderful months. I was in Ireland and the United Kingdom. And two and a half months, I got to spend in London, living in the Jesuit missions house. And the great thing was that I was the only one living there. I didn’t have to be nice to anyone the whole time was fabulous. And I have just a handful of friends in England, but they’re very interesting people. And one of them is particularly interesting, but he warned me long ago, you may never tell people what I do, or I will kill you. So I can’t tell you what he does. But suffice it to say that I got into all sorts of castles and palaces. I’ve been in number 10 Downing Street. That’s where the Prime Minister live, mental kind of all sorts of things. And he and his wife would take me to kind of interesting events.

So one night, they invited me to go to this art gallery for some big opening. I was happy as a clam, they had free champagne. Those were the days I drank. It was wonderful. I was having a great time. And my friend comes and says, “The redheaded woman.” I said, I looked right. I said “Yes.” And he said, “Do you know who she is?” And I said “no.” He said, “That’s Fergie.” I was none the wiser. So I said, “Oh,” I said, “Should I know who Fergie is?” And he said, “Yes. Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of Cornwall.” And then I took a moment and I recalled the woman, if I was not mistaken, who ran all over the world, spend tons of money got in all sorts of trouble and was divorced from Prince Andrew. I did not say all of this, but it flashed through my mind. So my friend says, “Would you like to meet her?” And I said, “Not really.” And he said, “You really should, why don’t you get your picture taken with her?” And I said, “Well, okay.” I said, “You gonna introduce me?” He said “No, no, that will be bad form. You just go up and tell her.” So I just went out to you know, I thought well, okay, you complain that I’d had a couple of glasses. Well, maybe more than a couple. And I said she’d had several too. But I said, you know, “Oh, hello, Duchess. My name is—” I didn’t say Father, because I didn’t—“My name is and I’m a Yank” and because I’m an American, I just say, “Can I have my picture taken with you?” “Of course.” Let me tell you, the woman I hate to say this, but she’s three years younger than I am. She looked like the wreck of the Hesperus then, with makeup on. I looked better without makeup than she did to it really something. But she was just she had that kind of languid “Oh, I’m rather bored with the whole thing.” And so then, my friend was telling me… he said, you know… I said, “She doesn’t seem like she’s really very interesting.” He said, “She’s one of the better ones.” That’s what Oh, my. Now I can’t tell you by the name because I’ll get in trouble, but he said “Some of the young ones” he said, “they’re very proper in public. And then the minute they come back from something, it’s like having teenagers in front of you. And they just make fun of everybody they were just bowing and scraping to, just, all this. It’s terrible.” And I said, “Well, what about the queen?” And he said, “Oh, she’s She’s the real thing.” He said, “but you don’t want to cross her.” And so I kind of got this picture of, you know, we Americans were always impressed by royalty and stuff. Didn’t seem all that great.

And then I thought about royalty today. The only king, even though we do seem to have some confusion, perhaps in those statues, which are aimed at nothing in particular...I think Baby Jesus is there and they’re aimed at the organ. It is slight confusion. But the Advent wreath is still there too. So let’s just not worry about it. But you know, the only king or royal person we have is Herod. And what do we learn about Herod? One, that he is frightened by anyone who might in any way, possibly threaten his own power. We also learn that he is very sneaky, and deceptive and manipulative. That as long as nobody bothers him, everything is okay. But in a way, he’s like a petty child. You know, I mean, if anybody gave him a, you know, had a thought you’d say, well, how is a baby going to threaten me, you know, the baby’s hardly going to threaten me for many years. And the whole idea of Bethlehem and all should really have kind of clicked. It didn’t, because his focus was too much on what he might lose at any given time.

We get to the wise men, and they are deceived by Herod. So they can’t be that wise. You know, they know enough to follow a star, why they wanted to see the King of the Jews eludes me. Okay. But what we knew know is that they were moved to leave where they were, because they thought that God was leading them to something of importance. And so even though deceived by Herod, basically kind of being his scouting party on this whole thing, they arrive at a house. Now I’m assuming Jesus at this point, is a toddler, because it doesn’t say he’s in a stable, and it doesn’t say he’s in a cave or anything like that. So I’m assuming he’s a toddler. Now, what happens here, these three men who are hoping for something arrive, and they’re probably expecting something more like Queen Elizabeth, hopefully, better than Herod. And what they get is a child. So they can’t--I can’t assume that mentally, they’re saying, “Oh, of course, this is the king of the Jews.” You know, I hate to say this for any of those who have toddlers in here right now. But most people would not immediately think a toddler was the king. One would hope not.

Something happens though for them, that’s very different. It’s not what they think. It’s not what they expect. But what happens at Epiphany is what they feel. And as Catholics, we often ignore this sort of thing. But they feel deeply that what they are encountering is something very different from Herod, from any kind of royalty, that they may ever have imagined. Or they ever may have met. Because in him, their hearts that were already seeking, are open. And because they’re open, what they experience is the fullness of who this child is: compassion, mercy, love, forgiveness, understanding, flowing into their open hearts, and they open their bag of treasures and, and merely hand him what has already been given to them from above, in the first place. Grace, responding to grace, gift responding, to gift, love responding to love, love that understands really, what the kingdom of God is about. And so they who are enlightened, can hear the voice of an angel that tells them “Don’t go back to that kind of king. There’s only death there. Go home by another way, transformed as you have been, by the light that you have seen.”