Alternative ROUTE

January 4, 2025 – Epiphany of the Lord

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010426.cfm)

“I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance & amend my life. Amen.”

We say those words as an act of contrition during confession. In saying these words, we do not only regret our mistakes but we are also making a resolution to change & improve our ways. Meaning, it is not enough just to be sorry of our mistakes, but we have to do something about our mistakes by doing our best because we know that we are and God’s mercy is much better than our sins, faults & shortcomings.

Making an act of contrition then reminds us that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is not only about being sorry for our sins, but above all giving oneself & God a chance to do things right & do the right things for the better than we usually do. It is useless then to do monthly individual confession if & when we don’t change our ways & resolve to improve, but rather go back to our sinful & corrupt ways. Salvation is all about God’s grace in us rather than about our sins.

Reconciliation then is allowing God’s mercy & forgiveness work in us, rather than finding & counting our woes, sins, faults, mistakes, shortcoming & of others. It is all about receiving God’s grace than accounting our faults. It is all about changing our ways rather than just being sorry for our sins.

Today, we celebrate the feast of Epiphany. This is our celebration of our remembrance of God’s loving act of reaching out to us (God making Himself known to us) and our acceptance of Jesus, as God’s self-revelation. We, Christians believe that God has given us His only Son, Jesus Christ, as His first gift to us for our salvation.

By sharing us His Son, we become related to Him and become also His children, and sharers of His divine life. Jesus, indeed, is God’s greatest gift to us. God’s offer of salvation & our reception of Jesus into our lives give another alternative meaning, directions & ways in our life. Because of Jesus, we are blessed & graced by God.

Here in our gospel today, we are reminded us of what happened when the three kings found the Child Jesus lying in the manger in Bethlehem. Guided by the star, in great joy, they saw the Child Jesus and they did him homage.

Their encounter of Jesus and the Holy Family in Bethlehem brought the three kings great joy for they have finally found what they are searching for. The birth of Jesus brought new promise & purpose, not only to the local Jews, but also to the migrant magi & to the whole world. With this, like us now, they are grateful, and offered their gifts in homage and thanksgiving to God’s greatest gift to all.

But let us not forget that after they have witnessed & accepted the Son of God into our lives, they returned by an another alternative route to journey life.

This is not because they were afraid of Herod, but because of their encounter with Jesus has also changed their lives. After they have recognized God in the child Jesus, the lives of the three kings were never the same again. They did not follow the usual path, but they amend their lives & now tread an alternative way, perspective, and attitude to life. The child Jesus brought them great joy as well as great changes in their way of life.

The same with our experience of God’s mercy & forgiveness during confession. After celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation, we know deep inside that life now & ahead could & should not be the same again. We have to change our ways & amend our paths. Like the three kings, we have to take an-other, an alternative path of life-journey, much better than our usual lifestyle. The usual King Herod-road to Jesus, our sinful corrupt ways are not anymore safe to tread through again.

We cannot help but amend our normal ways, or else we find ourselves again with our usual unhealthy drama, blame & excuses – away from God’s grace. Because as we all know & believe, Jesus, God’s salvation for us is more than just about our sins & failures in life, but more about & into God’s love & mercy for us His children.

As we are beginning a new year, we make an act of contrition. We give ourselves another chance to grow & do better than our life last year. As we receive anew Jesus, God’s greatest gift for us, let us diminish our tendency to account & highlight our mistakes & faults, but be more conscious of God’s grace at work in us.

And above all, let us amend & improve our lives for the better than our usual normal ways, and seek a new alternative path, roads, & ways for God’s blessing to be always with us today & our near future.

In other words: “We firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to confess our sins, to do penance, & amend our life.”

Amen.