If we read between the lines, we might see that St. Luke isn't over the moon with 'other accounts' of the 'events that have been fulfilled amongst us'.  Not so much, we might say with the facts, but how these events are to be understood.  St. Luke wants a 'deeper understanding' of the life, death, resurrection of the Beloved Son of God.  The question is, do we?
 
Jesus  experiences  Himself  as God's Beloved  Son,  filled  with  the  Spirit.   The  Spirit takes  Jesus  into  the wilderness, where the devil tempted Him to act out as Beloved Son as a personal privilege.  With promises that He would never be hungry, that he would have power and territory and religious safety, the devil casts his lure.  When Jesus responds with a powerful NO! The Spirit fills Him completely.  So it is, 'filled with the power of the Spirit' He returns to Galilee.
 
It looks as if Jesus is trying to develop a fuller understanding of 'Spirit filled Beloved Son of God'.  What this does not mean has been clarified in the desert sand, in mid-air and on the pinnacle of the Temple. What it does mean will unfold in the synagogue in Nazareth.  Here, the book of Isaiah is handed to Jesus.  He bypasses the 'Reading of the Day' and searches for the one that will best describe the Son of God and His Mission.  What the people in the synagogue hear is that He is on a mission of liberation.  Wherever life is made poor, imprisoned, broken or impaired, it will become enriched, free, and well again.  For Jesus, Son of God is not a Title of privilege, it is a call to transforming action!
 
Luke  has  made  good  on  his  promise.   The  reader  now  has  the  words  to  understand  Him  and  then  to understand exactly what they mean when they call themselves His disciple.
 
So, have you ever had an experience of God?  What was it and, more importantly, what did you do with it?  In The life of Jesus, the gift He received had to be continually unwrapped.  A kind of spiritual pass the parcel.   With  each  unfolding  it  becomes  clearer  what  the  original experience was and what it means.  Sometimes for us, these events come in prayer, sometimes in nature, at the birth of a child, the death of a  parent,  by  falling  in  love,  by  searching  for  truth,  by  practiced compassion for the poor, by working for justice.  In and through these events, Gods love begins to shine brighter.  But the experience needs to  be  courted  and  pursued.   It's  meaning  must  be  tested  and enlarged.  Sacred books must be consulted if the full meaning of the event is to be understood.  In short, it demands our cooperation!
 
And then there are the times when the very ordinariness of our life suddenly breaks into an experience of God.  Michael Novak hints at the holiness of the factory worker, the shop assistant, the cleaner, the secretary, the artist, the writer, the computer analyst.  He writes,
 
"We didn't give ourselves the personality, talents or longings we were born with. When we fulfil these - these gifts from beyond ourselves - it is like fulfilling something we  were  meant to do.  It is a sense of having uncovered our personal destiny, a sense of having been able to contribute something  worthwhile to the common public life, something that would not have been there without us - and, more than that, something we were good at and enjoyed".  
(Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life [New York: The Free Press, 1996]36)
 
This second way reverses into the Sacred in all things.  But, either way, the quest for understanding will lead us to the stream in the desert, the shelter in the storm, the rock when things are falling apart.  The ever present and ever elusive Spirit will reveal God's heart to all who search for the truth.

The story of the events at Cana, starts by declaring that they took place 'on the third day'.  St. John wants the reader to be aware that something Sacred is about to reach its fulfilment and that what is about to unfold is in the hands of God.  This happens at a wedding feast.  But in this case the 'two' who are to become 'One' are not just a bride and a groom but humanity - represented by the Blessed Mother - and God - present as the Beloved Son. 
 
The Mother of Jesus speaks on behalf of humanity.  She presents our brokenness, our lack, our pain resulting from our distance from God.   She  expresses  this  to  the  Beloved  Son  of  God  with  the haunting and poignant words, "They have no wine".  She tells it like it is.  Our broken communion with God and with each other is killing us.  How many times in the Gospel does this plea express itself in other ways? The official whose son is dying, the cripple who has no  one  to  put  him  in  the  pool,  the  Apostle  who  does  not  have enough bread for the hungry, Martha and Mary at the tomb of their brother.  Each of these sing the song of human affliction; a dirge which allows for no celebration. 
 
In reply, the Beloved Son calls his mother 'Woman' - mother of all the living.  It is a title of reverence and an acknowledgement of her vocation to seek the wellbeing of her children.  And when He asks her how this 'hurt' belongs to Him and to her, He is preparing her heart for Revelation.  It is the Mission of the Beloved Son to give life to the world. (Jn:3:16-17). Her answer places their concern for everything right in the middle of their relationship.  Jesus supplies the wine for the imperilled marriage of the Sacred and the Human.  His mother knows who to turn to when the wine runs out! 
 
When Jesus, who lives close to the Fathers heart, saw two disciples tailing Him, He asked them to "Come and See" what this closeness was like.  Later in the Gospel, when Jesus asks where they have laid Lazarus, He is told, "Come and See".   As He is drawn into the tears of loss, He becomes one with those He loves.  He embraces the utter vulnerability of human life.  This is the path  Sacred  Love  takes.   It  does  not  save  from  the  outside  but  enters  in  to  save  from  the inside.  This is why, the hour, the condition for the production of great wine at the wedding in Cana, is drinking the sour wine of Golgotha.  This is the truth of the 'hour' and one of the most precious truths of our faith. 
 
The Mother of the Beloved Son knows this and, as the spokesperson for humanity in danger, she instructs the servants - that's us- to do whatever He tells them.  All our efforts to stay ritually clean with water poured from outside - the six stone jars of water - are useless.  Instead, the Beloved Son fills them to the brim; an abundance of wine now, that fills from the inside.  A beautiful image of the Holy Spirit.  It is God who holds the communion and provides what is needed.  It is the Spirit, poured into our hearts who gives life. 
 
This 'Sign', the first, works on two levels, the sensual and the spiritual.  The reader is challenged to follow the clues beyond what can be seen, heard, touched, tasted, smelled and felt to taste the truth  of  Jesus’  Glory  and  then  give  their  heart  to  Him.   Others  will  follow.  Not  in  sequence 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 but  as  windows  opening  on  the  same  truth.  Each  'Sign'  will  call  those  who  gaze through them from surface to depth, from exterior religion to interior adoration.  In short, the reader has, in the words of one anonymous disciple, to dream that they danced with Jesus at the Wedding Feast, and pressing their ear to His Heart entered the secret, saving, Sacred presence of God!

Family and friends are gathering at the local church for the Celebration of the Baptism of the latest - and most
precious - arrival. Amy!  Invisibly, they stand in two circles, the inner circle being made up of the parents and
godparents  and then  the  wider  circle   of  their  community.   It's  snowing,  and  Granddad  is  trying  to  teach  the
children how to catch the snowflakes that are falling from the sky with their tongues.  They think they have to
chase them and create a very funny scene.  One day they will learn that it is best to be still.  But even so, it is
never easy to drink from the sky.
 
For the brief time that John the Baptist and Jesus were together
they were a team.  John prepares human hearts to welcome the
One who is to come by bringing them to forgiveness.  His Baptism
distances them from their sin and any mistaken notion they might
have  had  that  this  is  who  they  are.   But  this  is  only  a  first
step.  Turning away from sin creates the freedom to turn towards
God.  As John's disciples turn, the only person they can see is
Jesus.  And Jesus has just come up from the dark river, filled with
the Spirit and certain that he is 'The Beloved Son of God'.  Now,
the heavens are open never to be closed and the Dove, symbol of Love, moves towards Jesus.
 
In the Gospels the  Father only  speaks  twice.  In Mark and  Luke it is a  direct  address "You  are my Son, the
Beloved, with you I am well pleased".  In Matthew the address begins with "This is my Beloved Son...".  Where
Mark and Luke seek to establish intimacy, Matthew is more concerned with identity.  Both are needed.
 
Back to the family we met at the beginning.  The priest arrives with the key which will unlock many gifts for this
little one.  The rituals will illuminate exactly what these are.  What name have you given your child? Her name is
spoken  with  reverence.   The  reverence  that  accepts  that  we  know  her  but  that  she  is  also  wrapped  in
mystery.  The parents are then asked if they will open what otherwise would have remained closed by being
faithful  witnesses.   They  say  yes  but  they  hardly  know  what  they  mean.   Still,  they  are  willing  to  begin  the
journey.  Support will be needed.  That's what Godparents are there for.  They will need support, that's what family
and friends are for.  Now that the inner circle is complete, everyone is invited to make the sign of the cross on
Amy's forehead.  This is the call to the third eye, the eye of the heart and the soul which looks in two directions.  It
gazes on the world and on eternity at the same time.  With the water of Baptism the eye is awoken from sleep.  The
priest is reading the Gospel about Jesus challenging his bodyguard not to push the little ones away.  He does this
by embracing, blessing and laying hands of love upon them.  This is how we open the third eye.  This is how to
babysit a child of God.
 
So, family, friends and community must renew themselves for this work.  This is done by a renunciation of Satan
-  the  accuser  and  the  divider  -  by  refusing  the  strategies  of  accusation  and  division  to  increase  our  own
power.  Instead we commit ourselves to the strategies of the Beloved Son - forgiveness and reconciliation.  By
freeing ourselves and opening ourselves we have created the right conditions for the water to be poured.
 
In our beautiful catholic tradition, nothing is ever what it seems.  This is the font of the sacramental life of the
church. The water, which is not water is poured. Oil, which is not oil, will follow the water and Amy will join the line
of priests, prophets and queens who belong to Jesus.  A candle, which is not a candle, will be lit.  A white garment,
which is not a white garment, will enfold her.  The Risen One is here, they sing.  The Spirit is here, they sing.  And
they are right.
 
Back at the house there is a party.  Everyone toasts the new baby and asks that she will find true friends and live
in a world of justice and peace.  They move towards the buffet, and for a moment I am left alone with her. She
begins to cry.  I offer a finger to her outstretched hand and she grasps and holds it tightly.  I wait until her distress,
like all distress, passes away.  It is a moment to ponder.  That our Catholic Faith does not celebrate the individual
seeker, the lonely exile. It begins and unfolds in a relationship where the old give the young the gift of the truth.  As
I ponder what we have just done I remember that the touch of love is a revelation of the spirit.  I will continue to
bless the little ones because their day is dawning.  I will continue to enjoy every Baptism because it helps me
understand myself and my own Baptism more.
 
There is an explosion of laughter from the sitting room and grandad is, as usual, at the centre of it.  I hope she
will have time to get close to him.  I think he will teach her how to drink from the sky.

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus is evidence enough that He was welcomed and loved by some, hated and rejected by others.  As a rule of thumb, those with 'power' are among those who can't let Him in.  He is rejected by the so called religious and political leaders.  But one of the big surprises which visited the new community Jesus began was His acceptance by people who were not Jews.  For sure, it happened in little ways during His ministry, but later there was a huge influx of new sisters and brothers from the Mediterranean.  This could not be explained
except to say that the hand of God was clearly at work here.
 
In The Lord’s Prayer, we pray that it will be 'on earth as it is in Heaven'.  When Heaven and earth come together it is a sign that God is near.  This, of course, is what happens in the story of the Feast of the Epiphany.  Heaven, in the form of a star, and earth, in the form of a child, align with each other.  The reader is left with no doubt that Jesus has His origins in God.
 
The rejection of the Beloved Son is pure evil.  News of His long-awaited arrival  has frightened Herod and the religious establishment.   The Advent of God is a threat to their positions and their power.  They have corrupted the faith they were supposed to protect and their corruption is to be exposed.  Herod, rather stupidly, sets out to play chess with God but he is no match for Him.  The resulting violation of children, an all too familiar pattern from those who prefer the love of power over the power of love.
 
In  contrast,  the  Wise  Ones  Rejoice!   When  the  star  aligns itself  with  the  babe  in  the  manger,  Heaven  and  earth  are One.   The  Wise  Ones  are  not  just  happy,  they  are overwhelmed with joy.  They have found the One for whom their  hearts  have  longed.   Their  gifts  reveal  their  inner
understanding of His Origins and His Destiny.  What Herod rejects,  the  Wise  Ones  Adore.   The  Divinity  of  Christ  is revealed to the Gentiles.
 

The  Beloved  Son  of  God  is  THE  Christmas  Present.   Gift  giving  is,  if  you  like,  the  way  the invisible becomes visible.  The way the hidden heart is made known, the way Spirit risks itself by taking form.  So, the giving and receiving of gifts could be described as spiritual activity of the highest order.  It is the heart’s desire to express itself in such a way that the heart of the giver, and the heart of the one who receives the gift becomes one.  When a gift embodies the flow of love, it does not matter what it is, or how much it costs.  It is perfect because of what it has
achieved.
 
Can you remember a time when you received a gift at Christmas and it was very special just because of the One who gave it?  Who was that and what was the gift?   Notice that the gift might not sit within the 'cheap-expensive' continuum.  Like the bread and wine, it cannot be rated in this way.  A great example of this is the story of the Little Drummer, who is poor.  He offers the gift of 'playing his drum',  which draws a smile from the Beloved Son.  In cash terms it is worthless.  In the school of love, it is priceless.