Mittendrinen Manifestation

During the Christmas season, I received a Yiddish phrase-a-day calendar. Only six days into using this calendar, and I was treated to a wonderful synchronicity. When I removed the page for January 5 this morning, I was greeted with the word of the day for January 6 -- "mittendrinen" (mit-ten-drin-nen). The word means, "in the middle of everything". I couldn't help but think how appropriate this word is for the Feast of the Epiphany celebrated today and for the season of Epiphany, which the Church will observe over the next few weeks.

Epiphany means "manifestation" or "revealing". Throughout this season, the Church will reflect upon the ways in which Jesus was revealed as the Gift of God's Very Self, in the flesh, in a specific time and place. The stories we will tell are familiar -- the Baptism of Jesus, the first miracle of Jesus at a wedding banquet, the first sermon Jesus gives in his hometown synagogue, an abundant catch of fish and finally, the story of Jesus' Transfiguration in the presence of three of his disciples. Beyond the miraculous aspects of those stories, something else immediately becomes apparent -- Jesus is living a full, complicated and intense human life -- mittendrinen -- in the middle of everything.

One of the persistent temptations for contemporary followers of Jesus is that he floated through his life without any real connection to it. Conversely we can too easily assume that the ups and downs of contemporary living are inherent obstacles to the spiritual life. What if our lives, with all of their challenges and difficulties, joys and ecstasies, aren't distractions from God, but the very avenues through which God is speaking to us? Maybe, what we need isn't a trip to a monastery, but the ability to see God's brightness when we are up to our eyeballs in living our lives -- in the middle of everything. Maybe this season of Epiphany is our opportunity to be on the lookout for God's presence. On the lookout for a mittendrinen manifestation.