The Twelve Days of Christmas

The scripture readings for the Feast of Epiphany can be found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/010415.cfm



There’s a popular song during Christmas time that I’m sure you’re familiar with. It’s “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” This song refers to the time between Christmas Day (December 25th) and the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6th). If you count those days, you will get the number twelve. The Catholic Church normally transfers this feast to the Sunday closest to January 6th. This year Epiphany will be celebrated on January 4th.



Epiphany is the feast that commemorates the visit of the Magi, found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 2, vs 1-12. After an audience with King Herod, the Wise Men found Mary & Joseph with the Child Jesus: “and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” (Matthew 2:11)



The song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was written with many symbols that can be applied to our Catholic Christian Faith. A few that comes to mind is as follows: The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, whose birthday we celebrate on December 25. The two turtle doves refer to the two testaments of the bible: the Old and New. The four calling birds refer to the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Eleven Pipers piping refers to the 11 apostles that remained faithful to Jesus.



Christmas, and the twelve days that lead up to Epiphany, calls us to always to search out Jesus in our lives. The Magi traveled a great distance to find the Christ Child. We as Catholics don’t have to travel as far as the Magi. We can find Jesus in each Catholic Church we enter. Jesus is in the tabernacle waiting for us to make him part of our lives.

Let’s make it a New Year’s Resolution to keep Jesus as the center of our lives throughout the coming year of 2015.



Praise be Jesus Christ, now and forever.