We need an epiphany of solidarity in everyday life
2.2 | January 10, 2021 | Faith, Hope and Love
I live in a very homely community of seven Jesuits in Leuven — each with his own peculiar quirks, but where random acts of kindness do not go unnoticed. Last Wednesday we were treated to a driekoningentaart (three kings’ cake) a savoury Flemish pastry that commemorates the feast of the Epiphany. This feast is part of the once-thriving Belgian Catholic heritage that has been embedded within its cultural celebrations, however secularised they might have become today.
The Epiphany (Mt 2:1-12) itself marks the visit of the three magi — Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar — to the new-born child Jesus, and the revelation (epiphany) of Jesus as Christ to the world. Over time the magi have been embellished as kings and hence we now remember them as three kings.
By now you are probably wondering what happened to our driekoningentaart. This treat is savoured around a family gathering, and whoever finds the hidden figurine or trinket hidden within one’s slice of cake gets to be a king for the day. Apparently some Jesuit in our community (we are still trying to find out who!) had two slices in a bid to become king; but as the good book says, justice favours the righteous. And so Nicolas eventually found the little angel in his slice of cake and was crowned king. Some of us were happy to be saved from carrying the burden of the crown and preferred to continue enjoying the edict of pax jesuitica proclaimed by King Nicolas. The driekoningentaart is a fine (and fun) way of sharing and knitting together a family around its cultural values. If you would love baking the driekoningentaart or the galette des rois (as the French who claim this delicacy call it) you could try Sarah’s recipe.
Nevertheless, the cultural traditions and meanings associated with the celebration of Epiphany in Flanders have over these years evolved to reveal a significant trait of Flemish society — and one that’s worth emulating — solidarity. This occurred to me two years back when on a cold January Sunday morning I heard a knock on my door. I opened it to find three young boys adorned with crowns and dressed in modest robes, besides holding a star, a placard and a donation box. For all that I had read and encountered about how much Belgium had secularised from its Catholic past, it took me a moment to realise that these boys were the three kings of the Epiphany narrative. They immediately sang for me while the accompanying lady explained to me that they were from the nearby parish church of St Anthony in Heverlee and were collecting gifts for street children in Congo and Brazil. It was a very different epiphany for me.
The meeting also turned out to be a cross-cultural encounter as I showed the boys photographs of how children in my hometown Goa celebrated the Epiphany in procession. Such enactments have their own significance as cultural forms of Christian evangelisation. And yet, nothing beats three young Flemish boys weathering the freezing January temperatures to express solidarity with children some thousands of miles away and whom they hadn’t even met.
Last Sunday, I awaited a knock on my door, but there wasn’t any. The pandemic, sigh! In the meanwhile, parishes and cultural associations in Flanders have adapted the celebrations to virtual meetings. For example, the Diocese of Bruges offered the visit of three kings via video (see below) along with prayer and a recipe for a driekoningentaart.
Although the opportunity of a personal encounter with the three kings has not been possible during the pandemic, their song conveys the bonds of solidarity that have been passed on for generations.
Drie koooningen, drie koooningen,
geef mij nen nieuwen hoed.
Mijnen ouwen is verslee-eeten,
mijn moeder mag ‘t nie wee-eeten.
Mijn vader heeft het geld,
op de toonbank geteld.
Three kings, three kings,
give me a new hat.
My old one is worn out
my mother is not allowed to know it.
My father has the money
counted down on the counter.
(translation by Nicolas Standaert)
These verses speak of a time and people who have been through a struggle. The old hat that the mother can’t know and the money that the father has counted down on the counter reveal the inner anguish of poverty within a family. The epiphany then provided an occasion for the better-off to share their material goods and money with the less fortunate. This history of solidarity is enmeshed within this region’s songs.
One of the strongest articulations of such solidarity has been the creation of the Belgian social security system in 1944 through a redistribution of taxes, benefits and public services. This sense of solidarity between the employed and the unemployed, the healthy and the sick, the young and the old are the makings of good welfare state. The system is not without its problems, and its critics abound as to how it could be misunderstood; yet, it could be difficult to imagine the social and cultural life of the region without solidarity. A popular manifestation of such solidarity is the hugely popular Flemish outreach campaign De Warmste Week that takes place a week before Christmas. Moreover, there exists the enormous network of international solidarity movements.
Cultural traditions centred around the Epiphany have also existed across the borders in neighbouring Netherlands where the feast has been celebrated by Protestants and Catholics alike. However, in recent times these traditions have continued to diminish, and have now been listed as an intangible cultural heritage of the Netherlands.
From a Christian perspective, the Epiphany is part of the Christmas message that expresses God’s solidarity with his people through the birth of his son Jesus.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
The Baptism of the Lord marks the culmination of the Christmas season as the Catholic liturgical year transitions into ordinary time. Furthermore, this change of season should also reveal a transition of Christmas solidarity into everyday life. It should be an epiphany of solidarity — a manifestation of love in everyday life. Maybe we would do well to borrow a leaf out of Belgian solidarity.
Rinald D’Souza SJ
HISTORIA DOMUS
Postscript
Postscript
Where are the three wise men today?
Rome Reports | 5 January 2021
LINKS
Archives | Read past issues
FAQs | What is Faith, Hope and Love?
Blog | Historia Domus
Do you need a listening ear?
Are you going through a struggle?
There is someone willing to listen to you.
You are not alone.
Faith, Hope and Love
FAITH PERSPECTIVES ON RELIGION, POLITICS, SOCIETY AND CULTURE
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love. | 1 Cor 13:13