Today’s Gospel: St. Matthew 2:1-12
St. Augustine, that great doctor of the Church, began his Confessions with this truth: Man bears his mortality with him, “carrying with him the witness of his sin…. Nevertheless,” he continues, “to praise you is the desire of man, a little piece of your creation. You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Despite our inborn sinfulness, despite the fact that we are born with no true knowledge of God and no right fear of God or trust in Him, men have a desire to know God. Everything that we do manifests this. The false religious systems that men have constructed bear witness to this desire to know God and to please Him. Also, the pursuits, obsessions, and lusts that occupy us are in truth a desire to know God, though we do not recognize them as such most of the time.
Men have long sought answers in the stars, hoping by studying the movements of the heavenly bodies to find the truth about the future, about ourselves, and about God. We don’t know much at all about the Magi, the Wise Men who are so prominent in tonight’s Gospel. But we do know that, although they were darkened by lack of knowledge of God’s Word, they had learned enough to be looking for the Christ, the One who was to be born King of the Jews.
To such seekers, God gave a sign. To these astrologers, God sent an aster – a star, or perhaps an angel – to guide them. For you see, not only do men long for and desire to know God, God also longs for men, desiring to be known by them.
But the star, by itself, was not enough. The star caused the Magi to look, but it did not take them immediately all the way. The star sent them to the Word. For on seeing the star, they went to Jerusalem, and from there it was the priests, reading the Word of God, that told them what they needed to know: Bethlehem. The Messiah-King’s birthplace, according to the prophet Micah, will be Bethlehem. The star prompted their seeking, but it was the Word that finally sent them to where Christ could be found. The Word led them to the Word, i.e., the Word led them to the Word made flesh.
You also have a desire to know God and to be known by Him. You wouldn’t be here otherwise. And you will find God and know Him in the same way as the Magi: by listening to, following, and submitting yourself to the Word. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.” I have found that things go far better for me spiritually when I am in the Word, meditating on it and praying regularly. Those days, months, and years when I have let it slip, I find myself slipping into sins and corruption of all kinds.
Today, on this great festival of the Epiphany, we hear that to an entire world fallen deep into sin and corruption, still God came and announced His salvation. The Epiphany Gospel “tells us that God, who created all people and awakened their longing for Him, also has intervened in this world with a salvation that is for all people” (Giertz).
Coming then to Bethlehem and finding the infant Jesus, the Magi see “One whom the whole universe cannot contain now enclosed in a tiny body” (Chrysologus). Is it not the most wonderful of all mysteries? They sought a child-King, they found God. And as great a miracle as the incarnation is, it would do us no good without the miracle of faith, a faith created by the Holy Spirit working through the Word. The Magi “believe and do not question” (Chrysologus).
And believing, they open their treasures. Their gifts would provide for the Holy Family as they journeyed to Egypt – but the gifts have symbolic importance as well. The Magi give “incense for God, gold for a king, myrrh for one who is to die” (Chrysologus).
The Wise Men made a long and arduous journey to find Christ, and gave of their treasure to Him. What does that now mean for us? “Now it’s the Christian Church’s calling to make the long journey and spare no effort to reach out to all people with the message of what happened in Bethlehem. The Gospel is for the whole world” (Giertz). This is why we open up our treasures for mission work and works of mercy. At Epiphany, the words of the Angel began to come to fruition, that the birth of this Child was good news for all people. Tonight let us thank God for revealing the saving Gospel to us, and pray and work that His salvation would be made known to every person.
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