2020년 1월 5일 주님 공현 대축일
오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp
제1독서
이사야서.60,1-6
예루살렘아, 1 일어나 비추어라. 너의 빛이 왔다.
주님의 영광이 네 위에 떠올랐다.
2 자 보라, 어둠이 땅을 덮고 암흑이 겨레들을 덮으리라.
그러나 네 위에는 주님께서 떠오르시고 그분의 영광이 네 위에 나타나리라.
3 민족들이 너의 빛을 향하여, 임금들이 떠오르는 너의 광명을 향하여 오리라.
4 네 눈을 들어 주위를 둘러보아라. 그들이 모두 모여 네게로 온다.
너의 아들들이 먼 곳에서 오고 너의 딸들이 팔에 안겨 온다.
5 그때 이것을 보는 너는 기쁜 빛으로 가득하고
너의 마음은 두근거리며 벅차오르리라.
바다의 보화가 너에게로 흘러들고 민족들의 재물이 너에게로 들어온다.
6 낙타 무리가 너를 덮고 미디안과 에파의 수낙타들이 너를 덮으리라.
그들은 모두 스바에서 오면서 금과 유향을 가져와
주님께서 찬미받으실 일들을 알리리라.
제2독서
에페소서.3,2.3ㄴ.5-6
형제 여러분,
2 하느님께서 여러분을 위하여 나에게 주신 은총의 직무를
여러분은 들었을 줄 압니다.
3 나는 계시를 통하여 그 신비를 알게 되었습니다.
5 그 신비가 과거의 모든 세대에서는 사람들에게 알려지지 않았지만,
지금은 성령을 통하여 그분의 거룩한 사도들과 예언자들에게 계시되었습니다.
6 곧 다른 민족들도 그리스도 예수님 안에서 복음을 통하여,
공동 상속자가 되고 한 몸의 지체가 되며
약속의 공동 수혜자가 된다는 것입니다.
복음
마태오. 2,1-12
1 예수님께서는 헤로데 임금 때에 유다 베들레헴에서 태어나셨다.
그러자 동방에서 박사들이 예루살렘에 와서,
2 “유다인들의 임금으로 태어나신 분이 어디 계십니까?
우리는 동방에서 그분의 별을 보고 그분께 경배하러 왔습니다.” 하고 말하였다.
3 이 말을 듣고 헤로데 임금을 비롯하여 온 예루살렘이 깜짝 놀랐다.
4 헤로데는 백성의 수석 사제들과 율법 학자들을 모두 모아 놓고,
메시아가 태어날 곳이 어디인지 물어보았다.
5 그들이 헤로데에게 말하였다.
“유다 베들레헴입니다. 사실 예언자가 이렇게 기록해 놓았습니다.
6 ‘유다 땅 베들레헴아,
너는 유다의 주요 고을 가운데 결코 가장 작은 고을이 아니다.
너에게서 통치자가 나와 내 백성 이스라엘을 보살피리라.’”
7 그때에 헤로데는 박사들을 몰래 불러
별이 나타난 시간을 정확히 알아내고서는,
8 그들을 베들레헴으로 보내면서 말하였다.
“가서 그 아기에 관하여 잘 알아보시오.
그리고 그 아기를 찾거든 나에게 알려 주시오. 나도 가서 경배하겠소.”
9 그들은 임금의 말을 듣고 길을 떠났다.
그러자 동방에서 본 별이 그들을 앞서 가다가,
아기가 있는 곳 위에 이르러 멈추었다.
10 그들은 그 별을 보고 더없이 기뻐하였다.
11 그리고 그 집에 들어가 어머니 마리아와 함께 있는 아기를 보고
땅에 엎드려 경배하였다.
또 보물 상자를 열고 아기에게 황금과 유향과 몰약을 예물로 드렸다.
12 그들은 꿈에 헤로데에게 돌아가지 말라는 지시를 받고,
다른 길로 자기 고장에 돌아갔다.
January 5, 2020
Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord
Daily Mass : http://www.catholictv.com/shows/daily-mass
Reading 1
Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come,
the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds cover the peoples;
but upon you the LORD shines,
and over you appears his glory.
Nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.
Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you:
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.
Then you shall be radiant at what you see,
your heart shall throb and overflow,
for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you,
the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba shall come
bearing gold and frankincense,
and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (cf. 11) Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more. May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
All kings shall pay him homage,
all nations shall serve him.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Reading 2
Brothers and sisters:
You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace
that was given to me for your benefit,
namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation.
It was not made known to people in other generations
as it has now been revealed
to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Gospel
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod,
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage.”
When King Herod heard this,
he was greatly troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people,
He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea,
for thus it has been written through the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel.”
Then Herod called the magi secretly
and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said,
“Go and search diligently for the child.
When you have found him, bring me word,
that I too may go and do him homage.”
After their audience with the king they set out.
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
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.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed for their country by another way.
http://evangeli.net/gospel/tomorrow
«They went into the house and when they saw the child with Mary his mother, they knelt and worshipped him»
Fr. Joaquim VILLANUEVA i Poll
(Barcelona, Spain)
Today, the prophet Isaiah encourages us: «Arise, shine, for your light has come. The glory of Yahweh rises upon you» (Is 60:1). The light the prophet has seen is the star which the Three Wise Men see in the East, like many other men. The Magi discover its meaning. Others consider it as something admirable, but that does not affect them. And, so, they do not react. The Three Wise Men realize the fact that, with the star, God is sending them an important message for which it is worthwhile leaving comfort and safety to take on the risks of an uncertain journey: the hope of finding the King leads them to follow the star, which the prophets had spoken of and which the people of Israel had been waiting for centuries.
They arrive in Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jews. They are sure that there they will be shown where the King has been born. Indeed, they will be told: «In the town of Bethlehem in Judea, for this is what the prophet wrote» (Mt 2:5). The news of the arrival of the Magi and their inquiry spreads around Jerusalem in a very short time: Jerusalem was, at that time, a small city and the presence of the Magi with their escort must have been noticed by all its inhabitants, thus «when Herod heard this he was great¬ly disturbed and with him all Jerusalem» (Mt 2:3), the Gospel tells us.
Jesus Christ crosses the paths of the lives of many people who are not interested in Him. A little effort would have changed their lives; they would have found the King of Joy and Peace. This requires a willingness to look for Him, to move around, to ask without losing heart —like the Three Wise Men— to leave our comfort, our routine. It requires an effort to appreciate the immense value of finding Christ. If we do not find Him, we have not found anything in life, because only He is the Savior: finding Jesus is to find the Path that leads us to know the Truth that gives us Life. And without Him, nothing is worthwhile.
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
Falling Down and Being Lifted Up
In the Nativity scenes we set up in churches and homes we are familiar with the three figures that make their appearance today, joining the figures of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, shepherds and various creatures. In many such scenes these visitors from the east, bearing their gifts, stand in awe, though perhaps one or more of them may bend a knee. But rarely, gazing at these figures, do we feel the power of the scripture that today proclaims, “They prostrated themselves and did him homage.”
To be prostrate is to be flat on the floor, face down, disarmed, immobile, vulnerable. Much more than a nod of the head, or a quick genuflection, this gesture expresses the heart’s conviction of being in the Presence of “One mightier than I.” These “foreigners” express through their bodies, the inner stance of deep humility, the only true response in the presence of God in the flesh in Jesus.
St. Augustine, reflecting back on his long, tortuous journey to faith, acknowledged that the ultimate block to his final conversion came in the form of pride. It was what he learned through grasping the truth of the Incarnation that provided the way forward: “In this lower world, he built for himself a lowly habitation of our clay . . . so that [people] might go on no further in self-confidence but rather consent to become weak, seeing the Deity before their feet, made weak by taking on our mortality; and wearied, might cast themselves down on him, so that rising again, he might lift them up.” St. Augustine learned through the infant Jesus to surrender to the power of God and to let himself be lifted up.
Perhaps today, as we gaze at these visitors who come to the stable, we might be moved to imitate them, at least in our hearts. And gazing at them, we might ask ourselves where we need to surrender to the power of God today so that he might lift us up?
http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp
WHEN THE STAR FADES... | ||
| "We observed His star at its rising..." �Matthew 2:2 | ||
In their homeland, the Magi saw a great star at its rising. Greatly impressed, they set out on their journey to follow the star to greet the newborn King to Whom they believed the star pointed. After they had traveled for a time, they could no longer see the star. They were past the point of no return, and were not sure where God was now leading them. But the Magi did not give up on God's leading; they did not quit and return back home. Instead, they did the reasonable thing; they consulted the nearby leader, King Herod of Israel. Though Herod harbored ill will, he unwittingly sent them to the right place, Bethlehem, when his advisors consulted the Hebrew Scriptures. As the Magi set out in blind faith for Bethlehem, suddenly the star re-appeared. It's no wonder the Magi "were overjoyed at seeing the star" (Mt 2:10). God's guidance for their journey had resumed. Have you ever started on a journey of faith in response to the clear prompting of God? You commit yourself to the journey, burn your bridges behind you (see 1 Kgs 19:19-21), and then it seems like God's divine guidance completely vanishes. This is a pattern that many have experienced in their lives of faith. This might be a test from God, "the Tester of our Hearts" (1 Thes 2:4). If you're in this situation, the Magi are a model for you. Persevere in trust, as they did, and believe that God will guide you at the proper time. "Walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor 5:7). "Commit to the Lord your way; trust in Him, and He will act" (Ps 37:5). | ||
| Prayer: Jesus, like the Magi, I give You the gift of my life. I will follow You wherever You lead. "In my life, Lord, be glorified." | ||
| Promise: "In Christ Jesus the Gentiles are now co-heirs with the Jews, members of the same body." —Eph 3:6 | ||
| Praise: "The Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world" (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 528). Alleluia! |
http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/
"They fell down and worshiped Jesus"
If Jesus truly is who he claims to be, the eternal Son of God and Savior of the world, then why is he not recognized by everyone who hears his word and sees his works? John the Evangelist states that when Jesus came into the world the world knew him not and his own people received him not (John 1:10-11). Jesus was born in obscurity. only the lowly shepherds recognized him at his birth. Some wise men also found their way to Bethlehem to pay homage to the newborn King of Israel. These men were not Israelites, but foreigners. They likely had read and discussed the Messianic prophecies and were anxious to see when this Messianic King would appear. God led them by means of an extraordinary star across the desert to the little town of Bethlehem where Jesus was born.
John Chrysostom (347-407 AD), in his homily on this passage from Matthew 2, explains the significance of the star of Bethlehem:
"Note how fitting was the order of events: the wise men saw the star, were received by the Jews and their king; they heard prophecy to explain what had appeared; the angel instructed them; and then they journeyed from Jerusalem to Bethlehem by the guidance of the star. From all this we learn that this was not an ordinary star, for no other star has this capacity to guide, not merely to move but to beckon, to “go before them,” drawing and guiding them along their way. The star remained after bringing them to the place, in order that the child might also be seen. For there is nothing conspicuous about the place. The inn was ordinary. The mother was not celebrated or notable. The star was needed to manifest and illumine the lowly place, until they had reached their destination at the manger." [The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 7:3]
In their thirst for knowledge of God, the wise men from the East willingly left everything, their home and country, in pursuit of that quest. In their diligent search they were led to the source of true knowledge - to Jesus Christ, the Light and Wisdom of God. When they found the newborn King they humbly worshiped him and gave him gifts fitting for a king.
The Lord of the universe who revealed the star of Bethlehem to the Gentiles of the East so they could come and worship Jesus, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) and King of Kings (Revelations 19:16), gives each one of us the same light of revelation to recognize and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to us. It is through the help of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and opens the eyes of the mind, that we are able to understand, accept, and believe the truth which God has revealed to us through his Son, Jesus Christ. In faith, the human will and intellect cooperate with grace. "Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace" (Thomas Aquinas).
To know and to encounter Jesus Christ is to know God personally. In the encounter of the wise men with Jesus we see the plan of God to give his only Son as King and Savior, not just for the Jewish people but for all the nations as well. The Lord Jesus came that both Jew and Gentile might find true and lasting peace with God. Let us pray today that Jew and Gentile alike will find the Lord and Savior on their journey of life. Do you bring the light of Jesus Christ to those you meet through the witness of your life and testimony?
"Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for bringing salvation to all the nations. May the gospel of salvation be proclaimed to every nation today and to every person on the face of the earth. Help me to be a good witness of the joy of the gospel to all I meet."
Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-13
1 Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son!
2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!
7 In his days may righteousness flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more!
8 May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!
10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts!
11 May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!
12 For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper.
13 He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.
Daily Quote from the early church fathers: The glory of Christ's divinity is revealed, by Chromatius (died 406 AD)
"Let us now observe how glorious was the dignity that attended the King after his birth, after the magi in their journey remained obedient to the star. For immediately the magi fell to their knees and adored the one born as Lord. There in his very cradle they venerated him with offerings of gifts, though Jesus was merely a whimpering infant. They perceived one thing with the eyes of their bodies but another with the eyes of the mind. The lowliness of the body he assumed was discerned, but the glory of his divinity is now made manifest. A boy he is, but it is God who is adored. How inexpressible is the mystery of his divine honor! The invisible and eternal nature did not hesitate to take on the weaknesses of the flesh on our behalf. The Son of God, who is God of the universe, is born a human being in the flesh. He permits himself to be placed in a manger, and the heavens are within the manger. He is kept in a cradle, a cradle that the world cannot hold. He is heard in the voice of a crying infant. This is the same one for whose voice the whole world would tremble in the hour of his passion. Thus he is the one, the God of glory and the Lord of majesty, whom as a tiny infant the magi recognize. It is he who while a child was truly God and King eternal. To him Isaiah pointed, saying, 'For a boy has been born to you; a son has been given to you, a son whose empire has been forged on his shoulders (Isaiah 9:6).'" (excerpt from TRACTATE on MATTHEW 5:1)
More Homilies
Homily from Father James Gilhooley
Epiphany - A Cycle - Matthew 2:1-12
A mosaic of the Three Kings on the facade of the Church of the Nativity saved the site of Christ's birth from destruction.
In 664, Persian invaders were amazed to see the Three Kings dressed as they themselves were. They decided not to burn the Church.
When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, heal the broken, feed the hungry, rebuild the nations, bring peace among people, make music in the heart. (Howard Thurman)
Jesus was getting painful splinters from His tight cradle. The people had been counted by the census takers like cattle. The crowds had withdrawn. Bethlehem became a sleepy town again. Joseph took his wife and Child out of the damp hillside cave above Bethlehem. He rented a one bedroom house at off season rates on Main Street. Given his credit ratings, not even a loanshark would give him the dollars to buy a house.
In Bethlehem. the Holy Family remained about two years. Life settled into routine. They didn't have to celebrate Christmas the way we do. They were free of our physical and emotional exhaustion. Joseph freelanced as a carpenter.
But the comfortable living was ending. Soon they would have to throw a few things into cardboard boxes. They would flee as displaced persons into Africa to save the Child's life.
Their anonymity was blown by the gentlemen we salute today as wise. Inadvertently the magi had set Jesus up. The wise men were not wise. Matthew, who owns the copyright on this tale, knew that.
There was a two year interval between the Boy's birth and the unannounced arrival in Bethlehem of the magi. We conclude this by wrestling with Gospel clues. The travelers came breathlessly not to that famous cave now empty but to the rented ranch house. The greeting card people notwithstanding, Jesus was already walking and saying excitedly "Mama" and "Papa." He was in the terrible twos.
We do not know that the men were kings. All Matthew tells us is "magi from the east arrived one day in Jerusalem."
If they had been of the blood royal, Matthew would have so written. After all, his former profession as tax collector had trained him to be precise. Had they been his peers, King Herod because of noblesse oblige would have fussed about them more than he did. Their kingship and blue blood began only in the sixth century. Their names as Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar originated in the ninth.
Tradition has us speak of the magi as three. Yet Matthew does not use a number. We say three since he speaks of three gifts. Happily Matthew specifies the gifts for us - gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
In the 8th century, Venerable Bede, the Benedictine historian writing in England, gave us the traditional interpretation of their symbolism. The gold paid homage to the Child's royal line. The incense saluted His divinity. The myrrh forewarned of the passion. However, I prefer the charming explanation of the 13th century Frenchman, Bernard of Clairvaux. The gold was to pay off the bills at the supermarket. The incense was to fumigate the house. The myrrh was intended to be a herbal medicine against worms in the Child.
Matthew does not tell us how long the magi remained. It could have been but a long weekend or an extended stay. But, whichever, fearful of assassination by King Herod, they rode off into history more quietly than they came. A centuries old tradition says Mary gifted them with the swaddling clothes of the Infant. Matthew does not speak of them again. We do not know whether Herod pursued them. We can only hope they got home safely for a deserved rest. A late 20th century Japanese artist pictures them traveling home by ship.
What is certain is that they did not march off into obscurity. These were men who would remain famous for more than Andy Warhol's fifteen minutes. They left behind them so much charm that artists, poets, and preachers have been living off them for two thousand years.
In the 20th century, two Nobel Prize poet laureates, TS Eliot and Miguel Angel Asterias, along with their celebrated confrere, Langston Hughes, felt compelled to write of them at length.
We owe Jesus a gift. Why not adopt Thurman's platform - find the lost, the hungry, the broken, and the sorrowful?
We make much of the Child this season. But dare we forget more than a billion children, over half the world's boys and girls, suffer extreme hardship because of war, HIV/AIDS, or poverty? (UN) We have much work to do this new year.
Frjoeshomilies.net
Epiphany
Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord: Journeying with the Magi
The Solemnity of the Epiphany is one of the oldest celebrations of the Church, probably even older than the celebration of Christmas. It emphasizes that in Jesus all people have been saved from the ravages of sin. The Old Testament makes it clear that God loves His people. The Epiphany makes it clear that all who reverence God are His people.
There are three events that the ancient liturgies referred to as epiphanies or manifestations of the Lord: the homage of the magi, the Baptism of the Lord, and the changing of water into wine at Cana. The Eastern and Orthodox Churches combine all three events in one celebration. The Western, the Roman Catholic Church, separates the events, focusing on the homage of the magi during the liturgical celebration of the Epiphany.
We call them magi, wise men, and kings. Which were they? They were probably all three. The term magi refers to Persian priests who could interpret dreams, They were also astronomers and astrologers, people who sought God's message to humans in the stars. They were probably Kings because their arrival in Jerusalem created quite a stir and earned them an audience with Herod. They may have been leaders of various groups of people or of areas of Persia. We really don't know. We do know that they were wise men. A wise man is attuned to the will of God and puts it into action. We always consider that there are three magi because they brought three gifts, one from each magi. The names Balthasar, Melchior and Gaspar appeared somewhere in tradition.
They sought the newborn King of the Jews. Now this was Herod's official title, King of the Jews. So you could see why they thought Herod would know where the baby was. They assumed that he was a member of the King's family. We can also understand why Herod was upset. He recognized the magi's understanding of the stars and realized that there must be a threat to his position out there, somewhere. He was correct. There was someone out there who would be called the King of the Jews. In fact in this same gospel, the Gospel of Matthew, this is the title that was put over Jesus' head when evil crucified Him.
Regarding the star, the ancients believed that the birth or death of a great person was accompanied by astral phenomena. Perhaps the star was the confluence of the planets Jupiter and Saturn that modern day astronomers theorize occurred around that time. Perhaps the star was a comet. Perhaps it was a supernova. Or, perhaps, it was, as we often like to show, an angel guiding the magi. I, myself, prefer that last thought. The way I see it, if the Eternal Son of God, whom the universe could not contain, took on our human nature and become a baby for us, well, next to that, an angel becoming a guiding star is a mere sleight of hand.
Finally, the magi sought to do homage to the newborn king, and did so when they found him in the house in Bethlehem. Doing homage means to make an action of submission before a person of great dignity and authority. A person would bow or prostrate himself. Homage is the proper attitude of humans before God. We continue this when we enter Church and genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament, or kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer and after receiving communion.
The magi sought the newborn King of the Jews to do him homage. We also seek the Lord. Why? Why do we seek him? We seek him because we want him to be our king. We want him to be the focus of our lives. We are not satisfied with just calling upon him when we need him in times of crisis and challenge. We don't just call out to Jesus when a loved one is hurting, or has died, or when we have strife in our family, or when we need help at school or at work. We call out to him every day to be the center of our lives. This takes courage and determination. It is easy for us to say, "Lord, I need you here in my life, but not there. I need you in the hospital, but not when I'm thinking about going to that questionable party." It is easy for us to ask the Lord to be with us as we care for a sick person, but not with us when we go with a person with whom we sin. We know that we can't just call upon God some of the time, and ignore him the rest of the time. We don't want a God who will leave us alone so we can join in with the sin of the world. We want a God who will help us conquer sin, conquer sin in the world and conquer sin in our lives.
And so, we also, like the magi, do him homage. We prostrate ourselves before God and we proclaim with our hearts, with our words, and with our lives, "You are the Holy one. You are Our God."
Like the magi we have undertaken a journey. It is the journey of our lives. We journey to those places where the Lord is calling us to give witness to the world that He is the true King of the Universe. For our young people the places of their journey may include their schools, their colleges and those locations where they begin their adult lives. For our parents, the places of their journey may include each place their children need to go, each stage of their children's lives. For our retirees the places of their journey include doctors' offices and hospitals, and those places where we can reach out to others finishing the journeys of their lives. For each of us the places of our journeys include locations where people don't usually go to look for God, like a stable, or a homeless shelter, or a prison or a rehab program.
Our lives are a journey seeking the Presence of the Lord. We journey with the magi to those Bethlehems where we can find the Lord. May your journey and my journey be safe, beautiful and full of the love of God.
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Epiphany
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Epiphany
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany when we recall the visit of the wise men to the Child Jesus in Bethlehem. These mysterious personages from the East clearly represent the Gentiles, they are both foreigners and followers of a religion other than Judaism.
The word which is translated as 'wise men' in our text is transliterated from the Greek as 'Magi' which is where we get our word magician from. We might wonder precisely what Matthew meant by his use of this word Magi. It is thought to cover a wide variety of occupations ranging from Zoroastrian priests to astrologers. However, one is drawn to conclude that Matthew thinks that they are astrologers since they come to Bethlehem guided by a star.
We might wonder at his depicting of them as astrologers as there grew up very quickly in the Early Church a strong aversion to magic and astrology. It was quickly understood that with the appearance of Christ all such superstitions are superseded. Also, we note that all the other references to magic in the New Testament are negative. And yet here in Matthew's Infancy Narrative magic and astrology seem to be treated rather favourably.
In the past it was thought that once they had paid homage at the feet of Jesus the perceived superstition of these Magi was dissolved and that they immediately converted to belief in Christ. The only problem is that there is no actual evidence in Matthew's account to show that this is what they did. In reality Matthew presents these Magi as being wholly admirable and their following of a star is viewed as quite an appropriate way to find the Messiah.
In truth the whole story of the Magi is interesting. They visit King Herod and we get a glimpse at his Machiavellian plotting as he asks them to return to tell him precisely where the Messiah can be found. We immediately realise that this is a device so that Herod can exterminate any possible rival to his throne. But fortunately the Magi were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod and as a result chose to return home by a different route.
An interesting point in this story given to us by Matthew is that while the Magi are guided by a star this only takes them as far as Jerusalem. They then have to approach the Jewish authorities who in turn consult the scriptures to find the precise location of the birth of Jesus which turns out to be the town of Bethlehem. So while nature leads the Magi to roughly the right place we are being informed that the true secret of the location of the birth of the Messiah is only to be found in the Jewish scriptures. This location is then confirmed by the star reappearing over the place where Jesus is born.
This means that we are presented with the irony that the Jews had all the knowledge they needed in their scriptures to predict the coming of the Messiah even including the exact location of his birth but nevertheless they fail to recognise him when he does come. However, these foreigners following what are purely natural signs are able to see that the birth of the Messiah is imminent and are so drawn to worship him.
That the Magi come looking for a King is also an eerie foreshadowing of the sign written above Jesus on the Cross of Calvary, 'Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews.' Then too, it was the priests and leaders who conspired to do away with him just as they attempted to do at the time of his birth.
As we noted right at the beginning the main point about the coming of the Three Wise Men is that they are Gentiles and so represent us, the non-Jewish followers of Jesus. Their appearance right at the beginning of the story clearly points to Christ's intention to bring salvation to the whole human race and not merely to the Jews.
The other characters to whom the birth of Christ is revealed are the shepherds. These shepherds represent the poor and the marginalised and with the Magi standing in for the foreigners we can see the wide scope of Christ's mission. From the very outset we can observe how God arranges things in such a way as to make it known just how universal is Christ's mission.
The extremely wide scope of Christ's purpose has direct implications for each one of us. It means that we ought to resist any temptation to narrow access to the Gospel or to confine membership of the Church to this or that group. The aim of the Church is to embrace every single person on the planet. The Church is meant for absolutely everyone and we should be very careful to ensure that nothing that we say or do can be interpreted as restricting in any way its universal mission.
This reminds us that there is no room for prejudice of any kind within the Church. We need to realise that any distinctions based on class, race, sexual orientation or on anything else have no place in the life of the Christian. We recognise that all people are equal in the eyes of God and his salvation is meant for every single person.
While it is only natural that we have a bond with those from our own country or locality or with those who share certain characteristics or cultural background with us, we need to realise that there can be absolutely no place for prejudice or discrimination in the Church. This is something that we have to constantly check on and be on our guard against.
Of course, adopting an attitude of openness can be very challenging but we need to realise that it is also very liberating. Being completely open means that we do not restrict ourselves to this group or that. It means that we accept everyone in the world and gradually learn to appreciate all their differences.
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