Stefano da Giovanni, The journey of the Magi (ca 1433),
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
...
We
call them magi, wise men, and kings.
Which were they? They were
probably all three. The term magi refer 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[1]. 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[2]. So,
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 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 • AE
[1] 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.
[2] 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.
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