Christ comes to every person.  Christ comes to the entire world.  This truth is so central to the story that, as history continued, the Christian imagination filled in the details.  As representations of the Magi began to be created, it become customary to assign a continent to each of the three Magi, corresponding to the three continents of the world that were known at that time.  So there was a black Magi representing Africa, a yellow Magi representing Asia, and a white Magi representing Europe.  The clear message of this decision was that all people are connected to Christ and thereby all people are connected to one another.

This truth, then, has a direct relevance to the terrible disaster that happened on December  26. It tells us that the people whose lives were ruined by this disaster are connected to us.  Even though many of us probably could not find Malaysia or Indonesia on a map, the need which those people are experiencing is a need to which we are called to respond. God’s love has no limits. Therefore, we should we place no limits on ours. God’s love is universal, and our responsibility to others is universal as well.

The universality of connectedness between all people is central to the Magi story.  But there is another truth to that story that is equally important, and that is the necessity of action…

Today they would have used a GPS or the WAYS app
but in their day – they depended on a star for guidance.

It’s the curious tale in the gospel here
that finds us following mysterious pilgrims
seeking the Christ Child by a star’s light.

There are a few elements of their journey
that might be valuable for us to consider
on our own journeys.

First, in following the star, the magi had to look up
— up and out of their own experience —
to follow a light beyond their reach, beyond their control,
a light that would lead them to: where-they-did-not-yet-know…

And in following the star,
the magi had to leave behind what they knew best,
they had to leave behind the comforts of home
and set out on a journey beyond the day-to-day familiar…

And in following the star,
the magi had to let go something of their self-determination
and give God a free hand in charting their journey…

The magi are important for us
— not so much for their finding the Christ Child —
but in their seeking him:
their looking up – beyond themselves;
their willingness to leave some things behind
in favor of finding something more valuable;
and their letting God stake a claim on their hearts’ journey.

The Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus Christ to the world. The Magi saw His manifestation in the form of a star. The star led them through a long and perilous journey to Bethlehem in Judaea. Pope Francis in his Apostolic Letter, Admirabile Signum, described them as ‘men of wealth, sages from afar, athirst for the infinite’. They presented the infant king with three symbolic gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. They went back home filled with joy of witnessing the manifestation of God.

King Herod on his part was deeply perturbed on hearing of the birth of a new king in Israel. The manifestation of Jesus Christ threatens his kingdom. He is ready to do anything to retain and sustain his royalty. He resolves to kill the infant king Jesus Christ. He is not touched by his peasant birth and the insignificance of Bethlehem in the countryside of Judea. He fails to understand the prophecy that the new king is to save Israel from sin. The messiah did not come to drag kingship with anyone but to save humanity from that which threatens even earthly kingship. King Herod displays how lack of humility and openness can deprive one of salvation.

Sadly for many the message of the Epiphany is a message that is still secret. There is a certain arrogance that many Catholics have that is evident when they look down on people who are not from their culture. The Epiphany tells us that African Catholics are as Catholic as Asian Catholics and European Catholics and all Catholics. The Epiphany also tells our brothers and sisters across the ocean that American Catholics are as Catholic as any other Catholics. A while back, I had a difficult experience with a group of priests from Spain who, I learned, questioned the faith of American Catholics. They had asked me to contribute homilies written in a very precise manner, which I later learned were to be used to help restore Catholicism to the United States. Their assumption was quite insulting to American Catholics. I ended up limiting my work with them to telling them that they were welcome to download my homilies from this website.

In the second reading today St. Paul states: “the mystery was made known to me by revelation.”  The mystery of which he speaks is that “the Gentiles are now coheirs with the Jews, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.”  This revelation came to St. Paul some time after our Lord’s death and resurrection, but God had been preparing the both the Jews and the Gentiles for centuries prior to the clarity given to St. Paul.

The Jewish people knew themselves to be the Chosen People.  As such, they also knew God had revealed to them through Abraham, Moses, and the Prophets, the fullness of truth that had been revealed at that time.  While they had not ruled out the possibility of any further revelation, they did not live with any expectation that anything new would be revealed.  They awaited the Messiah, of course, but assumed He would uphold everything God had revealed to the Jews and bring the Gentiles to conversion so they would worship as the Jews worshiped God.

Although the readings speak of various lights, they are focused on one light in particular. The real revelation of Epiphany is not the star, nor the three kings, nor even Herod but Jesus, the Christ child. The spotlight is on God and His Anointed One. The entire journey of Christmastide, from the nativity to Epiphany, beckons us to marvel at the glorious, life-sustaining light of the Son of God that has come to earth. Pope Emeritus Benedict tells us that, “the Magi worshiped a simple Child in the arms of his Mother Mary, because in him they recognised the source of the twofold light that had guided them: the light of the star and the light of the Scriptures. In him they recognised the King of the Jews, the glory of Israel, but also the King of all the peoples.”

The light of Epiphany reveals, but not passively; it summons and sends. Epiphanies from God are uncomfortable because by their very nature they challenge the status quo and force us to respond. The light not only illuminates but also reveals and uncovers those things done in the dark. The light may reveal to us that there may be more of the insecure and jealous Herod and religious leaders, than there are the magi who risked everything to make this long journey to worship the true King. Like Herod, we can be filled with jealousy and rage. We can be passive and indifferent and pretend the light pollution of our noisy crowded lives drowned out any chance for epiphany like it did for the Jewish Leaders. Or, we can be like the Magi. Men and women who run to the light and go forth being witnesses of that light to the world.

The attitude of the Magi is quite different from the extremes we see these days. There are others who in the midst of unanswered questions and doubts just give up on their faith –shovelling everything in the waste bin. Others hold on to their faith with certain arrogance and rigidity so much that they have no room to learn anything new. They think they alone have the truth to the point of becoming violently intolerant to those who see things differently. They become religious killers.

In either case, such people have become frozen onto themselves. They have abandoned the pilgrimage. They will never listen, not even to God. On the contrary, when we put ourselves on the road, with an open spirit of genuine inquirers, there we realise that despite the “rituals” that separate us, we are actually united in the common and sincere search for meaning. Consequently, there’s no pagan and neither is there a reason to tear one another apart simply because we are conscious of a profound sense of fraternity with entire humanity.

The word “epiphany” comes from the Greek epiphainen, a verb that means “to shine upon,” “to manifest,” or “to make known.” Thus, the feast of the Epiphany celebrates the many ways that Christ has made Himself known to the world, mainly the three events that manifested the mission and divinity of Christ: the visit of the Magi (Matthew 2:1-12), the baptism of Jesus (Mark 1:9-11), and the miracle at Cana (John 2:1-11). Epiphany Day is also known as the Feast of The visit of the Magi. Magi itself is a Greek word which means wise Men. So Epiphany in the Catholic Church is the day the Wise Men (three) from the East, visited Jesus. The story of the Wise men is often linked to the star is mentioned in Numbers 24, and is prophesied by an unusual character, called Balaam.

Many of you have attended an opera or a symphony. You know that it usually begins with an overture which states the major themes. Today’s Gospel reading comprises part of an overture to the entire Gospel of St. Matthew. It presents themes which Matthew will develop in greater detail: Jesus as “shepherd of Israel” as well as light to distant nations. Its great theme is epiphany, that is, making visible an invisible reality. In this beautiful passage, the epiphany happens not by something Jesus does, but by something that is done for him. He receives three mysterious gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. What do they signify?

Before explaining the significance of the Magi’s gifts, I would like to refer to a humorous Christmas card I received. It imagined what would have happened if the Magi had been Three Wise Women instead of Three Wise Men. The card mentioned that they would have asked for direction along the way and would have arrived in time for the birth. Above all, they would have brought practical gifts! One could quibble that gold is quite practical, but frankincense and myrrh don’t seem to fit very well. The Fathers of the Church (those Christian writers in the early centuries) recognized that the gifts were not so much practical as symbolic. Scholars have discussed the symbolism at great length. For my money (what little I have) the second century writer, Irenaeus of Lyon, gave the most likely interpretation: the gifts signify Jesus’ kingship, his Godhead and his sacrificial death. It is no surprise that gold, the most precious of metals, symbolizes royalty. Frankincense, an aromatic substance brought from faraway Nubia, was burned before the Holy of Holies. It signifies Jesus’ divine nature. Myrrh, also brought from Africa, formed part of a preservative ointment. It represents Jesus’ sacrificial death.

Today Moses instructs Aaron on how to give a blessing. The words are simple:

The LORD bless you and keep you!
The LORD let his face shine upon
you, and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and
give you peace!

Like the three kings, we also have love of God in our hearts. That love of God brought us to Mass here today. Interiorly we also prostrate ourselves before Jesus. We do not have gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to offer Jesus, but we do have a gift to give him: the love in our hearts for him. The best gift we can give Jesus is the love in our hearts for him. The love of the three kings for Jesus reminds us to ask ourselves if we always come before Jesus with love. We can ask ourselves if we do everything throughout our day with love for Jesus. If we do everything with love, it can be a gift to Jesus. If we do not do something with love, then it would be difficult to offer it as a gift to Jesus. Doing everything that we have to do throughout the day with love for Jesus would be a beautiful gift to give Jesus. Think of the experiences you have when you meet other people. Some people are a joy to meet. Some people are not always a joy to meet. What would it be like for Jesus to meet us? Hopefully it would be a joy for Jesus to meet us. If we love Jesus and do everything we have to do throughout the day with love for Jesus, then it would indeed be a joy for Jesus to meet us. Loving Jesus by doing everything with love is the best gift we can give him today.

Adoration is the proper attitude of today’s feast.  Just as the wise men reveal that the gospel message is meant to go out to all nations and peoples; it also reveals that all peoples and nations are meant to travel to Bethlehem and adore the Christ-child, and do him homage.

But what does it mean to “adore” and how do we know that we are doing it properly?  Just as the three gifts offered by the wise men reveal truths about Christ so they also reveal truths about our adoration.

Gold is a proper gift to offer a king.  By offering gold the wise men were acknowledging the infant Jesus as the “newborn king of the Jews”.  Gold symbolizes the kingship of Christ.  Gold is our best that we offer to God in gratitude.  God loves us and God wants us to know and experience the joys and beauty of life.  In moments of joy and beauty, if we can just turn to God and say “thank you” then we are adoring, we are offering gold to God.  We ought to thank God for all the blessings, beauty and joys of life.  Gratitude is the gold we have to offer.

The Church of yesterday can be likened to a river barge. It was a large barge, with straight front and sides and with a flat bottom, well built for navigating a river and able to carry everything. There were churches on it and schools, presbyteries, convents and monasteries. There were tennis courts for the Catholic youth, and mother’s clubs, and the children of Mary in their regalia, and the Sacred Heart sodality and the Legion of Mary. The priest was trained to pilot the barge along the river. The river had many bends, and navigation was not always easy. There were alligators and swamps, and every now and then rapids had to be negotiated. But on the whole the river was fairly predictable. The pilot could learn his job in a seminary and carry it out well if he followed the instruction book. This is a caricature, but I hope it captures some truth.

Our problem is that in our time the river has hit the sea, with obvious results for the barge. There is nothing wrong with reaching the sea: that is where rivers are meant to go. But the barge, which has done an excellent job in bringing us down the river, is not built for breaking through waves and negotiating the open sea. We experience chaos as the waves crash against the flat prow of the barge, causing it to shudder and break apart, with the loss of much that it was carrying. It is understandable that those on the barge should suffer shock and that many become desperate. Some keep trying to row back up stream, but that proves impossible. Besides it displays a lack of faith in the God of history and in the leadership of the Church that agreed that the modern world is where the church wants to be. Some have jumped over-board in one’s and two’s hoping to survive in small dinghies, bobbing up and down amid the waves. But dinghies are too small to carry the mission of the church, and are no better than a barge in the open sea. Others, unable to face what is happening, sit in the pilot’s cabin and paint river scenes on the windows, trying to convince themselves and others that we are still in the river and that everything will be all right if everyone keeps on doing what we have been trained to do. What has to happen, of course – and no one is pretending it is easy while the waves are crashing around us – is that we need to put a keel on the barge, and re-shape its prow.

In our day we witness children drowned by their mothers, children used as vendetta (even to the extent of pulling the child from a murdered mother’s womb), children abused by those entrusted with their care and protection. One political party cannot even bring itself to admit that the so-called “partial birth” abortion is actually infanticide. How could we not think that children are expendable?

Herodian consciousness clings to deceit. It must repress the truth. It plots to seduce the seeker of wisdom.

The embracers of Epiphany resist. They search out the child. They exercise wisdom in humble homage. They dream another way.

Personally, I believe we are all like these Magi. Indeed we are at times just like these Magi. We are all people who at times feel like we are wandering in darkness seeking light. Life feels like that sometimes. Wandering in darkness seeking light! The problem is: we have the habit of following the wrong star. There is a hunger in the human heart. There is a God shaped hole in our heart that we sometimes fill with all the wrong things. There is an ache in the human heart that only God can satisfy. As St. Augustine observed at the beginning of his Confessions, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you O God.”

The Magi were wandering in darkness seeking the light that comes from a relationship with Jesus and this was a very dangerous journey for them. This journey can be dangerous for us as well, because a relationship with Jesus sometimes requires change on our part. But our Magi followed the brightest star and that gives us a challenge today. No matter what dark valley we find ourselves in, no matter what challenges we face, no matter what we see staring back at us in the mirror each morning, all Christ wants to be is our light in the darkness. Dare we follow him?

“The Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God, and Saviour of the world,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“In the magi, representatives of the neighbouring pagan religions, the Gospel sees the first fruits of the nations” – that is, the Gentiles – “who welcome the good news of salvation through the Incarnation,” when God the Son became Man.

On this solemnity, we stress Jesus’ manifestation to the Gentiles. It is indeed something to celebrate, for Jesus was a Jew, the “Messiah of Israel.”

“The magi’s coming to Jerusalem in order to pay homage to the King of the Jews shows that they seek in Israel, in the messianic light of the star of David, the one who will be King of the nations,” says the Catechism.