Dear Friends,

Today’s Solemn Feast, the Scriptures, the celebration all conjure up images of kings, both wise and corrupt; gifts, both human and divine, gratefully received and generously given, but others impertinently rejected and ignored; and a star burning brightly inspiring an arduous journey that results in “going home” renewed and another journey that requires the Son of God to flee His home. But do we get seduced to believe it’s not real? A fantasy? Fairy tale? Fable? Who knows? Who cares? It doesn’t matter to me and I really do not get much out of it, anyway. And yet, what if it is true and I am just lazy? I don’t feel like reflecting deeper on the Truth being revealed through God’s Holy Word; I don’t have the patience to actually ponder reality beyond the superficial; it’s just too much effort. In fact, isn’t it easier to complain about what is wrong with everything and expect someone else to take of it and deal with it (whatever the “it” is) when it comes my way.

The story of the Wise Men coming from the East reveals and celebrates the manifestation of Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer to people beyond the boundaries of His own nation. It celebrates God’s desire for all to be saved through His Son as He reveals Himself to the “Gentiles”, to all peoples and persons. Jesus bears the message of God’s great love for all men and women as He is the Incarnate Son of God, EMMANUEL, God is with us, here-and-now, and freely chooses that course, waiting for us in the midst of the cold, dark and silent night of our human condition. The wise men leave home and family and follow a star in search of the fullness of life. They have no idea about what they will find. They enter alone into the darkness of uncertainty, leaving behind all that is comfortable and familiar. They are encouraged by the prophecies of the prophet Micah, who hails Bethlehem as the place from which the longawaited Messiah would come. They make a risk-filled, dangerous and difficult journey ready to give their finest gifts and what do they find in the “palace” of Herod, the so-called King of the Jews? Apathy, jealousy, selfcenteredness. The Magi, who were not the children of the covenant and did not share in the faith of Israel, were attuned to “the signs of the times” and in faith risked it all. They arrive and find the Jewish people unaware and uninterested in the fact that the portents were aligning to say that the long-awaited Messiah had been born. More disturbing, they encounter raw human pride that would destroy life and God Himself, rather than submit to His holy Will. On the other hand, being guided by angelic guardians, they find what appears to be an ordinary baby with ordinary parents in a common house. And despite their lackluster and underwhelming discovery, they bow, they kneel, they yield and offer their gifts—not just gold, frankincense and myrrh—but they offer their very lives. And then … they go home liberated from the boundaries of this world and continue their quest toward the horizons of the eternal kingdom of God. Amid a melancholic tune, the lyrics of John Rutter’s “Carol of the Magi” artistically describe the experience:

We rode all night through fields of darkness, our guiding light the Eastern star; We came to Bethlehem; we all were weary: We’d travelled far that night …

We heard that here we’d find Messiah, foretold by seers from days of old; We looked for palaces and found a stable: Could it be here, so bare and cold?

We entered in, and there we saw Him; it seemed we’d known Him from long ago. A Child like any child, yet somehow different, the face of every child in Him we saw.

We’d brought Him gifts, and now we offered them; We knelt down low in silent prayer. With eyes that seemed to know both joy and sadness, the Child looked down as we knelt there. So long ago, yet I remember that Child who lay at Mary’s knee; how strange that every child seems so much like Him: His is the face I seem to see.

After all of that … they go home; and so, will we. Will we allow ourselves to be changed by the encounter with pure love? Will we be willing to change some things in our lives that are not healthy or good? Are we able to seek God in everything and when we find Him, to receive Him in His fullness? Will we present our meager gift only to realize that we have been offered the only Gift that matters, His undying Love and Presence in our lives? May this Epiphany make a difference in our ability to see the gift that is already ours and offer it back to the Lord with a generous and grateful heart.

Be of good cheer and have a blessed week!

Msgr. Grous