Lesson: Is 60:1-6
Epistle: Eph 3:2-3a, 56
Gospel: Mt 2:1-12
The Adoration of the Magi
The Epiphany of the Lord, traditionally observed on January 6 but transferred in the United States to this Sunday, is historically the great feast day of the Christmas season. Unlike Christmas, in which Christ comes into the world in silence and is honored by a handful of the local poor, Epiphany or Theophany marks the revelation of Christ to the nations. Indeed, Epiphany is a triple feast, associated with the revelation of Christ to the Magi, His revelation at His baptism in the River Jordan, and His first miracle at the wedding feast of Galilee.
The Gospel for today’s feast calls upon all the Christian faithful to reflect on this mystery of God’s self-revelation, both within time and history and within our own souls.
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.
The magi, learned natural philosophers and astrologers from the Persian East, appear suddenly in Jerusalem and throw Herod and the entire city into consternation. In themselves, they are a type of the whole Gentile world, groaning under the bondage of sin and looking for the Messiah. Which is not to say that the magi knew precisely what or Who they were looking for. Their inquiry upon arriving in Jerusalem indicates that they arrived expecting a standard royal birth, albeit one that had been marked out in heaven as having particular cosmic import. They may not have understood who Christ was and why His birth had such great significance, but, through their learning and exercise of reason, they were drawn to Him nonetheless.
The magi are an excellent model for Christian life as we sojourn by faith. Each day of our lives brings innumerable revelations of God’s love and will for us, in the events and circumstances that surround us. The vast majority of these land upon us with the weight of purely natural events: a good cup of coffee, a long commute into the office, a difficult encounter with a colleague, a pleasant evening spent with a spouse or friend, an ongoing circumstance of stress or suffering. God’s will and love for us is present in all these matters, but almost universally in an obscure or seemingly natural way. It can be tempting to either ignore or discount the hand of God in this, or to over-spiritualize things by trying to pierce the veil surrounding them and discover their hidden place in God’s plan for us.
Both these instincts come out of the desire to control. If events really are purely natural and have nothing to do with God, then they can be influenced, altered, or even controlled by our own exertions. This is the temptation of Herod. The Hasmonean king, like Ahaz in the Book of Isaiah, had no interest in opening his life to faith or being led by God. He was the one who wielded power, and he was hellbent on remaining the master of his own destiny. The irony, in the case of both Herod and Ahaz, is that this power over their own destinies was heavily contingent on the good will of Roman and Assyrian imperial power, respectively.
The ceding of control of our lives to the divine is often a frightening prospect, because it forces us to surrender the illusion of control. Even if we know intellectually that much of the events of our lives are out of our hands, like Herod and Ahaz, it is oftimes easier to seek false comfort in the illusion of power rather than to throw our trust on a God who is hidden behind the veil of faith.
However, we can also try to regain this illusion of control by over-spiritualizing the events of our lives. Spiritual discernment is important, but when misunderstood or misapplied, it can become a crutch whereby the believer can attempt to exchange obscure faith for insider knowledge. When something feels good or seems to go well, it can be taken as divine confirmation of our choices and actions, and result in us assigning a divine stamp of approval to what we are doing. If things go poorly or we experience setbacks or sufferings, it can plunge us into a spiral of fearful introspection as we endeavor to regain control over events by situating them within a framework of divine Providence that is understandable by our mortal faculties. All this is a rejection of the call to walk by faith alone. The Christian who acts thus is happy to follow God, but only on condition of knowing the way and the destination. But as Jesus told Thomas, “I am the way.” The particular plan for our lives is not for us to know, expect perhaps partially, obscurely, and retrospectively. Jesus desires to reveal something far greater than our destiny or His plan for our life: He desires to reveal Himself!
During this Epiphanytide, let us follow the example of the magi. When, enlightened by their encounter with Sacred Scripture, they set out for Bethlehem, they found the star they had seen in the east to be going before them. Gladdened and consoled by this sign of revelation, they made their way to the side of Jesus. May we look to the events in our lives as signs that draw our minds, hearts, and souls closer to His side as well, and cause us to fall down and offer homage all the days of our lives.