Posted by The WORD in other words (2018) by Fr Benigno Beltran SVD – Sacred Heart Parish, Quezon City
Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord
Photo/Belen by Fr Treb Futol – Sorsogon, Philippines
The magi, or wise men of old, were often associated with astrology, the interpretation of dreams, and magic. The wise men in the gospel today, having seen a sign “known to them by revelation,” left everything to follow the star to search for the newborn King. In your journey toward God, have you, like the three wise men, had to leave everything to search for Jesus? Who are the wise men in your life that you look to for advice or to seek wisdom from in order to find your way to the Messiah?
The star mentioned in the gospel was used by divine providence to lead the three wise men to Jesus. This means that the power of astral determinism has been broken. We are set free from the tyranny of fatalism. We are no longer enslaved by fate decreed by the lines on the palms of our hands, or the meaning of our dreams, or the connection of our future with stellar movements on the day we were born. It is God who rules our destiny, not stars or meteors or planetary conjunctions.
The magi came bearing gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. In later tradition, gold came to symbolize the kingship of Christ, incense his divinity, and myrrh his sufferings that redeemed the human race. In the spiritual sense, gold was understood to symbolize virtue, incense to symbolize prayer, and myrrh to symbolize mortification and penitence. What are the symbolisms of gold, frankincense and myrrh in your life? How have you offered these gifts to the new-born King of the Jews?
The wise men have traditionally been understood by the Church as representatives of the Gentile world, in all its racial diversity, who came to believe in Christ. The universal feature of the Church is stressed in this Sunday’s liturgy. St. Paul says in the 2nd reading: “The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
Christians are in this world, but not of this world. When power and politics collide with the ways of God, Christians have to make a stand. The mention of Herod immediately relates the birth of Jesus to wider political and social contexts. The gospel today therefore reminds us that we have to know and understand our Catholic Social Doctrine. Church teachings will guide us in dealing with politics and economics as they touch our lives, especially in this age of globalization and digital revolution, so that “Nations shall walk by your light,” as Isaiah proclaims in the first reading.
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