I hope you all enjoyed the
festivities and celebrations of Advent and Christmas. Many thanks to all those
who helped make our liturgies so meaningful. At this time too, I would like to
thank you for your good wishes, Christmas cards and gifts, both to myself and the
parish. All are very much appreciated.
Today we celebrate the Feast
of the Epiphany and the great Gospel story of the visit of the Magi. We are
familiar with the term Magi, although it is more common to refer to them as the
three wise men, or the three kings.
As people of faith, do we
know the names of these important visitors? They are: Balthazar, Caspar and
Melchior. The three wise men were called to come and give worship to the child
Jesus. They were called by the powerful light of a star and by careful study of
Old Testament Scripture. As scholars of non-Jewish heritage, they realized that
the messiah has come to visit his people.
The Feast of the Epiphany is
the celebration of the manifestation of Jesus the Lord to the Gentiles and
indeed, the whole world. And this manifestation is represented by these
mysterious kings from the Far East. The visit of these kings will make clear
that the King of King came to save all people of every nation. This is the
manifestation of the New Covenant. This is the beginning of the universality of
Christ’s church; that universality we call Catholic.
The Magi journeyed far, and
for quite some time, to pay homage to Jesus. This would not be an easy journey.
Yet their faith in the promise of new hope motivated them to press on. They did
not have the advantage of witnessing Christ’s miracles, reading the stories of
Jesus in the New Testament, they hardly could know of the passion, crucifixion,
death and resurrection that were to come. Still their faith was enough.
And they came not to say
hello, here we are. No, they came to pay Christ worship and to bring him their
finest gifts. And these gifts we all know so well; gold, frankincense and
myrrh. Gold is the most precious of all earth’s metals, frankincense is the incense
that is burned in churches down through the centuries to make a pleasing
offering to God and myrrh is a by-product that is used in the holy oils for
anointing. These precious gifts represent all that the life of Jesus, sent to
us through the Virgin to save us, is all about; for He is our priest, our
prophet and our King.
What does all of this mean for us today? These men
gave their all and sacrificed much to be able to do so? We can ask ourselves
what kind of time to we devote to giving ourselves to Jesus? If we truly
reflect on a typical day or a typical week in our lives what would we discover
about our faith commitment to Christ?
Today, we can ponder the
example of the three wise men, these mysterious Kings from the Far East known
as the Magi. God called them, as He calls us, by name.
Please note that tomorrow,
January 9th, is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Mass will be
at 8 am.
PARISH SKATING PARTY – Saturday January 14th, 7pm – 8 pm at
Carmen Corbasson arena followed by refreshments back in the parish hall. All
are invited.
Once again, I wish you a Happy and Holy new year of
2017!
Fr. Phil
