I hope you all enjoyed the festivities and celebrations of Advent and
Christmas. I would like to thank all those who made these celebrations 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 3 wise men, or the 3 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 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 byproduct 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 3 wise men, these mysterious
Kings from the Far East known as the Magi. God called them, as He calls us, by
name.
I hope you all have a good
week!Fr. Phil
