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.
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 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 Kings 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 3 wise men, these mysterious Kings from the
Far East known as the Magi. God called them, as He calls us, by name.
SKATING
PARTY – Queen of Heaven Catholic School and St Dominic Catholic School have
extended an invitation to all parishioners to join them for a skating party on
January 13th 2018 from 7pm – 8 pm at Carmen Corbasson arena followed by
refreshments back in the parish hall. I hope to see a good turn out!!
Fr. Phil