When a child is born in our day, everyone tries to come and greet the newborn child and to congratulate the parents. Gifts may be exchanged, especially for a first child. The visitors oooh and aaaah over the baby, trying to see the parents in the child’s features. It is a joyous occasion for all, except perhaps the baby tossed around the room. These past few days in the Church have been no exception to that. How many people have come before the crib scene to rejoice in the birth of the Christ Child? How many have joined the angels and shepherds in glorifying God on this great day? The crowds have come from every land and nation, every people and tongue.
Today we see the beginning of that procession in the Magi coming from the East. Three non-Jewish men become the first to greet the newborn Child from outside of the people of Israel. They come bearing their own gifts for the Child, each pointing to who that Child will be when He grows up. But the coming of the Magi is not joyful for everyone.
Herod, the reigning king of Israel, is furious at the news which the Magi bring him. In fact, all of Jerusalem is afraid of the news, as Saint Luke tells us. They are afraid because they fear what Herod will do. And Herod’s reaction is gut-wrenching: he tries to kill the child by killing all the boys born around the same time as Jesus.
What an awful reaction to have at the birth of a child! Yet Herod, in his rage and his jealousy, expresses the fulfillment of what will be said about this Child when the Child is presented in the Temple; that this Child will be the fall and the rise of many. For today marks that point when the Light of the World born on Christmas Day begins to shine upon the whole world.
The word Epiphany signifies a revelation or a manifestation, and the visit of the Magi indicates the beginning of the manifestation of Christ to all the world. This manifestation of Christ can only lead to one of two reactions: the first is seen in how Herod reacts - though perhaps not as extreme. Yet one reaction to Christ is rejection, even a forceful and furious rejection. How, you might say, can one reject a child? The reasons or the excuses concerning this Child are numerous: too many demands, too impossible to be real, too simplistic, and so on.
We've heard the excuses from family members or friends about why they don't believe the Gospel. But they are all excuses, especially when compared to the reaction of the Magi - humility, reception, and service. These Wise Men are indeed wise in more ways than one; they are scholars who have determined that the Child born in a lowly stable will one day reign as King of the universe.
In light of this, they do three things. First: they humble themselves before the newborn King. Recognizing Him as King even while held in His mother’s arms, the Magi react with the normal reaction before the divine: awe and reverence. Next, they receive Him as their King by offering gifts. To give a gift to a king in ancient times meant that you hailed them as a king, and the Magi do the same for Christ. Finally, they serve Him both in their gifts and in their lives. While the Scriptures do not give us more about them after they return home, tradition tells us that the Magi left and bore witness to Christ the King until their deaths.
How then shall we react to the newborn Child manifested before us? Shall we reject Him and embrace anything and everything else other than Christ? Shall we reject Him not with the anger and violence of Herod, but with the coldness and indifference of our modern times? Shall we reject Him while still pretending to receive Him? Or shall we imitate the Magi?
Let us pray, brothers and sisters, that we do not reject the newborn King, but that, by the grace of God, we follow the wise example of the Magi. Let us humble ourselves daily before our God and King. Let us bring Him our gifts of love and thanksgiving and reverence, especially when we come to receive Him in the Eucharist. Let us also desire to serve Him by the daily witness of our lives, manifesting the newborn King in all that we do. Let us do all this so that we may be found worthy to marvel in the courts of our King for all eternity.
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