Epiphany of the Lord

 

 

My dear parishioners,

God is Good!!!  All the time!!!  And all the time!!!  God is Good!!!

Mother Jerusalem’s heart throbs and overflows with joy at all the good things coming her way. The oracle paints a vivid picture of ships and caravans making their way to the city by sea and land. They bring priceless gifts to offer the Lord God of Israel. The gold beautifies the Temple; the frankincense is mixed with the sacrifices offered in the Temple. All the nations come to praise God for the model of faith Jerusalem has become.

Today’s Gospel has the theological purpose of showing in very dramatic form that Jesus the Messiah was rejected by his own people of Israel and accepted by the gentiles. Herod the Great, a vassal king working under the Roman emperor, is caught totally off guard by the news of the birth of the newborn king of the Jews. The Magi, gentile astrologers from the East, know exactly who this newborn child is and they have come to pay him homage.

1) The drama of the story unfolds through contrasts. The powerful king, Herod the Great, is visited by gentile astrologers from the East. They meet in the powerful location of Jerusalem. The newborn king of the Jews, however, is born in the tiny town of Bethlehem, devoid of all signs of royalty. The Magi have had the courage and faith to follow a star which led them to where they needed to be. King Herod is in the dark regarding when and where a Messiah was supposed to appear. The location of Bethlehem is confirmed with a quote from Micah 5:2.

2) Herod panics. Herod attempts to trick the Magi into finding out where this newborn child is under the pretense that he, too, wants to go and pay him homage. However, this plot fails because these astrologers can read dreams, and through a dream they are warned about the bad faith of King Herod and they return home a different way. While King Herod continues to be misled, the Magi follow the ever-present star and are led to the exact location of the newborn king of the Jews.

3) The epiphany. The Magi are overjoyed at finding the newborn king of the Jews. They present gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh. Later piety will symbolically interpret the gold as the kingship of Christ, incense as divinity, and myrrh as redemptive suffering. Because there were three gifts, it has been assumed that there were three Magi, but the text does not say that. Later tradition named them Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior. Nevertheless, the point of the story is to emphasize that these Magi were everything that King Herod and his associates were not. The newborn king of the Jews was made known to the world by gentiles

 

Excerpts from “Sunday Homily Helps”, is used by permission of Franciscan Media. www.FranciscanMedia.org. All rights reserved

 

Sincerely in Christ,

Fr. Aloysius