LED BY THE STAR OF THE LORD

THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

Isa 60:1-6; Ps 72:1-2,7-8,10-13; Eph 3:2-3,5-6; Mt 2:1-12

We saw His Star as It Rose

The Church celebrates the Epiphany of the Lord today. The word Epiphany means revelation or bringing to light what was hidden or known to few. The celebration of the Solemnity is the Church’s acknowledgement and praise of God for including us, the Gentile nations, in his wonderful plan of salvation. The Church views the event of the Magi's arrival from the East or from the Gentile nations as an indication of God's will to reveal the presence of the Eternal Word in human nature to all peoples and nations. The event of the Magi’s arrival to pay homage to the Infant Jesus Christ caused astonishment to the people of Jerusalem and Judah as a whole, because they were not mindful of the role Israel was called by God to play in the salvation of all men. The Church celebrates this event because it reveals God’s will to save all nations. It reminds us that the birth of Jesus Christ was never meant to have a parochial importance alone, but a universal importance. She uses the opportunity to wake us up in our localistic or ghetto mindset, which prevents us from seeing and understanding the huge responsibility that comes with the Christian faith. We must make every effort to unite and work as the Church of Christ to preach the Gospel of salvation to all peoples and nations.

The prophets never conceived divine salvation as due only to the Jewish people, but to all. Isaiah the prophet is most clear in his messianic prophecies about their universal nature. The clarity of his expression in his anticipation of today’s solemnity is amazing. “Arise, shine out, Jerusalem, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord is rising on you, though the night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples. Above you the Lord now rises and above you his glory appears. The nations come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness.” One uninformed about the mystical sense of Jerusalem would think the prophecy refers to the physical Jerusalem. The prophet has gone beyond the physical Jerusalem to the mystical Jerusalem, whose children are constituted from all tribes, peoples, and nations. He continued: “Lift up your eyes and look round: all are assembling and coming towards you, your sons from far away and your daughters being tenderly carried. At this sight you will grow radiant, your heart throbbing and full; since the riches of the sea will flow to you, the wealth of the nations come to you.” The wealth referred to here is more spiritual than material, for the best minds and hearts would be drawn from all over the world to the light of God that appeared in Bethlehem. The best minds and hearts are so described because they see the light of God, but not clearly and immediately, like a star in the distance.

Subsequently, the Magi represented the wealth of the nations that would flow to the mystical or spiritual Jerusalem, the Church of Jesus Christ. These best minds and hearts of the nations believe in the creation of the world and in the Creator. They do not know him clearly, but they see his mark and presence everywhere. The uninformed faith makes them true children of Abraham and citizens of Jerusalem. The fact that the Magi who visited from a far country knew more than those inhabiting the physical Jerusalem then proves our point. “After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews?’ they asked. ‘We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem.” Their ignorance of what God is doing only proves that they were strangers to the truth of the City of God. Are we familiar or abreast of what God is saying and doing in the Church?

Those who wait on God, who desire to know him and to accomplish his will, would always see the rise of the star of the Saviour of the world. We must ask, search, and wait for the salvation God promised us in Jesus Christ. The Magi were seekers of knowledge, which is why they were called wise men; for a wise man always has his eyes on his head. If we are not dissatisfied with our human condition in this present world, we cannot long for the salvation God promised us. The wise men put themselves to the task until they located the Saviour, and offered themselves to him. “The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees, they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.” Just as Saint Paul sought to know and do the will of God until it was revealed to him at his encounter with Jesus Christ. He understood that what was given to him was meant for all peoples and not just for himself. “You have probably heard how I have been entrusted by God with the grace he meant for you, and that it was by a revelation that I was given the knowledge of the mystery.” To understand the depth of the mystery is to understand the need to preach the Gospel.

Saint Paul, through the course of his discipleship and internalisation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, came to grasp the core of the mystery given to him. He realised that it calls for his total commitment to its proclamation, for salvation of souls depends on the preaching of the Gospel we have received. “It means that pagans now share the same inheritance that they are parts of the same body, and that the same promise has been made to them, in Jesus Christ, through the Gospel.” This made Paul commit his whole life and resources to the proclamation of the Gospel. The Magi, or wise men from the east, prompt us to give it all we have. We cannot do less because even God commits everything to the salvation of man by sending his Only Begotten Son in our human nature. This is what justice means, which shall flourish in his days. “In his days justice shall flourish and peace till the moon fails. He shall rule from sea to sea, from the Great River to earth’s bounds.” If God has committed everything to our salvation, we would be guilty of injustice if we commit or put in less.

Let us pray: O God, who on this day revealed your Only Begotten Son to the nations by the guidance of a star, grant in your mercy, that we, who know you already by faith, may be brought to behold the beauty of your sublime glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.