Back in the book of Genesis, we meet Abraham, who is to become the patriarch of the Jewish people, to whom God made his covenant. But, in the 15th chapter of Genesis, Abraham and his wife Sara are childless, making their future seem uncertain. Abraham laments to God that they will leave no heirs. However, God asks Abraham to go outside, telling him: Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so, he added, will your descendants be. This starts the covenant with God to which we trace the people of Israel. In one of the daily Masses during the last week of Advent, we heard the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, tracing Jesus’ genealogy back many generations to Abraham. So, in many ways, it seems appropriate that both Jesus and Abraham are connected to the stars in the heavens, as we hear of holy men from the East directed by a star in their search to find Jesus after his birth.
It is interesting that only Matthew, the evangelist who wrote most directly for a Jewish audience, the one who began his Gospel with the Jewish genealogy of Jesus tracing him back to Abraham, is the only one of the four Evangelists to tell us about the Magi, whom we also refer to as the three kings or the three wisemen. Yet, Matthew’s Gospel highlights these foreigners from the East, non-Jews who searched for the baby Jesus, who had no awareness of the Jewish faith and of the promises God made to Abraham. Thus, Matthew reminds his readers that they as Jews are a "chosen people" so that they would become, as Isaiah said, a light to the nations. Israel's centrality in the divine plan was all about their vocation to make God known to the whole world. God was doing this in the birth of Jesus and with the visit of the Magi who recognized the importance of Jesus’ birth.
The title of today's feast, the Epiphany, shows that Jesus’ birth is God’s revelation to humanity. The tragic irony in this Gospel story is that the Magi journeyed far from home because they believed God was doing something new. However, at the same time, the leaders of God’s chosen people read their Sacred scriptures and tried to interpret the signs of the times, but they no longer expected God to reveal anything new. The religious leaders of Jesus' day had worked out an uneasy but peaceful accommodation with the Roman Empire. The Roman government allowed the Jewish clergy to function as long as they did not disrupt the status quo, allowing the Jewish people to practice their religion in some shape and form. In some sense, we see the Jewish religious leaders as being complicit with the occupying Roman government. Yet, the Magi were awakened in their imagination and their openness to God’s message, drawing them out of their everyday existence to experience a gift from God that was new and wonderful. In their truth and in their beliefs, the Magi may not have had the promises of Abraham or a sense of the God of Israel, but they believed that life could be more than what they already knew. They believed in a God of revelation without knowing where their journey would take them.
In his celebration of the Mass for the feast of the Epiphany a few years ago, Pope Francis called the faithful to be like the Magi, to continue to look upward to the sky, to take risks, and to set out to bear gifts for the Christ child. Pope Francis stated that we have to overcome our fear of risks, our self-satisfaction, and our refusal to ask more of life, going out of the ordinary and out of our comfort zone to meet the Christ child. Pope Francis stated that we cannot just look at the ground, at what is right there before us. We need to look up to the sky, to dream, and to long for God, anticipating the newness that he brings. The Magi were not content to just get by and to keep afloat. Unfortunately, there are some in our world today who raise their eyes toward the heavens who choose not to follow Jesus, who choose not to follow the star of Bethlehem, because they are not open to the surprises God might bring. Jesus does not set out to overwhelm us or dazzle us or entertain us, but instead, he gently invites us. We need to be aware of those things that will dazzle us in life, but will mislead us rather than wisely guide us in our faith and on the path God wills for us in life.
In Spain and in a lot of Latin American countries, the feast of the Epiphany is a major celebration in the Church and a national holiday. We have enlisted some of our youth here at St Jude to engage our imagination and to help us enlist the spirit of the three Magi at our Masses this weekend. We are thankful to our youth for their spirit of service and for their joy and enthusiasm. I had read an article on the internet where Spain and some of the other Latin American countries have been creative these past two years during the pandemic in order to celebrate the spirit of the three Magi, having some of their celebrations virtually.
It has been hard for all of us during the pandemic. Very hard and very challenging in different ways for different people. We have had to be very creative and courageous and imaginative to continue to search for Jesus in our lives and to continue on our journey of faith and to continue as a parish and a community. No, we are not able to practice our faith in the exact same way as before. We might be frustrated having to still wear masks or not having a handshake or a hug at the sign of peace or having to adhere to certain safety protocols such as not offering the cup of the precious blood during communion. We need to be patient with one another and with our different views of life and different points of view. We need to be patient and understanding that the Church, like businesses and schools and families, is doing the best it can right now in making choices and practicing our faith. And since all that we are doing right now takes a lot of work, many of us are exhausted or stretched beyond our limit, so looking to see where you all can help would be a blessing to our community as well.
Like the Magi, sometimes on our journey of faith, we may not know exactly what we are looking for, we might not know exactly where God is guiding us. However, if we set our sights high enough, God will not hesitate to lead us into new epiphanies and new revelations where we will meet God among us in unexpected and profound ways.
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