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Still in the Season of Christmas, we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany this weekend. In our faith context, means the manifestation of Christ to all the Nations.
We have been in church many times these last days. We keep hearing all these stories about the birth of Jesus from the two gospels that have them, Luke and Matthew. One of the beautiful things of all these texts in Christmas is to see how the Good News of the birth of Christ has this expansive effect: first, only Mary knows about it; then Joseph; then Elizabeth and Zachariah; then the shepherds (representing the downcast of Israel); and today it reaches all the Nations. Using 21st century language, Jesus goes viral at the Epiphany.
This manifestation of Christ is still happening to us, and it is a matter for us to hear it, and be transformed as the Magi were transformed upon encountering Christ. When the gospel begins, the Magi are looking for Jesus in Jerusalem, in the center of power of the time, and they thought Herod would be of help. But at the end of the gospel, transformed by the encounter with Christ, they realize that they have to avoid Jerusalem and Herod, to return as different people, carrying with them the good news of Jesus.
We can look at the attitude of the Magi in today’s gospel and learn from them how to let Jesus transform our lives:
(1) The Magi were people who were on a journey, who were searching. The opposite of that is our tendency to settle, in life and in faith, and cease the search. Another word for it is complacency. We tend to become people with all the answers instead of people of questions.
(2) In their search, they read a sign–a star. We believe God continues sending us many signs on how to find Jesus. People and events that happen in our lives are messages from God, but we often do not pay attention, in the midst of our busy lives. We have lost the sensitivity to discern signs.
(3) Once they encounter Jesus, the Magi gave him everything. They gifted themselves to the Child: Gold, representing their material wealth; Frankincense, representing their faith, as incense has in many cultures been a sign of our relationship with the Divine; and by gifting him with myrrh, they have given him also their suffering and their eventual death, as myrrh was used in antiquity as an ointment with medicinal effects, also used to prepare a body for the funeral rituals. The opposite happens when Jesus does not change anything in our lives, and we may live faith on the surface, in the rituals and the gestures, in the rules, and not in the whole potential of free individuals following Jesus.
(4) And they were “overjoyed” upon encountering Jesus—a joy that is not a feeling, but a choice we make. We all have problems and difficulties, many reasons and excuses not to be joyful. Does the encounter with Jesus, especially the one we experience when we go to church, fill us with joy? Do we recognize the joy of the Gospel every time we encounter Jesus in the “others”—especially the stranger, the marginalized, the different…
The Epiphany is an explosion of joy and meaning, and its shock wave is reaching us today. We learn from the Magi how to set ourselves to continue the journey that takes us to the Child and beyond–in constant journey of transformation.
We have been in church many times these last days. We keep hearing all these stories about the birth of Jesus from the two gospels that have them, Luke and Matthew. One of the beautiful things of all these texts in Christmas is to see how the Good News of the birth of Christ has this expansive effect: first, only Mary knows about it; then Joseph; then Elizabeth and Zachariah; then the shepherds (representing the downcast of Israel); and today it reaches all the Nations. Using 21st century language, Jesus goes viral at the Epiphany.
This manifestation of Christ is still happening to us, and it is a matter for us to hear it, and be transformed as the Magi were transformed upon encountering Christ. When the gospel begins, the Magi are looking for Jesus in Jerusalem, in the center of power of the time, and they thought Herod would be of help. But at the end of the gospel, transformed by the encounter with Christ, they realize that they have to avoid Jerusalem and Herod, to return as different people, carrying with them the good news of Jesus.
We can look at the attitude of the Magi in today’s gospel and learn from them how to let Jesus transform our lives:
(1) The Magi were people who were on a journey, who were searching. The opposite of that is our tendency to settle, in life and in faith, and cease the search. Another word for it is complacency. We tend to become people with all the answers instead of people of questions.
(2) In their search, they read a sign–a star. We believe God continues sending us many signs on how to find Jesus. People and events that happen in our lives are messages from God, but we often do not pay attention, in the midst of our busy lives. We have lost the sensitivity to discern signs.
(3) Once they encounter Jesus, the Magi gave him everything. They gifted themselves to the Child: Gold, representing their material wealth; Frankincense, representing their faith, as incense has in many cultures been a sign of our relationship with the Divine; and by gifting him with myrrh, they have given him also their suffering and their eventual death, as myrrh was used in antiquity as an ointment with medicinal effects, also used to prepare a body for the funeral rituals. The opposite happens when Jesus does not change anything in our lives, and we may live faith on the surface, in the rituals and the gestures, in the rules, and not in the whole potential of free individuals following Jesus.
(4) And they were “overjoyed” upon encountering Jesus—a joy that is not a feeling, but a choice we make. We all have problems and difficulties, many reasons and excuses not to be joyful. Does the encounter with Jesus, especially the one we experience when we go to church, fill us with joy? Do we recognize the joy of the Gospel every time we encounter Jesus in the “others”—especially the stranger, the marginalized, the different…
The Epiphany is an explosion of joy and meaning, and its shock wave is reaching us today. We learn from the Magi how to set ourselves to continue the journey that takes us to the Child and beyond–in constant journey of transformation.
