I’m sure many of you have the experience of not being able to celebrate Christmas with some family members on Christmas Day, so you wait until the following weekend or whenever you can get together to celebrate this wonderful occasion with a meal and exchanging gifts. Maybe you forgot to get a Christmas Card right away for someone, so the day after Christmas or the next day you go to the store to get something that might be left in the rack, but to your surprise the racks are filled—with Valentine’s Day Cards! Isn’t it amazing how there’s such a building up for a celebration, and once it’s here, we quickly move on to the next event.
But the Church is still celebrating Christmas—because Christmas isn’t just one day. We have an entire season in which we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, usually for three Sundays following Christmas Day. In fact, we have an entire season in which to prepare for the Season of Christmas—Advent—which modern society wants us to completely forget. But that’s another subject entirely.
The Christmas Season is packed with celebrations that are so important for us as Christians, and I think that too often we take them for granted, and don’t really meditate on them enough. First of all, of course, there is Christmas Day, where we celebrate the birth of Jesus. God became man. As is says at the beginning of John’s Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” God became one of us, so that we might become one with him.
In most years, the first Sunday following Christmas Day, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family. Jesus, as God, is fully divine, and becoming flesh, is also fully human. So he is raised with a real mother and father, and with Mary and Joseph, shows us how our relationship in a family can and should be holy, a source of hope for us and a model for others. Then, on the Octave of Christmas, the eighth day, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. With her acceptance to participate in the Incarnation, she becomes Mother: not just of Jesus, God made man, but our Holy Mother also.
Again, in most years, the second Sunday following Christmas Day is the last day of the Christmas Season; the Church celebrates the Baptism of the Lord, which marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. But since Christmas Day fell on a Sunday this year, the Feasts of the Holy Family and the Baptism of the Lord are transferred to other days. And so today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, when the Magi from the east arrived to give glory and praise to God. Now, all of these celebrations aren’t for the sake of God. None of this can do anything to make Him greater or more exalted. The Church doesn’t have these celebrations (or any others, for that matter) for the benefit of God. They’re for us, for our benefit—for our good—directed toward our salvation.
It’s through these celebrations we need to recognize who God is, who Jesus is, in both his divinity and his humanity: that God wants nothing more than for us to be with him for eternity. And not just with him, but one with him, as Saint Peter says in his second letter, that we may “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pt 1:4); and as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, that “The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity” (CCC 260).
Today’s Gospel reading is probably one of the more familiar gospel stories to us, partly because of the nativity scenes we set up each year for Christmas. Epiphany means manifestation. And so we commemorate the day when the glory of the Messiah was made manifest to the whole world, and this is symbolized by the visit of the Magi, or wise men, astrologers, or the three kings, whatever you want to call them. The point is, they were Gentiles. While the chief priests and scribes of the Jewish people, God’s chosen ones, don’t receive notice of the birth of Jesus, or recognize his presence, God communicates this good news to the gentile world.
This is a lesson that is good for all times: Jesus is the Savior of all people—not just the Jews, or the Israelites, or those who belong to the Church. Saint Paul says in his First Letter to Timothy, “God our Savior … desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tm 2:4).
The adoration of the Magi fulfills the prophecies of the honor and worship given to the God of Israel by the foreign nations. This is the point that Matthew is trying to get across to his readers. Jesus is the fulfillment of all that is foretold in the Scriptures, and he quotes the prophet Isaiah in this passage as an example. The recognition of Jesus as the Messiah by the Gentiles is a huge contrast to his rejection by the Jews, and we see that symbolized by Herod’s reaction to the birth of Jesus.
Herod was a paranoid man who used his authority and power to get what he wanted. He wanted to use the magi to destroy the one whom he considered a rival and a threat to his throne. And he would stop at nothing to keep his throne: he even murdered his own wife, three sons and a brother-in-law because of their threat to his position as King.
Herod and the Magi were both searching for the “newborn king of the Jews” but in different ways and for different reasons. The Magi find Jesus because they were open to being led by God, and then following where God led them. But Herod never found Jesus. Instead, he commands others to find Jesus for him. But without following God’s signs, Jesus cannot be found. The truth is that we find God not just because we search for him, but because he reveals himself to us. And he reveals himself primarily in the person of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, using signs, symbols, and instruments such as people, the Sacred Scriptures, and the Church.
Notice what the Magi do when they come into the presence of the Lord. They prostrated themselves and did him homage, giving gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. This is because they recognized, even as a baby, that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. Back in the 16th century at the Council of Trent, the Council Fathers mentioned the magi’s worship when they said: “For in this sacrament we believe that the same God is present whom the eternal Father brought into the world. … It is the same God whom the magi fell down and worshipped” (Council of Trent, Decree, De SS. Eucharistia, chap. 5). This is the type of response we should have today when we encounter Jesus in the sacraments—especially in the Eucharist. Even though we see with our eyes what appears to be ordinary bread and wine, we know with the eyes of faith that is the very body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus—God incarnate.
Think about this. If some movie star, sports star, political head of state or even the pope were to show up, think of how we would react, how the press would be here to cover the story, and how we would talk for weeks, months, even years about the encounter. And here we have God himself, without whom we would never even have these heroes to put on pedestals before us. This is Jesus—not a symbol, not something representing Jesus, but God himself—right here! And he wants us to consume him, to be one with us. He desires that kind of intimacy with us!
The Magi encountered the Lord in their search for him by following the signs that God placed before them. And the fact that they went back to their own country by another route shows that they were changed by this encounter. Do we allow ourselves to be changed by our intimate encounter with the Lord—with Jesus—with God himself—not just with us but one with us?
We, too, can show great reverence when we bow or kneel before his Real Presence in the Eucharist. And we can bring him gifts as well—maybe not of gold, frankincense or myrrh, but the gifts of our hearts in praise and thanksgiving; the gift God truly desires—our very selves.