Holy Mary, stella Maris, stella orientis—Holy Mary, star of the sea, star of the east pray for us, lead us safely to Jesus

As we continue in our great Celebration of Christmas, we come to today’s feast. Today we celebrate the feast of Epiphany. Epiphany, the day the three wise men came from a far to Bethlehem to adore the newborn King.

We know the Wisemen or Magi were probably astrologers, philosophers or maybe even Magicians before they were converted to the Christ Child. Their gifts are symbols to tell-reveal to the whole world both who this newborn child really is and what is His mission. But the gifts also reveal to us what we are to do before this newborn king as well, that is how we are to act and what we are to offer to Him.

With regards to who Jesus is; the Gold they offered signifies their tribute to Him as King of kings. The incense shows us their faith that this seemingly ordinary child was indeed true God Himself, and thus worthy of our worship and adoration...incense is only offered to God. And the Myrrh, which was used to embalm dead bodies reveals to us Jesus' mission. It reveals to us that now God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity has become Man. Jesus, the God-Man born into this world not to live but to die, so that each of us might life; this is His mission.

And so in faith, the Magi come to adore the God King become man, who was before them in silence as a little child; in silence as well, they not only kneel down in adoration but they prostrate, on their faces in adoration before their King and their God.

The three Wisemen are led to their God by a star. We discover that the star of the epiphany over the crib is Bethlehem is an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the star of the east who always points the way to Christ’s Mass and the true presence there of God still in the flesh. There in the modern stable of the Church we, as sons and daughters of the Most High, are to imitate the Wisemen and come before the newborn king reborn on the crib of the altar of sacrifice. And so the actions of the Wisemen reveal to us as well, what we are to do before the newborn King born a new on the sacred altar at every sacrifice of the Mass and always present in the tabernacle for us to come and adore.

Before the Eucharistic newborn King, we just like the Wisemen, are to adore the newborn King in great reverence and silence; we too should kneel and dare I say, even prostrate before the Lord our God. And there with great faith, we too are to offer our gifts of gold, incense, and Myrrh:
In our case, our gold is the treasure of our heart, all the love of our heart, offered to Jesus' Sacred Heart made truly present and alive for us in the Holy Eucharist;
The Incense we are to offer is the sweat fragrance of our good works, of our little acts of love done each day to show our Love of God and those acts done to others for love of God...all that we say and do for God alone;

And what of the Myrrh? The myrrh is the very sacrifice of our will, of our heats, of ourselves, on this altar of sacrifice in loving response to the God who sacrifices Himself for us. In union with sacrifice of Jesus made truly present before by the power of the Holy Spirit and the gift of the Sacred Priesthood, we offer all that we have and all to the Heavenly Father as a living oblation of love, in union with the sacrifice of His only Son made actually and truly present before us.

But the sacrifice of our gifts, of ourselves isn’t the end. When we leave our gifts before Jesus newly born on the altar, He, never being outdone in generosity or love, repays the sacrifice of our gift of self with something not even the Wisemen were able to experience. Jesus leaves the crib and offers us the true gift of Christmas, the gift Himself in the flesh in Holy Communion. And through our Holy Communion with Him, He will possess our hearts and consume us in love, staying within us in Spirit even after we return home. But he can only remain within our hearts, if we leave all our earthly treasures behind and open our hearts, offer our hearts as true gifts of Christmas to the Christ Child, just as did the three Wisemen, which is why they were wise.

As result with our Communion with the God-King, newly born at every Holy Mass, how can we not allow ourselves to be changed by Jesus when we receive Him? We are told that after the three kings experienced Jesus they left and return to their country by another way. This "other way signifies" that once we have an encounter with the incarnate God in the Eucharist we too must leave by another way…that is we must leave this Church changed by the encounter, we must leave the old behind and begin to live anew in Christ and with Christ. Now that we have been lead to Him and found Him, we must, absolutely must allow ourselves to be changed by this real encounter with the Christ Child, truly, personally and physically present in the Holy Eucharist. We must live another way than we have in the past. By our lives we ourselves must now manifest, reveal Jesus to the world.

We like the Wisemen need to turn to the Star of the East, Mary and ask her to help deepen our own faith and to lead others to Jesus in the Eucharist. We absolutely need Mary to draw closer in faith to Her Son, her Son in the Holy Eucharist. Jesus, in the little white Host, is the antidote for all our anxieties and fears, including pain and death. He is the Bread of Angels that removes our pains, our cares, our worries; He alone brings joy and peace to our soul, he alone satisfies our intense craving for love.

Holy Mary, stella Maris, stella orientis—Holy Mary, star of the sea, star of the east pray for us, lead us safely to Jesus; To Jesus born anew on our Altars and who awaits night and day, and so many times alone, for adorers to come and adore Him in all the tabernacles of the world, so He can fill them with His love, with the gift of His very self, He who is love itself, help us to become those true adorers for whom the Father is searching, those who will adore Him in Spirit and in Truth, that is, in the truth of the Person of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and in the obedience of Holy Spirit of True Love lived out in their lives . Amen.