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. Epiphany, which means manifestation, was the day that through the Wisemen, Christ was made Manifest to all the world, not just to the Jews, but the gentiles as well.
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 who we are and what we are to do before this newborn king as well, that is how we are to act and what we, you and me, are to offer to Him.
With regards to who Jesus is; the Gold they offered signifies their tribute to Him as King of all kings. The incense shows us their faith that this seemingly ordinary child was indeed the true God Himself in the flesh, 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 have life as beloved sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father; this is His mission.
And so in faith, the Magi come to adore the God King become man, who was before them in silence and poverty as a little child. In silence and poverty as well, they not only kneel down in adoration but they prostrate, on their faces in adoration before their King and their God. They offer God in Person their finest gifts. But these exterior gifts were “manifestations” if you will, of a much greater gift, the gift of their hearts, the gift of all that they had, and all that they were, the complete offering of themselves in love.
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 Christmas, to Christ’s Mass; and so, to the true presence there of God still in the flesh in the Holy Eucharist. In this we can say Mary Christ Mass.
Here, at Holy Mass, at Christ’s Mass, 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 in the flesh on the crib of the altar of sacrifice though the miracle of Transubstantion. 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, poverty 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 bring our finest gifts before the God-King but not just gold, incense, and Myrrh.
In our case, the gold we are to give to the Person of Jesus is the treasure of all of our heart, all of our love offered to Jesus' Sacred Heart which is made truly present in the flesh and alive and beating for love of us in the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist is the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
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 think, say and do for love of God first, and then for love of neighbor for love of God. Of course, the best way to offer the incense of our daily good works is to offer them, to Jesus through Mary.
And what of the Myrrh? The myrrh is the very sacrifice of our will, of our life, of our complete self, on this altar of sacrifice in loving response to the God who sacrifices Himself anew for us; to intend to live from this day on, more perfectly within the Holy Will of God.
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, body, blood, soul and divinity…His complete gift of self in Holy Communion.
And through our Holy Communion with Him, He will possess our hearts and consume us in His love, staying within us through His 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 the true gifts of Christmas to the Christ Child, just as did the three Wisemen, which is why they were wise.
This is the true meaning of Christmas and its gift giving, to loving give the gift of our heart, to the One, Jesus who first gives us the gift of His.
As result as our encounter at Holy Mass, with His true presence, with His once and for all sacrifice for us, and 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 around us—Our lives must be an epiphany of Christ and His love to others.
But before we can be transformed into the living Image of Jesus in order to manifest Him to our world, so steeped in the darkness of sin, we must offer God true worship—not just correct exterior worship as important and necessary as this is, but even more importantly correct interior worship. In other words, the Wisemen’s gifts were not just an exterior worship of God in the flesh before them. Their gifts corresponded with their interior worship which was the offering of their hearts, their complete selves to God, present in the flesh in the Christ Child. So to with us at Holy Mass. We can not just offer Jesus exterior worship, we must do this yes, and very well, but more importantly, our exterior must correspond with our interior worship, the offering of the gift of our hearts, all that we have and are for love of Jesus…this is adoration and true worship of God and this is what the gift of the Wisemen ultimately signify.
We like the Wisemen need to turn to the Star of the East, Mary, Our Blessed Mother, and ask her to help deepen our own faith, hope and love for the Christ Child-God in still present in the flesh on earth in the Holy Eucharist. The Mother of God is present at every Holy Mass in order to help us to adore her Son. By offering our hearts to Him through her hands, she will present them to her Child as if they were her own. He hands will be the living paten on which we place our heart to offer them to Jesus. She will them help us to trust in Jesus and cut any strings which prevent us from giving them totally to Him, in strings which are holding our hearts to this earth preventing us from becoming One with God. Jesus will accept our hearts from Her, She will obtain for us the grace to live out our self-offering in our daily lives, so that we can bring Christ to others and so lead them to union with God as well.
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 that He can fill them with His Divine Love, with the gift of His very self, He who is love itself. Dear Mother, 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 through the power of the Holy Spirit, and live that true adoration of God out in our daily lives, doing all we do for love of God and love of neighbor for love of God manifesting and bringing the light, love and mercy of Jesus, bringing Jesus Himself to the world. Amen.
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