Homily for the
Solemnity of the Epiphany
Jan. 8, 2023
Matt 2: 1-12
Our Lady of the Assumption,
Bronx
St. Francis Xavier,
Bronx
“When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in
the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem” (Matt
2: 1).
St. Matthew begins his Gospel by recording the genealogy of Jesus from Abraham down to St. Joseph, his legal father. He describes Joseph’s quandary when Mary his espoused wife becomes pregnant by the Holy Spirit, the angel’s appearance and explanation, and Joseph’s agreement to God’s plan for Mary and her Son.
Matthew doesn’t report Jesus’ birth but jumps
at once to the episode we just read. He
gives us 2 historical facts: Jesus was
born at Bethlehem, and he was born during the reign of King Herod. His birth at Bethlehem marks him theologically
as an heir to King David, which he is also, legally, thru his foster father
Joseph. His birth “in the days of King
Herod” means sometime before that wicked ruler died in 4 B.C. according to our
calendar and the historical records. Our
best guess is that Jesus was born in 6 or 7 B.C. There’s a 6th-century monk you can blame for
that chronological mess.
Then Matthew introduces “magi from the east.” In the ancient world, magus (pl. magi)
had various meanings: scholar, wise man,
astrologer, wonder-worker, sorcerer. Our
word magic derives from magus.
For sure, the word doesn’t refer to royalty,
to a king or a prince. So these aren’t
kings coming from the East looking for Jesus but wise men of some sort. Matthew doesn’t say how many: 2 or 6 or 10.
The tradition of 3 comes from the number of their gifts. Those gifts are regal: gold fit for a king, incense fit for a god,
and, ominously, myrrh for one destined to suffer (cf. 2:11).
These visitors are “wise,” quite unlike the king
in the story, Herod, who rules the Roman province of Judea. As scholars or philosophers or astronomers,
they’ve watched the nite skies and observed a special star—we needn’t try to
figure that out—and from their studies discerned what the star means. In wisdom, they come then to seek “the
newborn king of the Jews” and “to do him homage” (2:2).
Seeking a king, it’s perfectly natural that
they should go 1st to the royal palace, to Herod’s court. Here they find only a wicked old man (in his
late 60s), who, rather than receiving good news in the message of the magi, is
“greatly troubled,” and because he’s “greatly troubled,” so is the
entire court and the whole city (2:3).
When powerful people are upset, lots of people suffer—such is the way of
the world, not the way of Jesus.
The
magi re-orient themselves on the basis of the information they’re given in
Jerusalem.[1] Herod, the chief priests, and the scribes
don’t re-orient. They know the
Scriptures academically, but the Scriptures have no impact on their lives. This bodes evil for Jesus, whose public
ministry will be opposed 30 years later by both Herod’s son, also named Herod,
and the chief priests and scribes of that time.
The
magi, however, leave royalty behind, as well as their previous ideas about whom
they’re seeking. They re-orient, as I
said. We could even say they do what
Jesus will later preach: they convert
themselves, change their minds, go in a new and better direction—which is the
meaning of Jesus’ preaching, “Repent” (or “Be converted”) “and believe in the
Gospel” (Mark 1:15).
And
so the wise men come to Bethlehem and find the one they seek, the one who’s the
authentic king of the Jews, the one who will shepherd God’s people Israel (2:6),
and not only Israel but all the nations (Is 60:1-6), who are well represented
by these foreigners from the East. Their
search is rewarded because they go where God is pointing them, not stopping where
they think God should be.
There
are times when all of us think God’s making a mistake in his governance of the
world, in what the Church teaches in his name, or in God’s plans for us
individually. The surest way for us to
get ourselves into trouble spiritually, psychologically, religiously is for us
to tell God he’s wrong, or to tell the Church, “I don’t believe that Jesus
would teach what you’re teaching,” and we know better; to be unwilling to
change our minds, our hearts, and our orientation as the magi did. We’ll never find God, or peace of heart, by
going in the wrong direction, by presuming on our own wisdom by refusing sound
guidance from the Scriptures, from the accumulated wisdom of Christianity, from
our own consciences.
God
wants us to find him—not in a royal palace, not in power, not in the learned
circles of today’s scribes (academia and the media), not in our own
presuppositions, but in a humble, ordinary house: “on entering the house they saw the child
with Mary his mother” (2:11). We meet
God in our own ordinary lives, in our families, our jobs, our friendships; but
always guided by a star, by the light of divine teaching from the Church and
the Scriptures. Each day we ask
ourselves, “Where is God in my life today?”
When we let God lead us, we’ll arrive at our destination: his presence, his household, for eternity.
[1] Here
I take my cue from an address that Pope Benedict gave at World Youth Day in
2005: https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2005/august/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20050820_vigil-wyd.html?ref=the-pillar
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