The Magi and Their Daring Decision
The importance of the Solemnity of the Epiphany is all in the contemplation of the mystery, hidden for millennia from past generations, and revealed in the fulness of time in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God in human flesh. It is the desire of God the Father to save every one of his children and, at the end, to welcome all of them into his heavenly home, to share in his endless joy.
The fulfillment of this grandiose and most generous plan depends in part on our grateful acceptance of gifts and our wholehearted exchange of gifts. The example of the Magi’s daring decision to look for the newborn King of the Jews, conveys to us that our participation in the Father’s plan requires a generous heart, courage and willingness to inconvenience ourselves to the point of accepting even the possibility of failure.
For convenience, let us use the symbol of the cross to simplify the acceptance and the exchange of gifts. The vertical post of the cross reminds us that the gift exchange is initiated always by the Father and that the gifts are the fruit of his unfathomable love and generosity as well as his irrepressible desire to have all of us in heaven with him. The horizontal beam of the cross represents the gifts we exchange within the Mystical Body of Christ, i.e., the Church, the New Jerusalem.
On this glorious day, we, as the New Jerusalem, receive a firm invitation: Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow, For the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you, the wealth of nations shall be brought to you. (Isaiah 60:5)
Going beyond this poetic expression, we understand that our heavenly Father refers to personal qualities, talents, skills and abilities with which we are individually endowed, and which are meant to be shared and used for the common good.
Here is an incomplete list of them: 1) the support, the love, the encouragement, the examples of self-sacrifice and self-discipline we get from our family. 2) the level of our physical and mental health. 3) our intelligence, emotional, social and adversity quotients. 4) our level of willpower and determination. 5) our level of education and spiritual formation. 6) our experience in different work fields and what we were able to save through hard work and foresight, etc.
To all these gifts we should add: 1) the opportunities available to us to be instructed in our faith by God’s words of life at Mass and elsewhere. 2) the healing and sanctification offered us by the Sacraments. 3) the comfort and the solace we enjoy through Holy Communion. 4) our personal relationship with Jesus Christ and any consolation we receive unexpectedly from heaven.
Maybe we never thought of this very rich list of precious gifts. Hence, a word of warning in is order. These gifts wither away and vanish rapidly unless they are used and shared with courage, determination and a generous, undaunted heart the way the Magi teach us so eloquently to do. While our heavenly Father is pouring his gifts on us around the clock, we might be among those who are unaware of the full wealth of what we are receiving, thus, we fail to be grateful for them and are less than eager to inconvenience ourselves for the good of others.
In the context of gift exchange, the Magi, who came from afar to pay homage to baby Jesus, teach us also to expand our horizons of heartfelt interest to see if our personal gifts can be shared also with people in distant mission lands. This would be a dutiful recognition of how this gift exchange has developed over the centuries of the Church, the New Jerusalem. Up to the last century, the old church of Europe and North America sent her missionaries and social workers mostly to Asia and Africa. Now priests, nurses and doctors from Asia and Africa go to old Europe and North America to help the Church and staff Healthcare facilities, to mention but a few areas of gifts exchange.
Today, on the Solemnity of the Epiphany, as the Father’s plan is revealed in its splendor, we pause to show our full appreciation for the Gift of his Son Jesus, God in human flesh for our salvation. We also pause to realize how, thanks to a most generous and constant flow of grace and a horizontal gift exchange, the Son of God in human flesh is growing to full maturity.
Now it is up to us, too. Inspired by the Magi’s inner disposition and by genuine gratitude, we resolve to contribute to the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church, by sharing generously our personal gifts for the good of the other members of God’s Family and by doing it with dedication and joyous self-giving.
