Matthew’s stories about Jesus’ birth don’t mention the manger, the swaddling clothes, the shepherds, or angels singing in the sky. Matthew calls us to faith by another route. He talks about learned foreigners journeying from far away to find the newborn king of the Jews. These journeyers are people for whom God’s ancient promise to Abraham will come true, “In you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”
Matthew’s learned Gentiles discover through their study of the heavens a new star that sets them on an earthly journey. A phenomenon in nature stirs their curiosity. The star leads them to Jerusalem, where they consult Israel’s priests and scribes about where their king is to be born. Israel’s scholars know the answer. The prophet Micah says Bethlehem. Gentile knowledge and Israelite revelation agree; both point to Bethlehem and Jesus.
Having confirmed that the heavenly star leads them on the right earthly road, the wise pilgrims from afar journey on to Bethlehem. There they find Jesus and give him their gifts and their love. Epiphany celebrates the manifestation of Jesus to Gentile seekers.
- What stirs your curiosity to search for new meaning?
- What questions do you live with?
The magi do not end their journey at Israel’s temple or Herod’s royal court but in a family circle. They find the child with his mother. They pay him a king’s homage and offer him royal gifts in the house where his family is living. Their journey begins in study and the stars and ends in reverence where a mother is nurturing her child.
Many Epiphany customs celebrate the family circle as a holy place where seekers continue to find God’s love manifest. Spanish-speaking children receive their presents on Three Kings’ Day. French-speaking people bake a Cake of the Kings. The person who finds the slice with a pea or bean baked into it becomes king for the day. Italians drum in Twelfth Night with bagpipes and noisemakers. The tradition of blessing homes on Epiphany recognizes the family as the domestic Church, the Christian community in small, the bonds in which most Christians first find faith in Jesus.
- What Epiphany customs do you keep in your family?
It was a cold coming we had of it,” T.S. Eliot has one of the seekers report in his poem “The Coming of the Magi.”
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.*
Eliot brings to mind another aspect of the magi’s journey — they step out of the familiar and comfortable to search for something more. We have all done this — left a job with security and benefits to start a small business; studied literature or theology in college when the conventional wisdom said to get a business degree; joined a faith-sharing group where there are no familiar faces.
A great thing about being human is that we can always change. Conversion, turning away and turning toward, is a capacity we have. We can become more and respond to mystery. We simply have to look up, see the star that is calling us, find some traveling companions, and set out. The divine awaits on a new horizon.
- What new horizon summons you?
In Sunday’s second reading Paul describes the same mystery Matthew’s story communicates: “In Christ Jesus the Gentiles are co-heirs with the Jews, members of the same body and sharers of the promise through the preaching of the gospel” (Ephesians 3.5-6).
Matthew writes in the A.D. 80s for Christian communities swelling with new Gentile believers like those Paul addresses. Like the magi, many Gentiles find in Jesus the end of their quest for the purpose and destiny of humankind.
Traditionally in nativity pageants, children who play the magi dress in the clothes of people from distant lands to show that all peoples claim Jesus as their light and life.
Among Earth’s 7.8 billion people some 1.2 billion are Catholic Christians. Another billion are Protestant and Orthodox Christians. Christmas cribs reflect the many cultures in which Christianity has taken root.
- What do you know about how the Gentile people from whom you descend came to faith in Jesus?
- In what ways does the global Church touch you?
- How does your local church connect with the global church?
