Feast of The Epiphany, January 6, 2013
Epistle, Isaias
60: 1-6 Gospel, Matthew
2: 1-12
“The multitude of camels shall cover
thee, the dromedaries of Madian and Epha: all they from Saba shall come,
bringing gold and frankincense: and shewing forth praise to the Lord,” as
Isaias prophesied at Isaias 60: Verse 6.
Of Jesus of Nazareth it was said by the Prophet Balaam in Numbers 24: 17,
“A star shall rise out of Jacob and a scepter shall spring up from Israel.” The
star followed by the three kings was a new star rising, and a scepter is the
symbol of kingly authority. The Magi were
teachers of a false religion and could not have known Christ as Lord had it not
been for the grace of faith given to them. They are the first Gentiles to
worship the Christ so that through them the door of faith might be opened to
all Gentiles. It is said in tradition that the Magi were descendants of Balaam,
who was himself a Gentile. Balaam by prophecy foretold that Christ would come,
the Magi, with the eyes of faith, saw Him and believed. The Magi confessed a
stranger to be King and God on the strength of one prophet. So many Jews,
despite many prophesies, rejected their own. “He came unto His own and His own
received Him not,” St. John tells us. (John 1: 11)
The Magi offered gold, which is a
tribute paid to a king, and incense, which is offered in sacrifice to God, and
myrrh, which was used to embalm the dead. We offer gold to God if we live our
lives in obedience to Him and therefore shine in the brightness of heavenly
wisdom. We offer incense to Him if we burn away the sins of the flesh in our
hearts so that we can send up to God “an odor of sweetness, an acceptable
sacrifice, pleasing to God.” (Philippians 4: 18) We offer God myrrh when we abstain from the vices of the flesh. Myrrh
preserves dead flesh from corruption, and our flesh is indeed corrupt if we
give ourselves over to wantonness.
King David foretold the Magi in a
representative figure. Scriptures often speak of the world as “Egypt.” David
wrote that” Ambassadors shall come out of Egypt: Ethiopia shall soon stretch
out her hands to God.” (Psalm 67: 32) The Magi chosen to represent the “whole world,
dedicate, in the gifts they offer, the will to believe of all mankind, and the
beginnings of the faith.” (Author
unknown, but often attributed to St. John Chrysostom.) When Herod heard of the
birth of the King of the Jews, he only saw someone who would want to remove him
from his throne. When the Magi saw the Christ Child they saw a baby, but they
understood Him to be God, and they worshipped Him. What the Magi did that day
was not unlike what we do every time we attend Mass. The priest raises the
consecrated host and with our eyes we see a piece of bread, but we understand
it to be the Body and Blood of Christ.
St. John tells us that King Herod,
and all of Jerusalem, was disturbed by
the news the Magi brought. Herod brought in the chief priests and scribes and
asked them where the Christ would be born. They told him in Bethlehem, quoting Micheas
5: 2: Out of thee, Bethlehem “shall he come forth unto me [he] that is to
be the ruler in Israel” -- they did not quote the whole verse, but I will to
make a point – “and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of
eternity.” So they knew the Christ was born a man, and that he was God and was
from eternity, and they rejected Him immediately.
Herod it seems thought only of
earthly things because he was immediately threatened by this King of the Jews
who was just born. He planned to use the Magi to find the Baby so he could kill
Him. Herod did not understand that he was being used by God, because in
murdering the infants of Bethlehem Herod proclaimed to the world that Christ is
born, and he caused His birth to be speedily and widely talked about among the
people.
The Magi were warned in a dream to
return to their homeland by another route. In doing this, the Magi are
communicating to us what we must do. Paradise is our true homeland, and having
come to our faith in Jesus Christ, we are forbidden to return there by the same
way we came. We left our homeland by way of pride and disobedience and tasting
the forbidden fruit. We must return home by way of tears of repentance, by
obedience to the rules of God and His Church, by contempt for the world and by
controlling the desires of the flesh.
Remember our judgment. Christ delays
it so He may have fewer to condemn, but also remember how strict God is. How
strict is that? The punishment to Adam and Eve for their sin of disobedience
was death. That punishment carries down to all of us. Before their sin, man did
not die. Since their sin, Christ, in His mercy, suffered and died for us and
gave us His Church and Himself in the Eucharist, the path to reclaim eternal life. +++
(Thanks to Popes Sts. Gregory
& Leo and St. John Chrysostom for today’s sermon.)
We Celebrate the Tridentine
Latin Mass
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