EPIPHANY.

Today is the feast of Epiphany. The word Epiphany means “manifestation” and is associated with light shining in the darkness. The visit of the magi is considered to be manifestation of light to the Gentile world. The word ‘magi’ is translated here as “wise men.”  ‘Magus’ (singular) meant different things: a magus was a member of the Persian priestly caste; or one who possessed occult knowledge and power (this is the origin of our word ‘magic’).  They were astrologers and they were privy to the secrets of the stars, and the stars held the secrets to the universe. But they were not even Jews.

Tradition calls them “kings” – judging, probably, by the wealth of the gifts they brought.  How could they have known of this birth unless by divine knowledge, when even Herod, the local king had no knowledge of it? At any rate they came looking for a king.  Where do you look for a king?  In a palace.  Who else is likely to be there?  A royal family.  But the Magi came to a cave or a stable where they found a poor family, with animals and perhaps a few shepherds.  All the appearances would have told them they had made a ridiculous mistake, yet “falling to their knees, they did him homage.” 

Our first reading by the Prophet Isaiah foretold that gifts of gold and frankincense would one day be brought from foreign nations in tribute to a child born in Bethlehem.

Though there were three gifts, there could have been more than three Magi. Three important, wealthy, educated men did not start out on a caravan alone in those days. There was probably a large delegation of the School of the Magi who went in that caravan. First of all, they brought gold, and it's significant that in that day gold was presented as a gift only to a king. They brought frankincense. That was a symbol that they believed that Christ was divine, because frankincense was what the Zoroastrians burned on their altars to their pagan gods. It was a symbol of Jesus' divinity. And they also brought myrrh. Myrrh is the ointment of sadness and of death. Myrrh was the precious embalming fluid that the ancients used to preserve dead bodies. And so by their gifts, the Magi expressed the fact, first, that Jesus was a king; second, that he was divine; and, third, that he had come on a mission of sorrow and death.
When the Magi finally reached their destination, what was the first thing they did? They “knelt down and paid him homage” (Matthew 2:11). Here is the bitter irony of God's revelation of himself to us. The first to fall down and worship Jesus Christ as a Divine King were not the Chosen People, not the ones who were supposedly waiting and watching for him, but these were the despised, the hated, the pagans, the heathen. They fell down and worshiped him. They came, as they told Herod, for the expressed purpose of worshiping him.

The Jews were so preoccupied with the pettiness of life that they didn't notice the coming of Christ. Though they were able to consult the scriptures and tell Herod that the Savior will be born in Bethlehem. And the only thing that really concerned them was the reestablishment of the Kingdom of Judah within the Roman Empire, and they were too busy with that to notice that the King of Kings had come.

We can look at the significance of this from many angles.  Preparation is no guarantee that you will be ready; it may actually blind you, because you prepare according to your own preconceived idea.  Your eyes will see only those things that your mind told you to look for. There is no substitute for an open heart; learning sometimes has the effect of closing the heart, and in some cases even the mind. 

The Scripture says that Magi went back home by a different route. And even when they got home, they found that they no longer fitted in? Their eyes had been opened to the mean reality behind the pomp and wealth of Persian court and Babylonian temple. This was no longer their home, because they had received from Christ infinitely more than they had given him: they had received the faith that brings with it the promise of a heavenly homeland. Tradition says they became Christians later.

Christmas demands us to go by another way. Meeting Christ necessitates to leave the old way and take a new way. We are made new when we dare to go home by another way. Bethlehem is a place from which, once you've been there, you cannot go home the same way. The road to Bethlehem and the road from Bethlehem are never the same. You can't bow at the manger and see the world the same again.

A poet reflected on the magi searching for truth and finding their way to Bethlehem. When asked how far they will go for the truth, one magi responded by saying, "Not too far, just far enough so we can say we've been there." Is that us? We will be hanging around the manger for several weeks in this season. The question we must ask is how far down a different path we will let this little town take us. In fact we can never go home the same way we came here, to the church, if we really had seen the Lord in the Eucharist, just as the magi saw him in the manger.

May we in this season go "home by another way," that we might be found by the One who is the way, the truth, and the life.