After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod,
Some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east.
Where is the infant king of the Jews?
They asked.
We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.
When King Herod heard this he was perturbed and so was the whole of Jerusalem.
He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people and inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
At Bethlehem in Judea they told him,
For this is what the prophet wrote,
And you,
Bethlehem,
In the land of Judah,
You are by no means least among the leaders of Judah,
For out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.
Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately.
He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared and sent them on to Bethlehem.
Go and find out all about the child,
He said,
And when you have found him,
Let me know,
So that I too may go and do him homage.
Having listened to what the king had to say,
They set out,
And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising.
It went forward and halted over the place where the child was.
The sight of the star filled them with delight,
And going into the house,
They saw the child with his mother Mary,
And falling to their knees they did him homage.
Then,
Opening their treasures,
They offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
But they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod and return to their own country by a different way.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you,
Lord Jesus Christ.
Gold,
Frankincense,
And myrrh.
Quite an interesting combination of gifts that the wise men gave to Jesus.
Although at that time,
Gold,
Frankincense,
And myrrh were valuable,
Extremely valuable,
Practical too.
Interesting thing that frankincense these days is starting to make a name for itself as medicinal.
Only now we are finding out why the wise men at the time used or gave Jesus frankincense.
All the translations,
Don't label them as wise men,
Label them as magi.
People who do magic.
Something that I think these days most denominations of Christianity will scream and run away from.
Oh gosh,
You mentioned magic,
Runaway evil.
Yet,
Three wise men,
Three magicians came to pay homage to Christ.
And what is this story and why is it so important for us to experience and explain the epiphany of the Lord?
Where God makes himself known to the world in the form of his son.
In the form of Christ Jesus.
If we look back at our second reading,
The Ephesians,
The letter to the Ephesians said that even pagans can find benefit.
And that the story of Christ is something that even they have part in.
Over the past couple of months,
The message that came to me over and over and over from God is that Christ breaks down the barrier.
This perception of being separated from each other.
And here at the epiphany of the Lord we see that once again,
That Jesus' own people want to kill him.
King Herod ordered the massacre of all babies that were Jesus' age,
More or less,
All the sons,
First borns.
And so we see here that the King of the Jews is not just that,
Jesus is not just the King of the Jews.
Jesus came to set us all free.
And not from Fire and Brimstone hell.
Jesus came to break down the barrier,
This perceived curtain that we have that we are all separate entities,
That we are all separate beings.
My friends,
This is just a lie.
This is just an illusion.
When we pass,
The day that we die,
I hope that this body will go back to the earth to be reused and recycled.
But that our souls and our spirits will go and reconnect to God.
Because we say in our Eucharistic prayers that we shall become like God,
We shall become part of God.
Yet we live in a world where we think that it's every man for himself.
I have to work hard to go to heaven.
Bugger the rest.
Aren't we so stuck in our survival panic that we forget to see that the rest is me.
Bugger the rest.
Bugger me.
Here Jesus is just a baby.
We read in some places about two years old.
So his ministry had not started yet.
Only years later,
Our Holy Mother will tell Jesus to create wine,
Or to help out.
So only much later Jesus will share in his ministry the two new commandments.
The two commandments that breaks down the ten commandments that were focused on the lives of the Jewish people.
He breaks them down and he says two commandments,
Love God,
Love each other.
And not in your community.
Love God and love each other.
So,
There's also the idea of love God as each other.
Which brings a whole theological debacle upon us.
But we can say love God.
As if God is in everybody.
Because it's true.
God resides in each one of us.
And so when these three magdi came down from where?
From their country.
They recognized that the Christ that was born didn't come merely for a select group of people.
No.
But that he came to save us all.
And again,
Not in the way that many of us believe that I have to live a specific life,
I have to live,
I have to pray in a specific way.
I have to honor a specific person above others.
No.
No.
Never.
Jesus came to share a love with us that is unconditional.
A love that we can't understand.
Nothing is impossible for God.
Can you imagine the expanse of the universe holding up over itself to be born in a small baby?
Christ did that for us.
Knowing full well that the very same people that he was promised to and promised through the prophets would be the same people who would crucify him.
Because that too was necessary.
As we move into this week,
Let us all try and recognize that Christ is visible still.
That God looks at us through the eyes of every person we meet.
More so,
This is a scary one.
God listens to us through the ears of every person we speak to.
Amen.
