3:2-3,5-6. Matthew 2:1-12. Lectionary # 21:
St. John Chrsostom (The Golden Mouth) comments on Matthew 2:1-2
the story of the Magi coming to worship and to pay homage to the new born
king in Israel. They are guided by a star that settles over the home of
Joseph and Mary. Chrysostom, a skillful exegete and theologian, tells us
that the star is our faith. We may not experience the star in the same way
the three wisemen did but our faith does lead us to find the child with his
mother--a sound principle for devotion to Mary! We are never to separate
Mary from her child, Jesus. The gift of our faith gives us great joy and
trust in the saving action of God in human history despite all of the
noise, rumors, wars, and catastrophes that we know are happening. We are
all called to find the child with his mother in all of this turmoil and
absence of peace. Both the Scriptures of the Old Testament and what
Matthew writes about the happening of the Gentiles finding the child they
looked for, as well as our epistle from St.Paul to the Ephesians, help us
to discern the plan of God.
Both Matthew and Luke in their Infancy Narratives are
proclaimers of universal salvation through Jesus Christ. Not only the
Chosen People of Israel are God's people. All of us are. St. Paul
describes the symbolism of the Magi finding the new born king in a more
theological manner that demonstrates the activity of God in salvation
history: "God's secret plan...was revealed to me..unknown in former ages
but now revealed by the Spirit to the holy apostles and prophets. It is no
less than this: in Christ Jesus the Gentiles are now co-heirs with the
Jews, members of the same body and sharers of the promise through the
preaching of the Gospel." (Eph. 3:4-6).
Though we believe as Christians that God is one, we also
believe that there are three persons in God, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. We accept the belief of the God of Israel and base all of our
salvation history on that God through Jesus, the Son of God. We believe
that the followers of Muhammad also believe in the one true God. Both
Judaism and Islam have many manifestations of God and events that describe
the wonderful attributes of God. We see many of these attributes in the
Persons of the Trinity, one God. Today we are especially aware of the
presence of Christ to the Gentiles who have come from the East to pay
homage to the newborn king. They followed their star and came to the place
where the child was with Mary and Joseph. This was their discovery and we
call it Epiphany or the Manifestation.
Our faith, as Chrysostom says, is that star. Our gifts of gold,
frankincense, and myrrh are symbols of our homage, our prayers, and our
struggles with the sufferings we all go through. They are fitting gifts
for what will unfold in the life of Mary's child and are presented by
Matthew to help us seek the manifestations of God in our daily lives. Like
the Magi we follow the light of our faith with its darkness of night and
when our dreams warn us and tell us of danger, we return to our own
country--the kingdom of God, manifested in our communities of faith. Amen.
Monday after Epiphany, January 5, 2008:
Scripture: I John 3:22-4:6. Psalm 2:7-8.10-11. Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25.
Lectionary # 213:
Matthew gives us a clear, concise, and comprehensive summary
which leads us into transition from yesterday's celebration of the Magi
finding the child with his mother (Matthew 2:11) to the startling abrupt
beginnings of Jesus' active ministry. We are caught off guard to see how
fast the transition from the child at Bethlehem and the finding of him in
the Temple twelve years later now appears as he approaches thirty years of
age! What a leap, but Matthew is a helpful guide who wants us to make that
leap of faith and join in the mission of the grown Jesus Christ.
This narrative of Matthew shows us that the interest of the
earliest oral traditions about Jesus in the communities that accepted him,
were more focused on the adult Jesus. The churches the apostles left
behind were at first focused on the preaching, teaching, and abiding
presence of the Risen Christ in their midst. Only after Mark had been
written did Matthew and Luke start to reflect on the questions asked about
his origins, his birth, and his early years. Those additions were probably
written last by the evangelists but were also seen in the light of their
resurrection faith and not in the light of an exact accounting
chronologically as to what happened some fifty years ago before their
Gospels were written. Both abruptly end the childhood of Christ Jesus and
only Luke gives us one more incident of his finding in the Temple at age
twelve.
Today's summary is appropriate as we move away from the crib to
the active ministry of Jesus. We are on a spiritual journey that pushes us
to grow with the Christ of the Gospels. We continue to see in these more
kerygmatic and faith statements about Jesus manifestations of who he is to
be for us as we journey toward him. Jesus' words today are realistic for
us as we grow in our faith. He tells us, "Reform your lives! The kingdom
of heaven is at hand." We take that word literally as re-forming our
journey with renewal in our prayer and further development of our faith by
returning to the foundations of that faith. We are to realize that Jesus
continues to manifest himself. Isn't he called God-with-us in Matthew by
the name Emmanuel? We are called to develop our faith by prayer, study,
meditation, and spiritual reading. These are the gifts of the Magi that
also help us to perceive and appreciate the Epiphanies that happen everyday
to us if we are alert and alive through the spirit of faith, hope, and
love. Amen.
posted by Fr. Bert SM at 10:52 AM
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