They only feature in
these twelve verses of Matthew’s gospel.
No other evangelist mentions them.
But they capture our imagination, these magi from the East. They’d noticed curious happenings in the sky,
which doubtless most people had missed.
Given how strange the happenings on earth had been, that God who created
the universe and holds the heavens in his span had been born in a Jewish
backwater, that all-powerful God had embraced the vulnerability of babyhood; it
should be no great surprise if the heavens themselves declared with ripple
effects this divine irruption into the human world.
They
can’t understand it all, though. The
Magi are masters of the highest Wisdom of their age, devoted to painstaking
observation and calculation of the position of the stars, but they don’t have
the advantage of divine revelation through the scriptures. That’s a great advantage we have, we have the
word of God at our finger tips, on our smart phones even! But, we shouldn’t feel too proud on that
account, as Herod had that too (in scroll form, at least).
So, to
find what they seek, the Magi must first go to Herod, who consults with the
Jewish sages, who consult their scrolls.
Herod, who became king by political machination, is confronted with talk
of one born King of the Jews and is
threatened. It’s almost laughable: he’s
threatened by a baby. It would be
laughable if we didn’t know the rest of the story: that the reason Herod wants
to know the exact time the star appeared is so as he can have every baby boy in
Bethlehem of that age killed. Herod is
not seeking to give gifts. He thinks he
has everything he needs to satisfy him – he has the kingship, and it’s for him! He deludes himself that he can rest secure
content fulfilled, only occasionally dispatching others to do his dirty work
for him and eliminate any threat to his position. He thinks he has it made, so he feels no need
for his Maker.
The Magi
will keep seeking though. And they
find. Amazed and overjoyed by a miracle
with a star, they follow and find a more mundane scene: a small child, with his
mother, in a house. What a humble
scene! Disarmingly simple. The heavens had moved to show them
this!? Their joy doesn’t allow the Magi
time to question, they are spontaneously moved to adore. They have finally found what they were
looking for. They have found what (whom!)
their gifts were meant for.
That’s why
they capture our imagination so. Because
that’s our quest. Our hearts are
restless and we are seeking. Deep down,
we now we have been gifted with gifts so great that they can transform the
world, if only we could figure out how to use them. We seek, and we’re restless, because we’re
trying to work out quite how to be the givers we know God wants us to be.
Before
Christmas, someone donated about 30 nativity scenes to our parish St. Vincent
De Paul society. We sold them at the
craft fair and after morning Masses, making about $400 (which can fund the
society for about a month), but still had several left over. If you’re not familiar with this market:
nativity sets undergo a rather sharp depreciation in late December. So, I decided I’d take the remaining ones,
and just give them away. I must have
looked quite a sight, in my Roman collar and my winter jacket, with a dozen
nativity sets in a shopping trolley, going door to door on Lawndale, Vassar and
Diamond.
In our
neighborhood, people open their doors with suspicion, maybe even with
fear. The first man I talked to was
warm. His sense of surprise that someone
would present him with a spontaneous gift caught me off guard. As I left, I wished him a Merry Christmas,
and he replied, “Merry Christmas!? You made
my Christmas! I’m going to put this
right up in the window here.”
Who gave
and who received in that exchange? What
has God done for us that that scene, that nativity scene of His majesty
displayed in fragility, can mean so much? Can make Christmas? Make that man’s Christmas; make my
Christmas. Maybe we don’t need to travel
as far as the Magi did. We are
seekers. I preached on this feast last
year about being seekers, searching for the place to lay down the gifts God has
given us. And there’s truth to
that. But I think there’s a deeper truth
in this: we’re seekers who find by giving.
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