Current Homilies for Fr.
C.P. Jones, O.P. and Fr. Bernard L. Keitz, O.P.
To view past homilies,please click here
EPIPHANY C 3 JANUARY 2010
Fr. Bernard L. Keitz, O.P.
W
henever I think of the feast of the Epiphany, I recall the great
gothic cathedral on the Rhine River in
the city of Cologne in Germany.
When you visit the cathedral, you will see – behind the
high altar –
a dazzling gold reliquary or glass case.
According to the tradition accepted in Cologne,
this bejeweled casket contains the bones of the Magi about whom
we read today in St. Matthew’s Gospel: Die Drei Heilige Koenige – the
three holy kings.
According to the guides in the cathedral, there were three magi and their names were Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar and, as we read in the Gospel account, each bore a gift: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
The guides will tell you what the Magi looked like: one was white, one was black, one was brownish yellow – representing Europe, Africa, and Asia. The American continents hadn’t yet been discovered.
I strongly suspect that St. Matthew, the evangelist who wrote the Magi story, was lurking in the shadows of the massive cathedral, chuckling as he heard all this.
If we got near him, we would hear him whisper, with a tone of impatience: “If only they would read what I wrote.”
I never said they were kings; I called them magi – wise
men, soothsayers, astrologists. It’s clear from what I wrote that
they studied the stars and tried to interpret their meaning.
I never said how many there were. And I never said what
their names were, what they looked like, how far they
had come or exactly
from where.
And, with a look of exasperation, Matthew would say: these invented details divert us away from the real point of my story.
This is what I’m trying to say: The Magi are US. They are stand-ins for us. Each one of us. All of us.
They show us how we are supposed to respond and react to the
Christ-event: the revelation that God’s
own Son has been born as a human being so that he could be our Savior.
We know from the Christmas feast that a Savior has been born
to us, Christ the Lord.
Now that we know this, what are we supposed to do about it?
Like the Magi, people of all nations – Gentiles as well
as Jews – are to
come to worship this newly-born Savior.
Like the Magi, we should come – and we should bring GIFTS.
You might be quick to ask: What gifts could I give HIM?
We think of those Magi with their gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
I don’t even know what myrrh is. Can I buy frankincense
at Walmart’s? And gold far exceeds the limits of my budget.
Let’s go back to Matthew’s Gospel story for a moment.
There is really nothing there to indicate that these Magi were
royal or wealthy or powerful. They may well have been scholarly types
of modest means.
Their real gift may well have been the surrender to Jesus of
all that they had to give.
Their real gift was themselves. They submitted their whole lives to the Lord in an act of adoration.
You may ask again: How do I go about making myself a gift to the Christchild?
Paradoxically, what makes me acceptable as a gift to the Christchild is an act of acceptance made by me.
What makes me pleasing as a gift to God is my unqualified acceptance of his will for me.
The best gift that the Lord can receive from us is a heart that
consents to whatever he has planned for us, whatever his design for us
might be.
Think of Mary’s response to the angel: “Let it be
done to me according to your will.” This is the perfect gift.
We are beginning a new year.
During this expanse of time – and in the years ahead – many
varied things will happen in our lives. Some of these will fill us with
great pleasure; some will cause us unwelcome pain.
The gift that the Lord most wants from us is our willingness to accept his love for us in whatever form it comes.
The feast of Epiphany invites us to travel with the Magi to Bethlehem, to follow the star to the place where the Child is to be found, and offer our gift – the gift of ourselves.
