Offering Our Magi Gifts

Festival of Lessons & Carols: The Adoration of the Magi.  Mt. 2:1-12. Theme: Offering Our Magi Gifts

The story of the magi can be so much more than it appears to be, if we go beyond the facts and delve into the heart of the story.  If we ponder it prayerfully, we can see their journey from the East as a symbol of the spiritual journey they made with their souls, a journey from paganism and astrology to faith in Christ as King, God and Savior. 

When the magi began their journey for the Christ Child, they did not, of course, fully know or understand the extent of who He really was.  But that’s so often how faith begins…. not with having all the answers but with the openness and willingness to seek truth. 

Through their investigation of the ancient Hebrew prophecies, they sought to find a King who was specially connected with God, and who would one day suffer for good of His people.   So, based on what little they had discovered about the Newborn Messiah, they took with them the familiar Epiphany gifts in which we can see a hint of the identity of the One they were seeking:

·       gold for a king;

·       incense for divinity;

·       and myrrh for burial. 

Inspired by their faith and example, we can offer Christ these magi gifts, but in our own way and according to what they symbolize for our relationship with Christ:

Gold carries with it the promise of wealth.  Its universally considered a treasure of great worth. What is it that we have that is our precious gold?  What can we give Him that is our greatest treasure?  It’s our love. True love. Sacrificial love. Pure love.  The kind of love that is describes a person as having a “heart of gold”.  By obedience to his Word and service to those in need, our lives can and must become love songs to our God. This is our magi gift of gold.

Incense is used by every culture in its worship of God, however they understand Him. Christ was God-come-in-the-flesh at Bethlehem, and he is for us now God-come-in-the-flesh through the Real Presence of the Eucharist.  With the reverence of the magi we can and must give Christ the frankincense of our worship, especially when we encounter Him in the Blessed Sacrament. Just as the magi fell prostrate before Him on Mary’s lap, so we kneel before Him on the altar, offering Him the adoration of our minds, hearts and bodies.  This is our magi gift of frankincense.

Lastly, we come to the gift of myrrh, a spice-ointment associated with suffering and death. No one can escape suffering.  It is the effect of sin, and since everyone sins, all will experience suffering in one form or another.  But for the follower of Christ the bad news of suffering can and must be transformed into the good news of redemption, of graces and blessings for ourselves and others.  It takes faith, tremendous faith, wonderful faith, to suffer with and for Christ.  But if we unite our pains of mind, body and spirit with the sufferings and death of Our Lord, they can actually be transformed into something beautiful for God. This is our magi gift of myrrh.

So, let’s become part of the story of the magi in their quest for Christ. Like them, let’s ponder the Scriptures, let’s seek out Jesus in our lives, and let’s offer our King, our God and our Savior the gifts of our love, our worship and our sufferings.