Homily for the Solemnity of the Epiphany, January 2, 2022. Gospel - Mt. 2:1-12. Theme: Presenting Our Own Magi Gifts to the Lord
Today we celebrate the Epiphany, a Christmastime feast that is second only to the Birth of Jesus. Epiphany, is a Greek word meaning “manifestation” or "revelation". It's a moment of sudden enlightenment, an illumination of truth, an experience of having an insight into the utter reality about something or someone. Today’s Gospel presents us with the Magi, astrologers from foreign lands, who were given an epiphany, a revelation, an enlightenment, an illumination, an insight into the reality about who the Newborn King really was.
Through their investigation of the ancient Hebrew prophecies, the Magi discovered clues as to the identity of the Child of the Bethlehem Star. Their study of the Scriptures had informed them that this child would be specially connected with God, he would come from the Royal Family of King David, and be hailed as the Lord’s Messiah, the Lord's Anointed One. With trust in the Scriptures and fueled by determination, they took off on a long journey to Israel. They also took with them the Epiphany gifts that are so familiar to us: gold for royalty; incense for divinity; and myrrh for anointing.
However, the Magi’s journey to pay homage to the Newborn King will remain only ink on a page, only an alluring Christmastime story found in the Gospels, if it doesn’t come to life by inspiring us to live what it teaches. We must do more than simply recall and retell the story. It should move us to see and acknowledge Christ’s identity and bow down to him as King, God and Messiah of our lives. It should move us to offer him our own gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, but each in our own way for they are meant to be expressions of our own personal relationship with Christ. With this in mind, let's take a different look at those gifts...
The first gift the Magi gave to Jesus was gold. Gold is a precious treasure of great worth that people hold on to for security because of its enduring value. What can we give to Christ that is of immense value to us, something that is precious to us like gold and that we do not easily give away? I believe it’s our heart, our innermost self, that which we keep so carefully guarded. We only open our hearts up to someone who has proven their love for us, to someone whom we know will not reject us. Jesus is indeed that person for you and for me. He has put aside the power and glory of his divinity to become a little Child destined to offer himself in sacrifice to prove the depths of his love for us. He has earned our trust and so we can give him the gift of our hearts, of ourselves, as our Magi gift of precious gold.
The second gift of the Magi was frankincense. Incense is used by every culture for prayer and to worship God. The ascending smoke of incense along with its pleasant aroma symbolizes the rising up of our prayers to the Lord, from whom all good things come. The Wise Men recognized that in some mysterious way Christ was God-come-in-the-flesh and so they bowed down before him. For us today, this reality of God-come-in-the-flesh is found in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. With the reverence of the Magi we can offer Christ the frankincense of our worship, the rising up of our prayers, especially when we come before him at Mass. Just as the Magi fell prostrate before the Holy Child on Mary’s lap, so we can kneel before Him on the altar and in the tabernacle. Our Eucharistic worship, the adoration of God-in-the-flesh through this sacrament, can be our version of the Magi gift of frankincense.
Lastly, we come to the third gift of myrrh, a spice-ointment used for anointing the deceased. This gift transcends time for a moment and takes us to the saving death of the Lord. You see, the name “Jesus” means Savior and the title of “Christ” means the Anointed One. So this third gift reveals that the Jesus is Lord and Savior, who began his mission of healing and renewing human nature by his holy birth. We were also anointed by God. It is so much a part of our religious identity are that we are called “Christian” because this very name means “the anointed ones”. We were anointed at Baptism and Confirmation to bring Christ and his Gospel to others so that they, too, might accept his gift of salvation. And so discipleship, that is, the living out of the Gospel in following Jesus, can be our expression of the Magi gift of myrrh placed before the Holy Child.
So you see, it’s possible for us to give life to the story of the Magi on planet Earth today. Like them, we can seek Jesus out in the Scriptures and invest whatever time and energy it takes to experience an epiphany of the Lord in our lives. With their same reverence and homage, we can bow down before him to offer the gifts of our hearts, of our worship and of our discipleship. And then like the Magi who changed plans and took a different route home to protect the Newborn King, we may also need to make a change of plans, we might need to reevaluate our lives and find a new way of thinking, a new way of loving, a new way of living that honors Jesus Christ as King, God and Anointed Savior of our lives.
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