Sunday, January 07, 2024

This Week’s Readings | USCCB

Happy New Year!

Today the church celebrates the Feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany, the Greek word means appearance, showing, or manifestation. The Epiphany is God revealing Himself to the entire world. It is the first appearance of Jesus to the Gentiles. The story of the Visit of the Magi is one that most of us have heard from a young age. Some say that there were three but their number was not specified in the gospels. They might have been kings, scientists, astronomers, or astrologers but don’t let that get in the way of seeing what these men did and the lessons we can learn from them that remain relevant to this day. The journey of the magi to find the infant king is our spiritual journey to find Christ.

Seek Him and be attentive

The magi were gentile men on a quest to find the newborn King of the Jews after observing His bright star in the sky. They were seekers of the truth. God is everywhere and His presence is manifested to us in many places and sometimes when we don’t expect to see Him. We should be attentive and look for His presence everywhere we go. God always tries to divulge Himself to us. Be attentive of moments and experiences when something divine occurs. Yearn for these encounters with Him. This is our spiritual journey.

Accept the challenge and take action

Today, traveling to faraway places is not difficult. We have comfortable cars, paved roads, and well-maintained highways. We also have airplanes to take us across oceans. But for the magi, travel was not easy nor safe. It was slow, tedious, and travelers often had to contend with difficult landscapes, inclement weather conditions, wild animals and even robbers. In spite of the difficulties, the magi forged ahead following the star. When we hear the Word of God, we must take it to heart and be moved to action by it. We ask God to strengthen our faith and to lead us as we follow His calls for us.

Expect opposition and swim upstream

King Herod called the magi and tried to trick them in reporting back to him when they found the newborn king. His aim was not to pay homage to Baby Jesus but to have Him killed. When we set out to live our lives as children of God, doing His will, the world often disagrees with what we’re doing. Our culture and people of this world will tell us to look to other idols and try to keep us from being in communion with the Lord. We need to remember that God’s wisdom is different than the world’s.

Give God your very best, share yourself

The gifts presented to Jesus by the magi were symbolic, prophetic and generous. The magi gave Him gold for His Kingship; Frankincense, a fragrance symbolic of holiness for his priesthood; and Myrrh which was used as an anointing oil for the dead foreshadowing His death. Jesus was born to redeem us by His death for our sins. As we accept this incomparable gift of salvation, we must in turn give God our very best. When we worship, spend time with scriptures, and share gifts He’s given us, we must do it attentively, energetically, generously, and lovingly.

Be changed, go home by a different route

The story of the magi tells us that after they reached Bethlehem and met Jesus, they went by a different way. We must change our ways after we meet God. As we encounter the power and presence of God throughout our lives, these encounters must change us. Bishop Fulton Sheen concluded that Christ did not come “to make us nice people.” Instead, He “came to make us new men, to change our natures, because everything else in nature is changed by being lifted up.”

“So, whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

For the week ahead, can we become the star that leads others to Jesus?

Go in Peace to Love and Serve the Lord.