Is 60:1-6
Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-13
Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6
Mt 2:1-12
It is difficult to avoid at least some element of personal sentimentality at Christmas. The ghosts of Christmas past always figure in at some point. I grew up in a town populated by Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, and a few Irish and Welsh. The town was overwhelmingly Catholic. Each ethnic group held to the traditions it brought over from Old Country, including when and how the feasts were celebrated. For us Poles the wigilia complete with opłatki and pierogi, was critical. Each parish featured hymns and carols in the language of the parish's ethnic group. The four RC parishes were Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian, and Irish--I think the Irish sang in English. Not all of the Catholics in Plymouth, PA celebrated Christmas on the same day, at least not back then.
My family home was one yard, one garage, and two houses away from Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church. I attended many Divine Liturgies there as a kid primarily because it was close. My brother noted that the closeness was offset by the length of the Divine Liturgy and the fact that it was in Church Slavonic, although, in my brother's case, Latin was as much of a mystery to him as Church Slavonic was to both of us. Every year in high school our Ukrainian Catholic classmates got "Russian Christmas" off. It wasn't even a question of them being in class on January 6 and 7. It was routine. The difference was because the Ukrainian Church still used the Julian Calendar where dates are thirteen days after the same date in the Gregorian calendar. Thus, December 25 is January 8 for adherents of the Julian Calendar. Epiphany in the Roman Church almost coincided with Christmas in the Eastern Rites and Orthodox Churches. Epiphany in the Eastern Churches wasn't until mid-January.
No matter the calendar, the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord is celebrated twelve days after the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord, traditionally on January 6 for the Roman Church and January 18 for the Eastern Rite. However, in its sometimes bizarre thought processes, some episcopal conferences have translated the Feast of the Epiphany to the Sunday between January 2 and January 8. One benefit is that more people attend Mass on Sunday than they do on a weekday. The change in the date of the observance does not diminish its importance.
Epiphany derives from Greek roots that mean: to show forth, to reveal, to open up. Dictionaries define an epiphany as," a sudden intuitive realization of the essence or meaning of something, . . . ." One could ask if we didn't already celebrate that sudden realization on Christmas. The answer is both yes and no. This is where the three gift bearers come in.
The word "kings" does not appear in Matthew's Gospel. Those who bore the gifts were called magi, wise men or astronomers. They were not monarchs. The word kings and their names only came into use around the sixth century. Their number is another problem.
Matthew used the plural in his gospel but did not give a number. There could have been as few as two or many more than three. Because the gifts were described as gold, frankincense, and myrrh, tradition holds that there were three magi. Despite the custom calling them Kasper, Melchior, and Balthazar they were not named in scripture.
In the end, the number of magi, their names, their ethnicity, and their kingly or non-kingly status, is an irrelevant distraction from their true importance.
The magi are important because they represent the first Gentiles to recognize and worship Jesus. They represent the first Gentiles who realized that Jesus was the Messiah for whom the world had waited. They were also part of a mostly unacknowledged dimension of the Nativity of Our Lord. that dimension is the underlying threat, danger, and violence hovering over our celebration.
"When King Herod heard of this he was greatly troubled and all Jerusalem with him."
Herod's jealousy and the duplicity underlying his conversation with the magi gets closer to the reality of Christmas than do the lyrics of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" or the interminable song "We Three Kings of Orient Are." In Herod's malevolence and evil desires we see the first shadow of the cross, we can make out the road that led to Calvary.
"Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage."
Imagine this request from a crazed megalomaniac whose potential for brutality was unlimited. Who can trust a sociopath who executed several members of his own family? Who can believe the equivalent of a late-term abortionist who ordered the killing of all male children under the age of two in the vicinity of Bethlehem.
The first reading from Isaiah told Jerusalem that the glory of the Lord would shine upon her. In the context of Isaiah's prophecy the reading from Ephesians is consoling because it reassures the Gentiles that they are included in the promise.
In an increasingly secular culture, Christmas is interpreted as a celebration of peace, love, light, and innocence. They are goods in themselves. But the Nativity is also a story of suffering, danger, hardship, threat, and persecution. It reflects real life as most of us live it.
Once we wash away the sloppy sentimentality we can begin to understand the true meaning of Christmas. Once the treacle is gone we can begin to understand that the "Christmas story" did not end when the magi returned home. We can then see the truth of Dag Hammarskjold's words when he wrote:
On Christmas Eve, Good Friday
was foretold them
in a trumpet fanfare.
Christmas is not magic. It is not just for children. It is for all people. It does not need a celebration of food, booze and consumer insanity. It has nothing to do with a holiday; it has everything to do with a holy day.
We hear of the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, the gifts brought by the magi. Those gifts are heavy with meaning:
Gold: the symbol of kingship.
Frankincense: the fragrant smoke of which is the symbol of offering to God.
Myrrh: an embalming oil symbolizing the death that Jesus would undergo for our sakes.
We cannot separate the wood of the manger from the wood of the cross. Christ did not come to Earth as a feel-good Hallmark movie. Jesus came to earth and lived as part of a violent and heart-wrenching drama. The Light of Christ is meant to illuminate the darkness that dwells within the human heart, if we allow it to do so. The gift of love manifested in the Child Jesus came at great cost. And because of that cost, much is demanded of us.
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