On the Magi

From Pope Benedict's book

Matthew tells us that when the Magi "saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy."

The pope comments, "It is the joy of one whose heart has received a ray of God's light and who can now see that his hope has been realized-the joy of one who has found what he sought, and has himself been found."

How do we receive that light in our own life?  How do we allow that same attitude of rejoicing be contagious in our lives and relationships with others?

Matthew continues, "Going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him."

The pope continues, "The wise men do a proskynesis before the royal child, that is to say they throw themselves onto the ground before him.  This is the homage offered to a divine king..."

When have we truly did homage to Christ in our life?  Many of us offer lip service but when have we really humbled ourselves in true submission, letting God have his way with us and ultimately dictating the way we shall go in life?  We know the Magi departed by another way; what about us?

Are we more enthralled with the star then the one who the star points toward?

As the pope directs us, "The story of the wise men's star makes a similar point: it is not the star that determines the child's destiny but it is the child that directs the star."

Do we and are we willingly to be directed?  Are we willingly to let our destiny to be shaped by Him whose manger becomes the cross upon which he shows us what love looks like?


"The gifts represent three aspects of the mystery of Christ: gold points to Jesus' kingship, the incense to his divine sonship, the myrrh to the mystery of his passion...through the myrrh the mystery of the cross is once again associated with Jesus kingship and mysteriously proclaimed in the worship offered by the wise men.  Anointing (with Myrrh) is an attempt to resist death, which only becomes definitive with decomposition.  By the time the women came to the tomb to anoint the body on Easter morning-Jesus had already been risen.  He no longer needed myrrh as a protection against death, because God's life itself had overcome death."

Myrrh is the only gift that is not needed.  This is important for us to remember as we all in our own way face death.  We no longer need to put up a resistance to death for in Christ death is no longer what it use to be.  The one who is born for us is for us life.