The Christmas Mysteries
St. Peter Chrysologus was the bishop of Ravenna (Italy) in the 5th Century.
His name means "he of the golden words" and he is sometime called the "doctor of homilies" because he was so eloquent in his preaching.
Here's a beautiful rich homily that ties together all of the Christmas mysteries: the nativity (birth of Our Lord), the baptism of Jesus by St. John in the Jordan, the magi coming with their gifts, Jesus changing water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana, and the holy Mass which brings the miracle of Christmas to every altar in every Catholic church. All in just a page of two! There's a lot to meditate on and unpack in here.
Interestingly, in the Roman rite (the one we celebrate) all of these mysteries are observed in the Christmas season liturgies except the wedding feast at Cana. Eastern Catholics work that into Christmas too.
This would be good for your prayer this Wednesday, January 6th, the feast of Epiphany. (Some U.S. dioceses including ours move Epiphany up to Sunday)
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Homily – January 3, 2021 – Solemnity of Epiphany
(liturgical) – Year B
At Mass today we anticipate the celebration of
Epiphany on January 6th, or “12th Night” as it was
sometimes called. You know the song, the “12 Days of Christmas”
– that’s the idea, the 12 days between the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus
to the coming of the magi – the wise men from the east - to adore him. But instead of a kind of a goofy but fun song
about lords a-leaping’ and maids a-milkin’, on Epiphany, we remember something
much more serious – much more essential to our life as followers of Jesus
Christ.
We celebrate our response to the nativity – the
birth in time of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Who became a man like us,
born of the womb of the Bl. Virgin Mary.
In other words, on Christmas Day, we pause to be awed by the miracle and
the glory of the Word becoming flesh.
But by the time we get to Epiphany, we have had some time to reflect on
that and figure out what we should do now.
Or, to put it most simply, Christ was born, now what? Just as the wise men from the east made a
physical journey to respond to the birth of Christ --we have decisions to
make. We take a ‘journey of the heart’ –
to figure out how to follow the Lord.
This short little vignette from St. Matthew’s Gospel
gives us a blueprint and a pattern.
Every part of the story tells us something important for our spiritual
life.
We start with the star itself. There are lots of theories and speculation
about just who these magi – these wise men – are, who follow that star. Many scholars think that they may have been
Chaldean or Persian astrologers. Men who
not only studied the stars – like our modern-day astronomers – but who actually
worshipped them – thought that the stars were gods themselves. Part of their journey is the realization that
it is not nature that they are built to worship – however splendid it might be
– but instead the Creator of the stars of night – of all of the material
world. We can imagine how astonished
they are when they see the tiny little infant face of the Christ child, and
realize that He is in fact the creator of the earth and the
heavens. But they recognize this
instantly, because they have faith and their hearts remain open.
So should it be for us. We should not fix our gaze primarily on the
material world – the beauty of nature, nice homes and so on. They are really just signs and pointers of
something far greater, far more beautiful, that the God Who descended from
Heaven holds out to those who are willing to follow Him and truly Worship Him. Our Heavenly Home with the Trinity.
There’s something else we have to imitate in the wise
men, in their gift of faith. Some
scholars say the star itself is a symbol of faith, because just as a star
brings light to the night sky, so faith brings light to our mind and soul. The faith of these magi is not just a “gut
feeling.” It is something far
deeper. It is something that drives
them to follow the Lord. To take
extraordinary risks. To leave everything
else behind. To enquire and ask and seek
and consult and to pray.
Again, some scholars think that they may have traveled
as long as two years. Even with
dromedaries and swift Arabian horses to speed their journy, traveling hundreds
and hundreds of miles, hardly even stopping to eat or drink.
They are willing to have their assumptions challenged and
do anything necessary to get to the truth. We see that because they naturally assume
they are being led to Jerusalem, the royal city when the star points that way –
because they are expecting a grand and royal king. But they listen to the chief priests and
scribes – those who are more learned than they in the way of faith – who
explain to them the Scriptures and the ancient prophecies, revealing that the
Divine Child will be born not in Jerusalem, but the little, poor,
out-of-the-way town of Bethlehem.
Remember, they were pagans and did not know the Jewish Scriptures.
That’s a lesson in faith for us as well. In our life of faith, we should never be
content to just stop with what we learned about the faith back in 8th
grade and think that’s enough, that we know everything we need to know about
how to get to Heaven. We shouldn’t be
that proud. We should continue to read
the Bible, study the Scriptures, take advantage of parish Bible studies, ask
the priests when we have questions about the faith, and so on. We should have a zeal and desire to know
more and more about Jesus Christ, and make it a priority in our life to do
that, no matter how old we are.
And once we start out, we continue to ask the Lord for
a faith that continues to take risks, that does not fear. That’s something we can easily miss in the
story. The magi are looking for a
king. They know full well that if they
acknowledge another king besides Herod – so bent on his own power – that
they are putting themselves at great risk.
But they do it anyway. The wicked
Herod – really, a figure of the devil Himself – tries to bribe them, flatter
them, and more. He wants them to do his
dirty work for them, to get rid of this child.
But nothing works. So he goes one
step further: he tries outright trickery and deceit, trying to worm out of them
the time and place of the birth of the Christ, supposedly so he can accompany
them to worship Him, too. As I said, Herod
in a way represents the Devil, who is the Father of Lies, the one who tries to
get us to worship himself instead of Christ.
But the Magi see through this ruse, they don’t fall
for this. They leave without him.
What does that tell us? A lot.
It tells us that there will be always be those who try to deceive us
with a false faith. For example, we will
soon likely have a President-elect who claims to be a practicing Catholic but has
publicly committed and promised to use the power of government to destroy the
life of innocent children in the womb.
We should never fall for that kind of pretense of faith, that kind of
deceit. For Christians, who believe that
Christ sanctified human life at every stage from conception onward, because He
Himself was a developing infant in the womb from the moment of the
Annunciation, this is an unspeakably perverse distortion of the faith. But it
tells us something even deeper: Herod had
too narrow a vision. He was focused on
his little kingdom of Judea, terrified that this newborn King would be a
contender to his throne there. But the
reality is that Christ would rule everywhere, that He is the King of the
Universe and King of Kings, and there was nothing Herod could do to change that
fact.
So that should remind us that we should not become
overly concerned about politics and worldly power, even though we remain
engaged as necessary. Because whatever
happens with the kings of this world, our God reigns over all, even allowing
evil to occur if it brings people closer to Our Father in Heaven.
When they finally arrived in Bethlehem, the wise men
from the East knew instantly what they were called to do. Because they were willing to follow the light
of Christ, they were able to see something few others were able to see. To most observers, who made no effort to
follow the light of faith, they would have seen just a poor peasant woman, with
a little child dressed in rags, in a stable not truly fit for human
habitation. A pitiable sight. But the wise men saw more. Much more. They see shining through the beautiful face
of this poor child the astonishing humility of the God-made-man.
They instinctively prostrate – bow down low before the
child, in a humble posture of love and adoration. And they begin to see why the Lord inspired
them to bring their particular gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh –
expensive treasures, to be sure, but ones fraught with meaning. Gold as a sign that Jesus is King of Kings; incense
as a sign that they want to sacrifice their lives to God Himself, present
before them; and myrrh in recognition that He will die to save us all and open
the gates of Heaven. Because He was born
to die on the Cross.
We are called to do much the same, every time we come
to the holy sacrifice of the Mass. To an
outside observer, what we do here might not look like much. A simple altar table, some bread, some wine, maybe
100 people gathered. But with the eyes
of faith, we see more. Much more. We see the ultimate truth. The ultimate reality. Truth in the flesh.
Because the moment the consecration is completed, I
will lay on this altar the sacred Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the newborn
King. The same Jesus, under sacramental
form, that the Blessed Virgin Mary laid in the manger. As will every priest in every Catholic Church
around the globe. We the Church of Christ pause to worship, to prostrate
ourselves, to adore.
And like the Magi, return, once we have seen and even
received the Christ, we are called to center our lives around that worship, no
matter who tries to stop us or lie to us or punish us or get in the way. Once the Truth has been revealed, we can only
follow Him.