Matthew’s desire to illuminate Jesus’ likely obscure birth has him pen a story of Magi visiting the manger. The Magi serve as a counter-balance to Herod. The Magi are wise, Herod foolish. The Magi are honest, Herod deceptive. The Magi bring gifts to welcome a birth, Herod devises a plot to carry out a murder. Being wise and honest the Magi discern the malevolence of Herod and the significance of a newborn babe.
Herod’s malevolence likely comes through whatever courtesies he offers the Magi. His malevolence is based in fear. Herod fears being eclipsed. However, it is Herod’s own disposition toward death that operates as the eclipsing factor of his life. Those intent upon death carry a darkness about them, a gloom, making them blind to life. The Magi are clearly about welcoming life, recognized via a star. Unlike Herod, the Magi do not live with a fear of being eclipsed but a hope of being so. They hope for that which is brighter, clearer, fresher. This hope grows in us from when we are young. Earliest on we are filled, appropriately so, with the radiance flowing out of the bright new star that we are. Soon, we learn to hope for, seek, and find radiance with others. We experience our selves within a constellation of stars and we burn bright, hopefully for years. In time, we begin to notice lights that are dimming and do what we can to affirm brilliance. So too we begin to notice our own light dimming. If we are wise, like the Magi, we will give our remaining light to bless those new stars just beginning to shine. In so doing we will live in and for a radiance that cannot be eclipsed. It is the radiance of the Christ child being born again and again and again. As we bless each new child there is healing and joy for our lives. And thus the Christ child is born again in us.
The wise ones upon “entering the house found the child with Mary his mother.” “So now there are two. And they walk together like a dream under the trees … at the edge of a field thick with pink and yellow flowers. I meet them. I can only stare. … Her child leaps among the flowers, the blue of the sky falls over me like silk, the flowers burn, and I want to live my life all over again.” (A Meeting – Mary Oliver)
Prayer: Source of All, we are as a child, joyful, surprising, and radiant for the world.
Question: What are my radiant gifts I can place at the feet of those who will eclipse me?
January 3, 2016 Gospel Matthew 2:1-12 Epiphany