Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Our Lady Star of the New
Evangelization, Saint Joseph, Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, our
patron saints and guardian angels, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit. Well, today on this, the Solemnity of the Epiphany, which normally
would be the 12th day of Christmas, because January 6th is the traditional
day of celebrating Epiphany, but the church
has moved it to this Sunday. But Epiphany, as we know, is from the Greek
Epiphania, which means manifestation. In this case, it's a
manifestation of a divine being. It's a revelation, you might say. Any
Epiphany is a manifestation of the divine. And that's why, if you have the
opportunity to celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours or the Divine Office,
you'll know that in the, both the Canticle of Zechariah and the Canticle or
the Magnificat of Our Lady in the Vespers, they make a connection between
this celebration today of the three kings coming to our Lord to pay Him
divine homage, and the wedding feast at Cana, and our Lord's baptism in the
Jordan. They tie all those three mysteries together because
they're all epiphanies, they're all manifestations of the divine.
Of course, we know that the three kings were not just coming to pay homage to a great earthly king,
they were paying homage to the Lord.
They had been given the gift of faith to recognize in Jesus, this little babe, the king of all kings,
and that they paid him homage and presented him with the gifts, as we know,
that later on would have prophetic significance, of course, of gold, meaning that he was a king,
myrrh, that he would be a sacrifice for sinners, and frankincense, because of being a deity.
So all these three gifts that they bring, you know, are also important for us to,
remember that we are to bear gifts when we come to God.
But getting back to the three kings, you know, some people today, there's a lot of, you know,
the modernist bent in many of the church circles is that they doubt everything in the scriptures.
They think, they don't know anything about anything, you know.
When you ask some scripture scholars, all you can figure out is after you talk to them,
they're confused, more than confused than you are, and that they doubt everything about
whether this is historically true or this or that.
Well, we know that the church does celebrate this mystery because it did take place.
We know that there are three kings, because it says in the Psalms,
kings of Tarshish shall come.
And now, where's Tarshish?
If you look in, the scholars are not sure exactly, but some say it's some islands off,
the coast of what is present-day Spain and the Mediterranean.
And then it says, gold of Sheba and Seba shall be given to him.
Where's Sheba?
Well, they say it's somewhere on the southern Arabian Peninsula.
Some think that it may be even in the southern part of India is where that is located.
So, it seems that it's interesting because these two, Tarshish, Sheba, and Seba,
in the time of our Lord, those are,
Tarshish is about as far west as they thought the world was.
It's like the known world at his time, as far west as you could go.
And Sheba and Seba was about as far east as they knew that the world was,
as far as they had explored or knew the known world to the contemporaries of Mary and Joseph at that time.
So, it's like from the ends of the earth, you might say,
these kings, these representatives of the Gentiles came to pay their homage,
to our Lord.
And we know that the significance of that is that Matthew records this in his gospel of the kings,
these pagan kings or representatives of pagan kings.
If these three wise men were not kings themselves,
they were at least ambassadors of some great royalty of their day.
And they come, and Matthew's gospel is written for the Jews.
Who were the converts to Christianity.
And he was trying to evangelize the Jews to point out.
And so it's interesting that he should put this in his gospel,
because it's something that would kind of strike the Jew as,
what are these pagans doing here?
Why should they be coming to God?
Because he wanted to make clear to them that the Messiah was not just for the Jews.
That the Messiah was meant that our Lord came for all men.
That the Messiah was meant that our Lord came for all men.
That the Messiah was meant that our Lord came for all men.
For all nations.
He's to be a light to all the nations, not just to the Jews.
And so he's trying to break them out of that closed mindset that so many Jews had,
thinking that, you know, the Messiah was for the Jews alone.
And just showing to them that even already in the Old Testament,
bringing about these passages of the Old Testament,
already it was hinted to the fact that the Messiah was meant for all peoples.
And so these,
he's already, shortly after our Lord's birth,
he's indicating to the world that the whole world,
the whole known world at that time,
the humble people of the known world,
even of the Gentiles,
came to present their homage to the Lord.
Now, were these three wise men,
you know, they were not into astrology,
but they did in some way study the stars.
Some say that they were rather sophisticated astronomers,
in the sense that they looked at the stars,
and as it says in the scriptures,
the heavens and the earth proclaim your glory, O Lord.
That somehow in their reading of the stars,
as we know the constellations have different names,
and it has been a long time that men have looked at the stars
and given those different constellations names,
that somehow in the heavens maybe God was indicating them,
as he indicated through,
but other pagan philosophers,
you know, there was a civil in Rome who gave a prophecy
that there would be a great,
that the true God would have a sacrifice offered to him
on an altar in Rome,
long before our Lord's coming,
this pagan prophetess gave this prophecy in Rome.
So it's not unlike that God would also use these natural means
that these pagan philosophers,
or pagan astronomers were looking at the stars,
and God was evangelizing them,
and he manifested them to them especially with this star,
that there was something unlike anything else taking place at that time.
Now you will hear sometimes people say,
well this was just a natural occurrence,
but the fathers of the church said that this star
was a supernatural miraculous star,
that these philosophers,
these,
these pagan kings or representatives of kings,
the magi were following,
that it indicated to them in some way
that they needed to follow this star
because it was unlike any other star.
The fathers of the church said it was a miraculous star,
and I think that we should hold that it wasn't just,
you know, a natural occurrence.
Obviously, maybe in their study of the stars they were given,
you know, further credence to that this star,
they must follow it,
but God used whatever means he wanted to
to bring these representatives of the pagan lands to our Lord.
That's the important key to understand.
God can even use these natural means
to evangelize these people,
to bring them to the point where they,
have to make an act of faith.
We know that philosophy is a hand made of theology.
You know, philosophy can only point to the fact
that God exists in certain things,
but at a certain point you have to make an act of faith
in revelation from God,
and that,
you know, it's an act of faith,
and it's a divine gift.
So that these three kings, three magi,
came and saw and believed.
When they left Bethlehem,
they didn't go back as pagans.
They left with belief in the true God.
They were given the gift of faith,
and that's why we celebrate them in the church as saints.
Their relics, when Pope Benedict went to
World Youth Day in Munich,
he stopped at the cathedral in Cologne, Germany,
where their relics are kept.
And tradition has it,
that their names were Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.
Now, tradition has some weight.
You know, it's not like just, you know,
pious little stories,
that the tradition of the church,
the church, the Holy Spirit was there.
The Holy Spirit is what animates the church.
The Holy Spirit is the memory of the church.
If all the sacred scripture were destroyed,
the church could rewrite it,
because the Holy Spirit is the memory of the church.
And the Holy Spirit was there,
and in the tradition of the church,
and a capital T has left us,
that these three men are saints,
that they came and left Bethlehem as believers.
What, all the rest of their lives,
I don't know all the whole story,
but I'm sure if you go and look into
the tradition of the church,
you can come to some knowledge about who they were,
and how they ended up in Germany, their relics.
But, what we need to keep in mind, is that, you know,
what we need to keep in mind is that they are saints.
The church celebrates them as saints.
And the other thing we need to keep in mind is,
what is the significance of epiphany for us today?
Well, God has given us,
just like he has given to those men of our Lord's
first epiphany, has given us a means to find God
in our world.
He's given us a star far greater than that star that they had
or that he had.
Supernatural star as well, and that is the church.
The church is the light to the nations today.
It's that star that leads people to God.
And if those who do not believe,
or do not have faith yet,
look to the church, look to its holiness,
look to it for its supernatural marks.
That is one holy, Catholic, and apostolic.
Then it has the different means to give him,
people to Christ, that it is the star that is in our world today leading all peoples to Christ,
and that is a great gift that we have in our world today is the church. It is that star,
and it is also Our Lady who, as Pope John Paul II, blessed Pope John Paul II, said Our Lady is
the star of the new evangelization because she is the mediatrix of all graces, and as Saint
Maximilian Kolbe has said, and saints in long tradition since, that if someone wants to arrive
at faith in Christ, that grace is mediated to them through the hands of Our Lady, that she wants to
lead all people to her son. She is that great sign, the virgin who will conceive and bear a son.
Somehow, when those three kings went into that little house at Bethlehem, they were given the
grace to believe.
They were given divine faith. They recognized in the mother a holiness that they had never seen
in any human being, and they recognized in the child that he was not just a little baby,
but also the son of God. These great mysteries that we celebrate today,
God manifests himself to us, just as he manifested himself at the baptism in the Jordan.
How do we know? God told.
John the Baptist, through a voice, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to
him, and by manifesting, he saw the Holy Spirit come down on our Lord as a dove to symbolize,
to reveal, to give us, because if God doesn't reveal it, we won't understand it. He has to
give us the means to believe, and our Lord manifested himself at the Jordan to John the Baptist and to
those who believe.
Who the grace was given to. And at the wedding feast of Cana, we know that our Lord worked a
miracle for the sake of the wedding guest and for the sake of his apostles. Most importantly,
the first foundation of his church. He worked that miracle at the behest of our lady. There we see
the star of the new evangelization. There we see her saying, son, they have no wine. And he works
that miracle.
And they come to believe.
These are all these manifestations. When we come to church, you might say in the mass, we have all
these mysteries all tied together. We have the baptism. We have the epiphany. We have the wedding
feast of Cana, all presented to us in one little concise moment at mass. And you might say that the
first offertory procession ever given to Jesus.
Was given by the three kings. They came and presented their gifts. But most importantly,
they gave themselves to Christ. That's the most important gift that he wants.
And so when we come to mass, and we make our little offertory, we should realize that that is our gift to Christ.
But that gift should be more important. It should be us that we offer to him. And of course, we know that just
like those three kings, those three wise men, that they got more than they gave.
And we ought to give up that gift so that Jesus has the right to serve them. Because he'sisches it.
And Jesus is the reason for the season is because he is the greatest gift that he's been given
to us. And we, like three kings, should present ourselves with a heißt of the mercy that was taken
it. Because our Lord is the requested and most Sozial king. That what, following Christ,
ourselves to him. And then when we
go home, we should be little epiphanies
wherever we go, manifesting
God to others. That's the most important
thing. We should be lights to the nation. Not just
the church is a star. Not just our lady
is the star. But each and every one of us has been called
to be a star, to be a light to others,
to enlighten them, to lead them to Christ.
That is our vocation. And what
a great gift we have in using such
poor instruments that God can use us
if we cooperate to be manifestations
of the divine of Christ to others. I remember that
Mother
Angelica always said to her sisters,
she said, you may be the only Jesus your neighbor may ever
meet. Hopefully that we live up to that.
That they see Christ in us. Let us ask our
lady in a special way that we will cooperate.
That she will lead us deeper and deeper into
a relationship with Christ. Like the three kings
that we present ourselves to him.
That we have therefore been grasped by Christ.
That we take hold of him and he takes hold of us.
And that we truly will be instruments,
little mediators and mediatrixes
to bring others to Christ. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit.
Amen.
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