Jan 5, 2020
Post date: Jan 07, 2020 5:28:24 PM
January 5, 2020 Homily by Fr. Karl Schray
The Magi had a 4th gift—its pictured as a star but actually it was their faith.
Their faith was a greater gift than the other 3 gifts they placed
before the Christ Child. You and I have been given a gift of faith.
But we must not take faith for granted.
We must grow it by prayer and by learning.
Without prayer, faith becomes just an idea, an abstraction.
Without reading and learning, false thinking and loose morals
ridicule the truth and push faith out of our hearts.
Take a hard look at what you do and don’t do.
Make the needed adjustments.
You won’t stumble on Jesus’ manger by accident—the Magi didn’t.
It was God’s light and their faith that brought them there.
The Magi were the first Christian pilgrims. A pilgrimage is a journey
to a sacred place that is important to one’s belief and faith.
It involves traveling from one place to another, generally of some
distance, over a period of time. This distance and time give the pilgrim
an opportunity for prayer and reflection. (Linda and I have organized
a pilgrimage to Rome, Assisi, and many other shrines of central Italy.)
Joseph and Mary took Jesus on pilgrimage to Jerusalem many times.
We Catholics call ourselves a ‘pilgrim church’, journeying at times slowly
and at other times stumbling, towards the heavenly Jerusalem.
Every human existence is a journey from birth to death and beyond.
As it was for the Magi, every personal pilgrimage should be a time of quest
and purification that ends, as it did for them, in a revelation. We learn from this epiphany that Jesus came for the salvation of all peoples.
The Magi were the representatives of all non-Jewish peoples.
In the Middle ages, the statues of the Wise men were colored to depict the Negro, Caucasian and Asian peoples. St. Paul tells us that God
has revealed to his apostles that the Gentiles are co-heirs with the Jews,
God’s Chosen People. They are members of the same body,
and co-partners in the promise of Christ Jesus.
Henry Van Dyke tells an imaginative story about a fourth wise man. His
name was Artaban. He had planned to travel along with his fellow kings.
However, he delayed assisting a woman who was dying. So, he missed the march west.
For gifts, he carried a precious sapphire, a rare ruby, and
an exquisite strand of pearls.
He chose to give up his sapphire to help a starving family.
When finally, he found the stable, it was deserted.
Mary and Joseph had taken the Child and escaped into Egypt.
Artaban gave the ruby to secure the life of a baby destined to be murdered
by Herod’s soldiers.
His search for the King of Kings continued for 33 long years.
When he learned of the events on Calvary, he rushed there
hoping to ransom Jesus with the priceless pearls.
But on the way, he met a man about to be sold into slavery.
To the slave owner, Artaban gave his pearls as ransom. At that moment,
the earth quaked. He was critically wounded by falling debris.
He thought he had failed to find his King.
Yet in a sense he always had his King.
All those years, he had carried him in his mind and heart.
The King had inspired in him deeds of love and generosity.
The person who is genuinely searching for God has already found him.
Artaban is a model of faith. Those
who believe in and love Jesus are changed; they act and live differently.
The same spirit that prompted Artaban to help the dying woman,
the family, the infant and the slave should also motivate us to step out
of our comfort zones and open our hearts to do similar things.
Then like Artaban, we will hear Jesus say to us,
“Because you did it for one of these, you did it for me.”