Epiphany (January 4, 1998)

Theme: Jesus is the Way But Many Pointers Lead to Jesus

1st -- Isaiah 60:1-6

2nd --Ephesians 3:2-3,5-6

Gospel -- Matthew 2:1-12

Today we celebrate the Epiphany. Epiphany means manifestation -- the manifestation of the divinity of Jesus to the Magi. Next Sunday we shall read of the manifestation of the divinity of Jesus at his baptism, and the following Sunday we shall read of the manifestation of Jesus' divinity at the marriage feast in Cana

Who are the Magi? Even though we are used to the Christmas carol "We three kings of Orient are" we must observe that the Gospel narrative does not tell us that they are kings or that they are three. Western tradition says that they are three because they brought three gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. The same tradition even gives us their names as Caspar, Melchior and Beltasar. But the Eastern tradition followed by the Greeks and the Russians hold that they were twelve kings corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles. The idea that they were kings came from association with today's responsorial psalm (72/73) which says: "May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute,/ may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts./ May all kings fall down before him,/ all nations give him service." But actually the word magi (sing. magus) means something like "astrologers". The men were not kings involved in the art of politics, they were more probably "Zoroastrians" involved in the religious art of scrutinizing the heavens and the stars in order to decipher the mind of God who created these things. It was a kind of natural religion as opposed to the revealed religion as practiced by the Jews.

Today we are aware that Christians constitute only a minority of earth's inhabitants. Many people in the world are Zoroastrians, Confucians, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, animists, atheists, etc. What should be our attitude to people like these in light of what Our Lord said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me." My quick answer to that is: Jesus is the only way to the Father, but there are many pointers to Jesus. This, for me is the lesson of today's gospel story.

In the stories of the birth of Jesus, it is interesting to observe how different groups of people came to know about Jesus. The shepherds came to know about Jesus through a heavenly vision of angels, the magi came to know about him through a reading of the movement of the stars, and King Herod's chief priest and scribes came to know through searching the scriptures. Visions, stars, scriptures -- different pointers to the same Jesus. Of these different ways, however, it would be wrong to say that one is as good as the other. Notice that when the guiding star got to Jerusalem it's light failed and they had to consult the scriptures to direct them to Bethlehem. We see that the natural light of the star needed the supernatural light of scriptural revelation to complement it.

Yet the crucial question in the story is: who actually got to find Jesus, God made man? Herod and his chief priests and scribes who had the scriptures failed to find Jesus but the magi who had no revealed scriptures but relied only on the natural light of the stars were able to find Jesus. Why? Because the Jewish authorities, even though they possessed the shining truth of revealed scriptures, did not follow it, they did not act upon it, whereas the magi who enjoyed only a star light followed its guidance and so were brought to Jesus. It is not the possession of all the truth that matters, it is not the possession of the fullness of truth that saves us; what matters is how prepared we are to follow the truth that we have, even if is only partial, how committed we are to act and live according to the degree of truth that we have. The truth that we possess, no matter how dim it is, if we follow it, will lead us ultimately to Jesus, the fullness of the truth.

The Christian religion, probably more than any other religious tradition in the world, can lay claim to possessing the highest order of truth. But what does that benefit us if we do not walk in it? Animists or atheist who are sincerely committed to following the dim light of natural reason may arrive at Jesus before Christians who have access to all the exalted truths revealed by the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ but who do not commit themselves to these truths with sincerity and earnestness of purpose.

On a more personal level, God has given each and every one of us, two means of knowing the truth, namely, reason and revelation. The feast of Epiphany today reminds us that the natural light of reason can lead us to God. But like the guiding star of the Magi, reason needs to be complemented by divine revelation as found in the scriptures and the teachings of the church. But more important than anything, if we make a daily effort to walk in the light of the truth that we possess, this will lead us to the fullness of truth, to the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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