Today, we celebrate the feast of Epiphany of
the Lord. The word ‘Epiphany comes from the Greek word ‘epiphania” which means ‘revelation’
or ‘manifestation.’ This day commemorates how Jesus reveals himself to the three
wise men from the west.
Tradition tells us they are three: Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar. Reading
from Isaiah also prophesied the Magi traveling to see the Christ. “Nations will come to your light, and kings
to the brightness of your radiance…. They will carry gold and frankincense and
proclaim the praises of the Lord” (Is 60:3, 6). The Psalms saw a future
with Gentiles worshiping the Messiah. “May
the kings of Tarshish and distant shores bring gifts, and may the kings of
Arabia and Seba bring him tribute. All kings will bow down to him; all nations
will serve him” (Ps 72:10-11). Number 3 attributed due to the number of
gifts which were presented.
The three wise men brought three gifts namely
Frankincense, Gold and myrrh. These gifts reveals who Jesus is respectively. In the Bible, Frankincense was commonly used
as a perfume and it is a symbol of deity. It symbolizes Christ our priest. Gold
were gifts presented to kings at that time. It symbolizes Christ our King.
Myrrh was commonly used as an anointing oil and myrrh is an embalming oil is used as a symbol of
death. It symbolizes Christ our Saviour.
Bee of the sky urges to enjoy the bee. A
thirsty deer seeks to quench its thirst by drinking water. Running lake seeks
to join the ocean. Waves of the ocean rushes to reach the shore. All the above
is the law of nature but human being has only one desire that is beatification.
It is to see God face to face. St. Augustine states “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and
our heart is restless until it rests in you.” True indeed, nothing can quench our
heart’s thirst. It is only possible by a Person who is Jesus alone, so the realised
three magi do homage to Jesus. Three magi realised that no gold, power or
intelligence can quench their hearts thirst, it is only possible by Jesus who
is king, priest and saviour. They are called wise men because they realised the
mystery.
We need to pay attention to the journey of the
maggi. As they started their journey to see the child Jesus face to face, they
faced many obstacles. The king came to deceive them by lying them to inform him
when they find Jesus so that he can also pay homage to baby. Seeing Jesus face
to face helped the three maggi to understand deceive of King Herod.
We too in our tradition, we used to see the
face of Good in photo or relics (daivadarshana) as soon as we getup from the bed. We used to visit church before we go
to do any activities. We used to visit church before starting the day or going
to school and work. At present time, this tradition of seeing the photo of God
or seeing the God face when we wake up has almost disappeared. What is it stopping
us to see the face of God early morning. Is it Cell phone, tv, social media or YouTube?
Remember to be wise and to learn the lesson
that three messi teaches us today: “nothing can quench our heart’s thirst. It is
only possible by a Person who is Jesus alone” and we need to follow new star
who is Jesus himself who can quench our hearts thirst. Only in him we can find
rest, joy, happiness and fulfilment. When leprosy man bows his head and says:“if you wish you can heal me” (Mt8:2),
Jesus heals him. Jew official knelt down in front of Jesus and begs to save his
dead-daughter in (Mt 9:18). Disciples in the boat adored Jesus saying you are
the son of God (Mt 14:33). A woman felt to the foot of Jesus and adored it (Mt
28:9).
Like the maggi, leprocy man, official, disciples
in the boat and woman, let us all bow our head so that we can have that
revelation of Jesus in our life. It will change our life. Until today, whoever
wants to visit birth place of Jesus, everyone has bow his or her head to enter
into place. Let bow our head in front of Jesus and lead our life.
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