The Epiphany: What gift do I bring?

A journey of discovery

Setting out on a journey can be arduous or exciting or just necessary. A morning commute and an evening drive home through city traffic is tiring. However, boarding a flight with a bulky backpack destined to Australia for adventure or to Nepal to climb to Mount Everest Basecamp can be an exhilarating prospect. Journeys can change us. Pope Francis reflects: ‘There is always something new about those who have made a journey: they have learned new things, encountered new people and situations, and found inner strength amid the hardships and risks they met along the way’ (Homily on the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, 6 January 2021). The wise men set out on a journey from the East towards Bethlehem when they discover the star. These men, the Magi, were possible astronomers or philosophers who studied nature and the world around them for purpose and meaning in their lives. They were searchers, truth-seekers.

The journey to Bethlehem

Pope Benedict XVI teaches: ‘The Magi set out because of a deep desire which prompted them to leave everything and begin a journey. It was as though they had always been waiting for that star. It was as if the journey had always been a part of their destiny….’ (Address to Seminarians, World Youth Day, 19 August 2005). We are reminded of our own journey through life, seeking identity, meaning and purpose through our work, our lifestyle, our friendships and our relationships, exploring various avenues. Before their journey to Bethlehem, how many times had the wise men embarked on other quests for truth only to end up in a cul-de-sac, a dead end? When the Magi came to Bethlehem, ‘going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him’ (Mt. 2:11). Here at last was the long-awaited moment, the culmination of their journey, their destination: their encounter with Jesus.

Worship: The exodus from the self to God

Pope Benedict XVI can guide us in our reflection and meditation on the scene of the Epiphany: “Going into the house’: this house in some sense represents the Church. In order to find the Saviour, one has to enter the house, which is the Church’ (Address to Seminarians, World Youth Day, 19 August 2005). Like a family home, the Church is called to be that place of welcome, belonging and encounter. For those discerning a vocation to priesthood, this journey of discernment and formation guides them through the Church to Christ, where ‘his mother Mary dwells’. Within the life of the Church, the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, listening to the Word of God, and devotion to Mary cultivate and nurture a vocation to the priestly life. The wise men pay homage to the Christ-Child. We are also called to adore the Lord, to worship him. Pope Francis explains how worship offers us freedom to place God at the centre of our lives: ‘If we can fall on our knees before Jesus, we will overcome the temptation to set off on our own path. For worship involves making an exodus from the greatest form of bondage: slavery to oneself’ (Homily on the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, 6 January 2020). Mary, cradling the child Jesus during the visit of the Magi, can teach us, particularly seminarians and those in discernment: ‘… she introduces him and in a sense enables him to see and touch Jesus, and to take him into his arms. Mary teaches the seminarian to contemplate Jesus with eyes of the heart and make Jesus his very life’ (Address to Seminarians, World Youth Day, 19 August 2005). God willing, the seminarian, one day, will touch Jesus in the Eucharist at the altar and give him to the faithful as a deacon and priest.

Encounter becomes adoration

Pope Benedict XVI continues: ‘They fell down and worshipped…and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh” (Mt. 2:11-12) … encounter becomes adoration; it blossoms into an act of faith and love’ (Address to Seminarians, World Youth Day, 19 August 2005). Pope John Paul II in his Message for the World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005 identifies symbolism in these three gifts:  ‘My dear young people, you too offer to the Lord the gold of your lives, namely, your freedom to follow Him out of love, responding faithfully to His call; let the incense of your fervent prayer rise up to him, in praise of His glory; offer Him your myrrh, that is your affection of total gratitude to Him, true Man, who loved us to the point of dying …’ Further reflection on these three gifts can help us in discovering what we are called to offer Jesus and what will free our hearts to respond generously to his call.

Gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh

The gold is a symbol of royalty, the gift given to a king. The Spanish priest, St Josemaría Escrivá, sees in this gift of gold the act of detachment from money and material goods: ‘…the Lord has laid down that we should use them, without allowing our hearts to become too attached to them’ (Christ is Passing By, 35).  These questions arise: What is the gold in my life, that which is precious to me – my time, my freedom, my material wealth? What material goods am I attached to, which hold me back from adoring Christ?

Incense is the gift symbolising worship offered to God. We offer Jesus the perfume which burned in the temple each evening on the altar as a symbol of hope. St Josemaría identifies the incense as ‘our desire to live a noble life which gives off the ‘aroma of Christ’ (2 Cor. 2:15). To impregnate our words and actions with his aroma is to sow understanding and friendship…the pleasant smell of incense comes from some small, hidden grains of aromatic material placed upon the burning charcoal. Likewise, is the sweet fragrance of Christ, noticed among people – not in a sudden burst of flame, but in the constant red-hot embers of virtues such as justice, loyalty, faithfulness, understanding and cheerfulness’ (Christ is Passing By, 36). Another question can be posed to us: Does our prayer life and our living give off the ‘aroma of Christ’?

Myrrh is an ointment used to embalm a body for burial and symbolises human weakness and the need for care and affection. God, through the Incarnation, takes on human weakness and myrrh reminds us of the Passion of the Lord (St Josemaría, Christ is Passing By, 37). On the Cross he is offered wine mingled with myrrh (c.f. Mk. 15:23) and his body is anointed with myrrh at his burial (c.f. Jn. 19:39). Myrrh can be for us the offering of ourselves to Christ, sacrificing ourselves out of love for him. For Pope Francis, myrrh is the ‘balm for the bruised and wounded’, and in offering Christ our affection we ‘promise him that we will aid our marginalized and suffering neighbours…’ (Homily on the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, 6 January 2020). The question is: What do we need to sacrifice in order to unite our lives with the Crucified One?

To return by a different way

Let us return to the narrative of the Epiphany. After paying homage and offering their gifts to the Christ-Child, the Magi ‘departed for their own country’ but they returned by a ‘different way’ (Mt. 2:12). Their encounter with the Messiah has transformed them and so returning home by a different way can symbolise for us the change in lifestyle, the conversion we experience on encountering and adoring Christ. Pope Benedict XVI completes his reflection on the Epiphany: ‘On this homeward journey, the Magi surely had to deal with dangers, weariness, disorientation, and doubts. The star was no longer there to guide them! The light was now within them. Their task was to guard and nourish it in the constant memory of Christ, of his Holy Face, of his ineffable love’.

Conclusion

The journey of discernment can begin within a restless heart, searching for meaning and purpose. However, this journey guided by the light of God draws us into the “house of the Church” where Mary invites us to adore her son, Jesus. In this encounter, we adore him and we are called to offer him gifts – the “gold of our freedom”, the “incense of our prayer and virtue”, the “myrrh of our love and sacrifice”. The discernment for priesthood does not leave us empty or disillusioned but rather offers us an encounter with Christ through which we are changed, we are transformed by his grace and sent back to our families, our friends, our communities and our parishes to spread the joy of the Gospel.  

Rev. Barry White, a deacon of the Diocese of Meath and a student of Canon Law at KU Leuven, Belgium.