The great British
educator, Sir Ken Robinson, tells the story of three little boys, five and six
year olds, who played the role of the three King’s at their Kindergarten
Nativity Play[1]. They
came marching in before the manger with paper hats and each carrying on box. The
first boy laid his box before the baby Jesus and announced, “I have brought you
gold.” The second laid his box down and
announced, “I have brought you myrrh.” Now the third boy came down with sudden
stage fright, but he plowed through it, remembered he had to put his box down
but forgot his line. So he announced,
“Frank sent this.”[2]
There are very
many Epiphany stories revolving around the three Kings and their mission to
seek, worship and give gifts to the King of Kings. I enjoy telling Henry Van
Dyke’s story about the Fourth Wise Man, O
Henry’s, The Gift of the Magi[3],
and G. K. Chesterton’s story about the Modern Wise Men
These and many
other Epiphany stories are wonderful, but they concern mostly the gift aspect
of the gospel. There is message that is fundamental to the Epiphany that we
might not reflect on as thoroughly as we should. We hear this message in
today’s second reading. The message is a message of mystery. St. Paul speaks about a great mystery that
has been revealed. The mystery is simply this: the Gentiles are coheirs with the Jews, members of the same body, and
copartners of the promise of Christ in the gospel[4].
The wise men came from the East. They
were pagan astrologers called to the manger, called to faith. Their journey is
our journey, the journey of people throughout the world and throughout history
being called to the manger, being called to faith. The Epiphany is the
celebration of our being included in the Mystery of Jesus Christ; not just
included, more than included. It is the celebration of our being equal to the
very people chosen to be the physical ancestors of the human nature of our
Lord.
This was
certainly difficult for the Jewish people of the first century to understand. They
normally referred to those who were not Jews, the Gentiles, as dogs. It was
mind boggling for them to think that God would consider the Gentiles their
equals. The Jews were the chosen people. Would God include others in His Plan
for their salvation? Yes! The Epiphany tells us, this was always God’s plan. He
never intended to be the God for only one portion of mankind. Even more, all
people would be co-heirs of the Grace of Christ.
It was difficult
for Jewish Christians to buy into the message of the Epiphany. It is also
difficult for many of us. We tend to see life through our own limited frames of
reference.
When we envision
the birth of the Lord, we tend to see him in the viewpoint of our own frame of
reference. Therefore, most of the pictures of Mary and Jesus are of a fair
skinned girl and a bouncing, blue eyed baby. But Jesus and Mary were not
Europeans, not even Italian, as hard as that is to believe. Mary and Jesus were
Semitic, people of that area of the world where the three races merge. I often
think that God placed the Chosen people there as a message that all the people
he created was to be the Chosen people.
Sadly, this is a
message that is still secret. There is a certain arrogance that many Catholics
have that is evident when they look down on people who are not from their
culture. The Epiphany tells us that African Catholics are as Catholic as Asian
Catholics and all Catholics. It also
tells our brothers and sisters across the ocean that American Catholics are as
Catholic as European Catholics.
We Catholics do
not have the right to assume a spiritual superiority over any members of our
faith whose background may be different than ours, or whose history in the
Church might be shorter than ours. I am very pleased with the way that the
members of the parish receive those who come into the faith on Easter trough
the RCIA program. You understand that once a person has professed the faith,
that person is an equal in the faith. We
need to apply this same way of thinking to those from different continents. We
have to recognize that whether the faith is relatively new to an area, or has
been there for over fifteen hundred years, we are all one body, equal before
the Lord.
The word Epiphany means a showing or manifestation
of the Lord. He was first shown to the
wise men, astrologers whose faith guided them to Bethlehem. We need to show Him to all people seeking the
spiritual body where they can be one with God ■
[1] Sir Kenneth Robinson (born 4
March 1950) is an English author, speaker, and international advisor on
education in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies.
He was Director of The Arts in Schools Project (1985–89), Professor of Arts
Education at the University of Warwick (1989–2001), and was knighted in 2003
for services to education. Originally from a working-class Liverpool family,
Robinson now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Marie-Therese and children
James and Kate.
[2] Solemnity of the Epiphany of the
Lord, January 5, 2014. Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6; Responsorial Psalm: 72:1-2,
7-8, 10-11, 12-13; Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12.
[3] The Gift of the Magi is a short story, written by O. Henry (a pen
name for William Sydney Porter), about a young married couple and how they deal
with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very
little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it
has been a popular one for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas
time. The plot and its "twist ending" are well-known, and the ending
is generally considered an example of cosmic irony. It was allegedly written at
Pete's Tavern on Irving Place in New York City. The story was initially published
in The New York Sunday World under
the title Gifts of the Magi on
December 10, 1905. It was first published in book form in the O. Henry Anthology The Four Million in
April 1906.
[4] Ephesians 3:6.
