Book of Isaiah 60,1-6. Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; But upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears his glory. Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance. Raise your eyes and look about; they all gather and come to you: Your sons come from afar, and your daughters in the arms of their nurses. Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow, For the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you, the wealth of nations shall be brought to you. Caravans of camels shall fill you, dromedaries from Midian and Ephah; All from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.
Psalms 72(71)
O God, with your judgment endow the king, and with your justice, the king's son; He shall govern your people with justice and your afflicted ones with judgment.
Justice shall flower in his days, and profound peace, till the moon be no more. May he rule from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts; the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute. All kings shall pay him homage, all nations shall serve him.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out, And the afflicted when he has no one to help him. He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor; The lives of the poor he shall save.
Letter to the Ephesians 3,2-3a.5-6. Brothers and sisters: You have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for your benefit, (namely, that) the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly earlier. which was not made known to human beings in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 2,1-12. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage." When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet: 'And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.'" Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage." After their audience with the king they set out. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.
The Magi travel towards Bethlehem. Their pilgrimage speaks also to us, who are called to journey towards Jesus, for he is the North Star that lights up the sky of life and guides our steps towards true joy. Yet where did the Magi’s pilgrimage to encounter Jesus begin? What made these men of the East set out on their journey?
They had excellent reasons not to depart. They were wise men and astrologers, famous and wealthy. Having attained sufficient cultural, social and economic security, they could have remained content with what they already knew and possessed. Instead, they let themselves be unsettled by a question and by a sign: “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star…” (Mt 2:2). They did not allow their hearts to retreat into the caves of gloom and apathy; they longed to see the light. They were not content to plod through life, but yearned for new and greater horizons. Their eyes were not fixed here below; they were windows open to the heavens. As Benedict XVI said, the Magi were “men with a restless heart… They were filled with expectation, not satisfied with their secure income and their respectable place in society… They were seekers after God” ( 6 January 2013).
Where did it originate, this spirit of healthy restlessness that led them to set out on their journey? It was born of desire. That was their secret: the capacity to desire. Let us think about this. To desire means to fuel the fire that burns within us; it drives us to look beyond what is immediate and visible. To desire means embracing life as a mystery that surpasses us, as an ever-present cranny in the wall that beckons us to look into the distance, since life is not just our here and now, but something much greater. It is like a blank canvas that cries out for colour. A great painter, Vincent Van Gogh, once said that his need for God drove him to go outside at night to paint the stars. For that is the way God made us: brimming with desire, directed, like the Magi, towards the stars. With no exaggeration, we can say that we are what we desire. For it is our desires that enlarge our gaze and drive our lives forward, beyond the barriers of habit, beyond banal consumerism, beyond a drab and dreary faith, beyond the fear of becoming involved and serving others and the common good. In the words of Saint Augustine, “our entire life is an exercise of holy desire” (Homily on the First Letter of John, IV, 6).
Brothers and sisters, as it was for the Magi, so it is for us. The journey of life and faith demands a deep desire and inner zeal. Sometimes we live in a spirit of a “parking lot”; we stay parked, without the impulse of desire that carries us forward. We do well to ask: where are we on our journey of faith? Have we been stuck all too long, nestled inside a conventional, external and formal religiosity that no longer warms our hearts and changes our lives? Do our words and our liturgies ignite in people’s hearts a desire to move towards God, or are they a “dead language” that speaks only of itself and to itself? It is sad when a community of believers loses its desire and is content with “maintenance” rather than allowing itself to be startled by Jesus and by the explosive and unsettling joy of the Gospel. It is sad when a priest has closed the door of desire, sad to fall into clerical functionalism, very sad.
--->The crisis of faith in our lives and in our societies also has to do with the eclipse of desire for God. It is related to a kind of slumbering of the spirit, to the habit of being content to live from day to day, without ever asking what God really wants from us. We peer over earthly maps, but forget to look up to heaven. We are sated with plenty of things, but fail to hunger for our absent desire for God. We are fixated on our own needs, on what we will eat and wear (cf. Mt 6:25), even as we let the longing for greater things evaporate. And we find ourselves living in communities that crave everything, have everything, yet all too often feel nothing but emptiness in their hearts: closed communities of individuals, bishops, priests or consecrated men and women. Indeed the lack of desire leads only to sadness and indifference, to sad communities, sad priests or bishops. Let us look first to ourselves and ask: How is the journey of my faith going? This is a question that we can ask ourselves today, each one of us. How is the journey of my faith going? Is it parked or is it on the move? Faith, if it is to grow, has to begin ever anew. It needs to be sparked by desire, to take up the challenge of entering into a living and lively relationship with God. Does my heart still burn with desire for God? Or have I allowed force of habit and my own disappointments to extinguish that flame? Today, brothers and sisters, is the day we should ask these questions. Today is the day we should return to nurturing our desire. How do we do this? Let us go to the Magi and learn from their “school of desire”. They will teach us in their school of desire. Let us look at the steps they took, and draw some lessons from them.
In the first place, they set out at the rising of the star. The Magi teach us that we need to set out anew each day, in life as in faith, for faith is not a suit of armour that encases us; instead, it is a fascinating journey, a constant and restless movement, ever in search of God, always discerning our way forward.
Then, in Jerusalem the Magi ask questions: they inquire where the Child is to be found. They teach us that we need to question. We need to listen carefully to the questions of our heart and our conscience, for it is there that God often speaks to us. He addresses us more with questions than with answers. We must learn this well: God addresses us more with questions than with answers. Yet let us also be unsettled by the questions of our children, and by the doubts, hopes and desires of the men and women of our time. We need to entertain questions.
--->The Magi then defy Herod. They teach us that we need a courageous faith, one that is unafraid to challenge the sinister logic of power, and become seeds of justice and fraternity in societies where in our day modern Herods continue to sow death and slaughter the poor and innocent, amid general indifference.
Finally, the Magi return “by another way” (Mt 2:12). They challenge us to take new paths. Here we see the creativity of the Spirit who always brings out new things. That is also one of the tasks of the Synod we are currently undertaking: to journey together and to listen to one another, so that the Spirit can suggest to us new ways and paths to bring the Gospel to the hearts of those who are distant, indifferent or without hope, yet continue to seek what the Magi found: “a great joy” (Mt 2:10). We must always move forwards.
At the end of the Magi’s journey came the climactic moment: once they arrived at their destination, “they fell down and worshiped the Child” (cf. v. 11). They worshiped. Let us never forget this: the journey of faith finds renewed strength and fulfilment only when it is made in the presence of God. Only if we recover our “taste” for adoration will our desire be rekindled. Desire leads us to adoration and adoration renews our desire. For our desire for God can only grow when we place ourselves in his presence. For Jesus alone heals our desires. From what? From the tyranny of needs. Indeed, our hearts grow sickly whenever our desires coincide merely with our needs. God, on the other hand, elevates our desires; he purifies them and heals them of selfishness, opening them to love for him and for our brothers and sisters. This is why we should not neglect adoration, that prayer of silent adoration which is not so common among us. Please let us not forget adoration. In this way, like the Magi, we will have the daily certainty that even in the darkest nights a star continues to shine. It is the star of the Lord, who comes to care for our frail humanity. Let us set out on the path towards him. Let us not give apathy and resignation the power to drive us into a cheerless and banal existence. Let our restless hearts embrace the restlessness of the Spirit. The world expects from believers a new burst of enthusiasm for the things of heaven. Like the Magi, let us lift up our eyes, listen to the desire lodged in our hearts, and follow the star that God makes shine above us. As restless seekers, let us remain open to God’s surprises. Brothers and sisters, let us dream, let us seek and let us adore.
FAUSTI - "Being born": the God who saves is already here. Matthew describes how to find "where" He was born, so that His Christmas may also be mine. This is the city of David. Luke also tells how, because of the census, He was born in Bethlehem. "In the days of King Herod" Herod is the great despotic and dissolute king. He is the "king of Judea" of the land he owns; he is not the "king of the Jews," of the people who live there. Their king is Christ, the liberator! In this account, the Magi are seen in positive terms. They are not "magicians," but wise men who follow the directions of the star. Looking at the stars, marveling at the vastness of the sky and trying to understand it, scrutinizing its rhythm and harmony is the beginning of human knowledge. The sky reigns over the earth: it marks the succession of seasons, months, days and hours, it determines work and rest, sowing and harvesting, it separates and reunites, it mourns and celebrates. The measurement of time is the first science of man, aware that the time at his disposal is limited. The Magi are not content to observe the stars as they appear, persist and disappear: for them science is not only the observation of what is there, but also wondering what it means. Where was the Lord born, whom I must now and wish to find? Wisdom, a reflection of the uncreated light, guides the Magi to Jerusalem: there is the center of the people, the repository of promise and Scripture. Reason, in seeking salvation, opens itself to revelation wherever it is given. It is in Israel that Christ is found, for all and forever. To lose this root means to lose the fruit. The first temptation is to open oneself to God, but denying the "history" in which He reveals Himself and acts, reducing everything to an ideology and a symbol, without its content. This is what the various enlightenment and moralisms ancient and recent, such as the New Age, do. Those who do not recognize Jesus "in the flesh" do not have the Spirit of God (1Jn 4:2); they are simply deceived. Detaching oneself from Israel, old and new, from Mary and the Church, means losing "the Gospel": the flesh of God with us. As in Judea, then, in every corner of the earth, there are two opposite ways of being king: one powerful, oppressive, the other humble, saving. The two stand together like darkness and light. The Magi seek the king of the Jews, not the king of Judea. What king and what man, what God and what salvation are we looking for? At the time of Jesus, there was a conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn, the star of the Sabbath, the Feast of the Jews. Halley's Comet also appeared. Whatever the sign, it is a "theological star."
-->-->If science measures what is visible, wisdom seeks its invisible truth, and is satisfied only when it is open to the ultimate meaning: "every undead thought flourishes in transcendence" (Adorno). The star, light in the night, is the human reason that, never satisfied with what it knows and open to what it does not know, guides man towards an ever greater truth. Wisdom also guides the pagans in their exodus, as "the light of the stars in the night" (Wis 10:17). (Wisdom 10:17) It is not enough to see. We must move ahead and undertake a difficult way of searching, without never mistaking truth for our own certainty. Those who, like Herod and the scribes, are in the palace of their own interests or in the city of their beliefs-even the simplest ones! - does not encounter the truth. On the contrary, they destroy it wherever it is found. The arrival of the Magi in Jerusalem reminds us of IS 60:1-5. "Adoration": to adore is the desire that moves every journey from the beginning, the end of all understanding and action. To adore is to bring to the mouth, to embrace, in communion of love and breath. What the Magi do here, the apostles will do at the end. Herod and whole Jerusalem listen to question and search of the peoples for them. The general tumult is the surprise of those who must decide which king they want: whether Herod is the same as everyone has or the one that God has promised. The political authority summons the religious and intellectual authorities to find out "where" this king was born. They have the right answer. They move their eyes to the Scriptures, but the Scriptures do not move their feet to the Lord. They know the truth, but they turn away from it. How often we use knowledge to defend ourselves against what we know! They should "go out" to meet the Lord. Those who do not go out to meet Him become with their knowledge accomplices of those who kill. "The least", the minimum, is the criterion of God's choice, as opposed to that of Herod and every man. God chooses Israel as his people because it is the smallest of all peoples. He therefore chooses David as king, the youngest of his brothers (1 Sam 16:11). God chooses things that are not "to reduce to nothing the things that are" (1 Cor 1:28), which is why none of the mighty and wise of this world can recognize Him. To find "where" the Lord is, we must look in the direction in which He is. And He, the "least of the brethren," is among the least. Reason makes us look for the Savior, revelation tells us where to find Him: the former says He exists, the latter who He is, giving the former new criteria of evaluation, the same as God's. For this reason, the star disappears in Jerusalem - reason for a moment darkens before revelation, like the stars before the sun - but then reappears with more precise indications. "Herod, having secretly called the Magi, asked..." The King of Judea is an enemy of the King of the Jews. He uses for his plans both the "indifferent" science of the scribes and the "engaged" wisdom of the Magi. Evil is used for everything, especially good! He can always consider the "indifferent" in his service, and make the "committed" his most dangerous allies, because they do not know. An acquaintance who does not love is always "antichrist," but even unthinking love becomes Satan's tool (Peter 16:21-23). However, the Lord remains the only Lord of history and in the end all things fulfill His plan of love (Rom 8:28-Ac 4:27 - Rev 17:17). Herod makes his emissaries the Magi, in good faith. He wants to involve them in his intrigues, without them realizing it. Jesus is the King of the Jews, the Christ, Light of the Gentiles, born for all in Bethlehem of Judea. The light of reason and revelation leads humanity to Him, and in Him it finds its life.
--> The Church, in addition to Jews, is also made up of Gentiles who, like the Magi, travel the path of the quest until they find Him, embrace Him and open their treasure to Him.--> "They rejoiced with great joy" God is Love; there is joy in His fragrance, a sign of His presence. Wherever He is, there is joy; sadness is a sign of His absence. He is communicated to the one who loves, to the one who discovers the treasure (13:44), to the one who encounters the Living One (28:8). The joy of the heart indicates "where" the one you seek is: He is in you. Here, finally, you enter the home and find the King. The child is certainly worth a detour. Where is the child, if not in the heart of the one who loves Him, listens to Him, and rejoices in Him? The outward journey stops; with worship the inward journey begins. Three times we say "adore" The Child, you find Him if you enter the " Home," and He is always with the Mother. You find the Son in Israel, in Mary, in the Church, in the brothers, in yourselves, if you love Him and listen to Him! Matthew's treasure is the heart of man. Where your treasure is, there is your heart. The Magi open their hearts and offer what is in them. Gold, visible wealth, represents what one possesses; frankincense, invisible as God, represents what one desires; myrrh, an ointment that heals wounds and protects against corruption, represents what one is. The kingship, the divinity, the mortality proper to the creature, all that man has, but especially what he desires and lacks, is his treasure. He opens to God his goods, his desires and his difficulties. And God enters his treasure. It is "there" that the Son is begotten of the Father. By giving what they are, the Magi receive Him who is, and they themselves become like Him. God is born in man and man in God, and it is here that the journey takes place. The Magi, like Joseph, also receive God's message in a dream. God's dream affects history more than the power of the Almighty, and they don't care. They return to where they started. But "in another way." No longer the one who seeks the one who does not know, but the one who has found the One whom he seeks. In fact, they are no longer the same as before, they have found "where" the king was born. The "where" of God is the heart of man, and the "where" of man is the heart of God. They have withdrawn from the "anchorites," says the Greek text, to their own country. Now they have with them a new heaven and a new earth, a seed that they will take with them wherever they will walk.
Book of Isaiah
RispondiElimina60,1-6.
Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; But upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears his glory.
Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance.
Raise your eyes and look about; they all gather and come to you: Your sons come from afar, and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.
Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow, For the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you, the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you, dromedaries from Midian and Ephah; All from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.
Psalms 72(71)
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king's son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
All kings shall pay him homage,
all nations shall serve him.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
And the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
The lives of the poor he shall save.
Letter to the Ephesians
3,2-3a.5-6.
Brothers and sisters: You have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for your benefit,
(namely, that) the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly earlier.
which was not made known to human beings in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit,
that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint Matthew 2,1-12.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem,
saying, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage."
When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet:
'And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"
Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage."
After their audience with the king they set out. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.
HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS 6 January 2022
RispondiEliminaThe Magi travel towards Bethlehem. Their pilgrimage speaks also to us, who are called to journey towards Jesus, for he is the North Star that lights up the sky of life and guides our steps towards true joy. Yet where did the Magi’s pilgrimage to encounter Jesus begin? What made these men of the East set out on their journey?
They had excellent reasons not to depart. They were wise men and astrologers, famous and wealthy. Having attained sufficient cultural, social and economic security, they could have remained content with what they already knew and possessed. Instead, they let themselves be unsettled by a question and by a sign: “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star…” (Mt 2:2). They did not allow their hearts to retreat into the caves of gloom and apathy; they longed to see the light. They were not content to plod through life, but yearned for new and greater horizons. Their eyes were not fixed here below; they were windows open to the heavens. As Benedict XVI said, the Magi were “men with a restless heart… They were filled with expectation, not satisfied with their secure income and their respectable place in society… They were seekers after God” ( 6 January 2013).
Where did it originate, this spirit of healthy restlessness that led them to set out on their journey? It was born of desire. That was their secret: the capacity to desire. Let us think about this. To desire means to fuel the fire that burns within us; it drives us to look beyond what is immediate and visible. To desire means embracing life as a mystery that surpasses us, as an ever-present cranny in the wall that beckons us to look into the distance, since life is not just our here and now, but something much greater. It is like a blank canvas that cries out for colour. A great painter, Vincent Van Gogh, once said that his need for God drove him to go outside at night to paint the stars. For that is the way God made us: brimming with desire, directed, like the Magi, towards the stars. With no exaggeration, we can say that we are what we desire. For it is our desires that enlarge our gaze and drive our lives forward, beyond the barriers of habit, beyond banal consumerism, beyond a drab and dreary faith, beyond the fear of becoming involved and serving others and the common good. In the words of Saint Augustine, “our entire life is an exercise of holy desire” (Homily on the First Letter of John, IV, 6).
Brothers and sisters, as it was for the Magi, so it is for us. The journey of life and faith demands a deep desire and inner zeal. Sometimes we live in a spirit of a “parking lot”; we stay parked, without the impulse of desire that carries us forward. We do well to ask: where are we on our journey of faith? Have we been stuck all too long, nestled inside a conventional, external and formal religiosity that no longer warms our hearts and changes our lives? Do our words and our liturgies ignite in people’s hearts a desire to move towards God, or are they a “dead language” that speaks only of itself and to itself? It is sad when a community of believers loses its desire and is content with “maintenance” rather than allowing itself to be startled by Jesus and by the explosive and unsettling joy of the Gospel. It is sad when a priest has closed the door of desire, sad to fall into clerical functionalism, very sad.
--->The crisis of faith in our lives and in our societies also has to do with the eclipse of desire for God. It is related to a kind of slumbering of the spirit, to the habit of being content to live from day to day, without ever asking what God really wants from us. We peer over earthly maps, but forget to look up to heaven. We are sated with plenty of things, but fail to hunger for our absent desire for God. We are fixated on our own needs, on what we will eat and wear (cf. Mt 6:25), even as we let the longing for greater things evaporate. And we find ourselves living in communities that crave everything, have everything, yet all too often feel nothing but emptiness in their hearts: closed communities of individuals, bishops, priests or consecrated men and women. Indeed the lack of desire leads only to sadness and indifference, to sad communities, sad priests or bishops.
RispondiEliminaLet us look first to ourselves and ask: How is the journey of my faith going? This is a question that we can ask ourselves today, each one of us. How is the journey of my faith going? Is it parked or is it on the move? Faith, if it is to grow, has to begin ever anew. It needs to be sparked by desire, to take up the challenge of entering into a living and lively relationship with God. Does my heart still burn with desire for God? Or have I allowed force of habit and my own disappointments to extinguish that flame? Today, brothers and sisters, is the day we should ask these questions. Today is the day we should return to nurturing our desire. How do we do this? Let us go to the Magi and learn from their “school of desire”. They will teach us in their school of desire. Let us look at the steps they took, and draw some lessons from them.
In the first place, they set out at the rising of the star. The Magi teach us that we need to set out anew each day, in life as in faith, for faith is not a suit of armour that encases us; instead, it is a fascinating journey, a constant and restless movement, ever in search of God, always discerning our way forward.
Then, in Jerusalem the Magi ask questions: they inquire where the Child is to be found. They teach us that we need to question. We need to listen carefully to the questions of our heart and our conscience, for it is there that God often speaks to us. He addresses us more with questions than with answers. We must learn this well: God addresses us more with questions than with answers. Yet let us also be unsettled by the questions of our children, and by the doubts, hopes and desires of the men and women of our time. We need to entertain questions.
--->The Magi then defy Herod. They teach us that we need a courageous faith, one that is unafraid to challenge the sinister logic of power, and become seeds of justice and fraternity in societies where in our day modern Herods continue to sow death and slaughter the poor and innocent, amid general indifference.
RispondiEliminaFinally, the Magi return “by another way” (Mt 2:12). They challenge us to take new paths. Here we see the creativity of the Spirit who always brings out new things. That is also one of the tasks of the Synod we are currently undertaking: to journey together and to listen to one another, so that the Spirit can suggest to us new ways and paths to bring the Gospel to the hearts of those who are distant, indifferent or without hope, yet continue to seek what the Magi found: “a great joy” (Mt 2:10). We must always move forwards.
At the end of the Magi’s journey came the climactic moment: once they arrived at their destination, “they fell down and worshiped the Child” (cf. v. 11). They worshiped. Let us never forget this: the journey of faith finds renewed strength and fulfilment only when it is made in the presence of God. Only if we recover our “taste” for adoration will our desire be rekindled. Desire leads us to adoration and adoration renews our desire. For our desire for God can only grow when we place ourselves in his presence. For Jesus alone heals our desires. From what? From the tyranny of needs. Indeed, our hearts grow sickly whenever our desires coincide merely with our needs. God, on the other hand, elevates our desires; he purifies them and heals them of selfishness, opening them to love for him and for our brothers and sisters. This is why we should not neglect adoration, that prayer of silent adoration which is not so common among us. Please let us not forget adoration.
In this way, like the Magi, we will have the daily certainty that even in the darkest nights a star continues to shine. It is the star of the Lord, who comes to care for our frail humanity. Let us set out on the path towards him. Let us not give apathy and resignation the power to drive us into a cheerless and banal existence. Let our restless hearts embrace the restlessness of the Spirit. The world expects from believers a new burst of enthusiasm for the things of heaven. Like the Magi, let us lift up our eyes, listen to the desire lodged in our hearts, and follow the star that God makes shine above us. As restless seekers, let us remain open to God’s surprises. Brothers and sisters, let us dream, let us seek and let us adore.
FAUSTI - "Being born": the God who saves is already here. Matthew describes how to find "where" He was born, so that His Christmas may also be mine. This is the city of David. Luke also tells how, because of the census, He was born in Bethlehem. "In the days of King Herod" Herod is the great despotic and dissolute king. He is the "king of Judea" of the land he owns; he is not the "king of the Jews," of the people who live there. Their king is Christ, the liberator!
RispondiEliminaIn this account, the Magi are seen in positive terms. They are not "magicians," but wise men who follow the directions of the star. Looking at the stars, marveling at the vastness of the sky and trying to understand it, scrutinizing its rhythm and harmony is the beginning of human knowledge. The sky reigns over the earth: it marks the succession of seasons, months, days and hours, it determines work and rest, sowing and harvesting, it separates and reunites, it mourns and celebrates.
The measurement of time is the first science of man, aware that the time at his disposal is limited.
The Magi are not content to observe the stars as they appear, persist and disappear: for them science is not only the observation of what is there, but also wondering what it means.
Where was the Lord born, whom I must now and wish to find? Wisdom, a reflection of the uncreated light, guides the Magi to Jerusalem: there is the center of the people, the repository of promise and Scripture.
Reason, in seeking salvation, opens itself to revelation wherever it is given.
It is in Israel that Christ is found, for all and forever. To lose this root means to lose the fruit.
The first temptation is to open oneself to God, but denying the "history" in which He reveals Himself and acts, reducing everything to an ideology and a symbol, without its content. This is what the various enlightenment and moralisms ancient and recent, such as the New Age, do. Those who do not recognize Jesus "in the flesh" do not have the Spirit of God (1Jn 4:2); they are simply deceived. Detaching oneself from Israel, old and new, from Mary and the Church, means losing "the Gospel": the flesh of God with us.
As in Judea, then, in every corner of the earth, there are two opposite ways of being king: one powerful, oppressive, the other humble, saving. The two stand together like darkness and light. The Magi seek the king of the Jews, not the king of Judea. What king and what man, what God and what salvation are we looking for?
At the time of Jesus, there was a conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn, the star of the Sabbath, the Feast of the Jews. Halley's Comet also appeared. Whatever the sign, it is a "theological star."
-->-->If science measures what is visible, wisdom seeks its invisible truth, and is satisfied only when it is open to the ultimate meaning: "every undead thought flourishes in transcendence" (Adorno). The star, light in the night, is the human reason that, never satisfied with what it knows and open to what it does not know, guides man towards an ever greater truth.
RispondiEliminaWisdom also guides the pagans in their exodus, as "the light of the stars in the night" (Wis 10:17).
(Wisdom 10:17) It is not enough to see. We must move ahead and undertake a difficult way of searching, without never mistaking truth for our own certainty. Those who, like Herod and the scribes, are in the palace of their own interests or in the city of their beliefs-even the simplest ones! - does not encounter the truth. On the contrary, they destroy it wherever it is found. The arrival of the Magi in Jerusalem reminds us of IS 60:1-5.
"Adoration": to adore is the desire that moves every journey from the beginning, the end of all understanding and action. To adore is to bring to the mouth, to embrace, in communion of love and breath.
What the Magi do here, the apostles will do at the end.
Herod and whole Jerusalem listen to question and search of the peoples for them. The general tumult is the surprise of those who must decide which king they want: whether Herod is the same as everyone has or the one that God has promised.
The political authority summons the religious and intellectual authorities to find out "where" this king was born.
They have the right answer. They move their eyes to the Scriptures, but the Scriptures do not move their feet to the Lord. They know the truth, but they turn away from it. How often we use knowledge to defend ourselves against what we know! They should "go out" to meet the Lord. Those who do not go out to meet Him become with their knowledge accomplices of those who kill.
"The least", the minimum, is the criterion of God's choice, as opposed to that of Herod and every man. God chooses Israel as his people because it is the smallest of all peoples.
He therefore chooses David as king, the youngest of his brothers (1 Sam 16:11). God chooses things that are not "to reduce to nothing the things that are" (1 Cor 1:28), which is why none of the mighty and wise of this world can recognize Him.
To find "where" the Lord is, we must look in the direction in which He is. And He, the "least of the brethren," is among the least. Reason makes us look for the Savior, revelation tells us where to find Him: the former says He exists, the latter who He is, giving the former new criteria of evaluation, the same as God's.
For this reason, the star disappears in Jerusalem - reason for a moment darkens before revelation, like the stars before the sun - but then reappears with more precise indications.
"Herod, having secretly called the Magi, asked..." The King of Judea is an enemy of the King of the Jews. He uses for his plans both the "indifferent" science of the scribes and the "engaged" wisdom of the Magi. Evil is used for everything, especially good!
He can always consider the "indifferent" in his service, and make the "committed" his most dangerous allies, because they do not know. An acquaintance who does not love is always "antichrist," but even unthinking love becomes Satan's tool (Peter 16:21-23). However, the Lord remains the only Lord of history and in the end all things fulfill His plan of love (Rom 8:28-Ac 4:27 - Rev 17:17).
Herod makes his emissaries the Magi, in good faith. He wants to involve them in his intrigues, without them realizing it.
Jesus is the King of the Jews, the Christ, Light of the Gentiles, born for all in Bethlehem of Judea. The light of reason and revelation leads humanity to Him, and in Him it finds its life.
--> The Church, in addition to Jews, is also made up of Gentiles who, like the Magi, travel the path of the quest until they find Him, embrace Him and open their treasure to Him.-->
RispondiElimina"They rejoiced with great joy" God is Love; there is joy in His fragrance, a sign of His presence. Wherever He is, there is joy; sadness is a sign of His absence.
He is communicated to the one who loves, to the one who discovers the treasure (13:44), to the one who encounters the Living One (28:8). The joy of the heart indicates "where" the one you seek is: He is in you. Here, finally, you enter the home and find the King. The child is certainly worth a detour.
Where is the child, if not in the heart of the one who loves Him, listens to Him, and rejoices in Him? The outward journey stops; with worship the inward journey begins. Three times we say "adore"
The Child, you find Him if you enter the " Home," and He is always with the Mother.
You find the Son in Israel, in Mary, in the Church, in the brothers, in yourselves, if you love Him and listen to Him!
Matthew's treasure is the heart of man. Where your treasure is, there is your heart.
The Magi open their hearts and offer what is in them.
Gold, visible wealth, represents what one possesses; frankincense, invisible as God, represents what one desires; myrrh, an ointment that heals wounds and protects against corruption, represents what one is.
The kingship, the divinity, the mortality proper to the creature, all that man has, but especially what he desires and lacks, is his treasure. He opens to God his goods, his desires and his difficulties. And God enters his treasure.
It is "there" that the Son is begotten of the Father.
By giving what they are, the Magi receive Him who is, and they themselves become like Him.
God is born in man and man in God, and it is here that the journey takes place.
The Magi, like Joseph, also receive God's message in a dream. God's dream affects history more than the power of the Almighty, and they don't care.
They return to where they started. But "in another way."
No longer the one who seeks the one who does not know, but the one who has found the One whom he seeks.
In fact, they are no longer the same as before, they have found "where" the king was born.
The "where" of God is the heart of man, and the "where" of man is the heart of God.
They have withdrawn from the "anchorites," says the Greek text, to their own country.
Now they have with them a new heaven and a new earth, a seed that they will take with them wherever they will walk.