“After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east asking, ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’
When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, ‘At Bethlehem in Judaea, for this is what the prophet wrote: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means the least among the leaders of Judah, for from you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.’
Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared and sent them on to Bethlehem with the words, ‘Go and find out all about the child, and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.’
Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And suddenly the star they had seen rising went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they were given a warning in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way.”
Gospel of Matthew 2:1-12
While it is the heart of today’s Gospel and solemnity, we don’t find out a much about the encounter of the wise men with the infant Lord Jesus. They saw the child and His mother, knelt down in homage and offered Him gifts. That’s it. But the feast of the Epiphany isn’t in the first place about the Magi anyway: it’s about Christ, and his revelation to the world.
This revelation is twofold: the Lord is shown to the world, personified in the Magi, but the world first had to come to the Lord. In a sense, both Lord and world are revealed simultaneously.
But this world which is revealed to the Lord is one already changed by Him. The Magi were inspired to find the newly born Christ, and they set out from their comforts to face perils, not least in the person of Herod, but ultimately to find what had urged them to leave home in the first place.
The Epiphany of the Lord is a time of change. He is revealed to a world looking for answers, wanting to find out what drives it onwards. This changed world, changed from staid comfort to inspired searching and openness to the – until now – unknown Messiah is revealed to Him as His world, His people.
We are His people if we go out and look for Him, to find what drives us, what motivates us to act and to find our place in a new world.
In Caelo et in Terra 