“I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light of Life.”
John 8,12
Our late Pope Benedict XVI wrote Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives; it was first published in 2012. In this little book, the Holy Father reflects on the gifts of the Magi and the Star that they followed. He suggests that while there have been many studies on the astrological possibilities of the Star of Bethlehem, the deeper significance for Christians is in the spiritual realm. The Star is a sign of the longing that every human being has for God, the creator of everything and of all people. Thus, the Star is a supernatural light, emanating from the Blessed Trinity, that draws all people. Whether they recognize it or not, the Star is brilliant with an infusion of the divine light of Heaven, first appearing in Bethlehem, drawing both the wise of exotic royalty and the poor, lowly shepherds. Further, the medieval Church saw the Star as the true guiding light for all three ages of human life: youth, middle age, and old age. In the personages of the Magi, or three kings of the mysterious Orient, each life-phase has a unique gift to bring the returned thanks to Baby Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God.
Gold represents the gift of Jesus’s eternal lordship over all creation. Gold was symbolic of the best things in life, those things that do not corrupt nor perish. Gold is associated with the precious reality of Wisdom, found in the truth of God’s presence among us and in the experience of true love. Wisdom is considered a rare gift of understanding because so often overlooked in the folly of adolescent longing for money, sex, and prestige.
Frankincense is symbolic of the gift of a mature spiritual life, usually realized only in middle age. Incense is offered as a result of the human spirit and life burning with the fire of God. Frankincense is the gift of a choice to avoid acquisitiveness of stuff, but to instead to settle in gratitude for the gifts of Wisdom and fair love in relationships. The appropriate response of middle age – the gift of frankincense – is that of thanksgiving, of a deepening, all-pervading prayer as the primarius of human life, in humble recognition that Jesus is the author of Life, of Grace, and the high priest overall. The offering of frankincense aligns with an attitude of gratitude and submission of all good endeavors and relationships to a greater hierarchy of loves, originating in God’s Love.
The “bitter perfume” of myrrh looks beyond suffering towards the Resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Kingdom of God. Myrrh is understood as intercession – a gifting through Jesus for others by loss of conventional comfort, by fasting, daily suffering, and sacrificial generosity. With the inevitable approach of death, old age is usually marked by pain, loss, suffering, and weakness. These can be transformed from sorrow to blessing, and so offered as a gift, not as an affliction. Myrrh is associated with Jesus’s passion and death as atonement for separation from God through the “deceit of the devil, the world, and ourselves” (as we pray in The Watch). At the end of life, the temptation may be to declare oneself as finished, as just too weary to go on with the Christian vocation. The gift of myrrh, of old age, aligns with “final perseverance” that is fitting for a disciple of Jesus. It is to remember and reaffirm the religious vocation of earlier phases of life, to continue pursuing the promise of the Star, even while acknowledging the limitations of age. Old age brings with it the reality of inadequacy and goals unfinished, even of inevitable human failure. Can anyone speak the triumphant last word of Jesus on the Cross, without Jesus speaking through that person in his final hour? The victory cry of “It is finished!” belongs to the One, the only One, who was victorious over death and loss. Neither the gold of wisdom nor the incense of a mature life of prayer and service can long endure without the gift of a fusion of our mortality with the eternal Lord of Life, Jesus Christ, who is our armor of Light – “the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world”).
And so, the Magi, uniting with all ages, all peoples, and representing all phases of human life, follow the Star on their ancient quest. Theirs is our life-pilgrimage, too, because Jesus is the everlasting Star of John 9:13. With the humility of the shepherds and the privilege of the Magi, humanity can bring the gifts of Life to the Holy Family at the altar of the manger at the midnight hour of Jesus’s birth, “…in Bethlehem, in a stable, in piercing cold.” We await His coming for entry at the locked door of our own hearts, even as we teach the little ones how to join the Christian pilgrimage of all the ages with shepherds and kings and united with the Holy Family.
There is a warning in the nativity narrative, however. It may be against false teaching or the deceitful “inner light” of self-focus that, apart from unity with the Pope, continues to shatter Christendom into shards of spiritual sects, each with a shard of the divine light, but causing chaos and darkness in the social order, nevertheless.
Our Blessed Lord has words of fire for “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). Do we, who are the modernist Magi – the parents, catechists, and teachers – realize that Jesus’s fearful rebuke is directed at us, too? Therefore, we wait for the Light of Christ to rise, like the morning Star, with a thrill of hope and with love for the young souls who we encourage and direct in their own longing for Heaven. At Christmas, we wait for the coming of our God, who is a God of people, and who holds the world in His hands with tender love and preference the little children, who come to Him for blessing.
Ruth D. Lasseter
SDC Associate
Indiana, USA
