“We Saw His Star at Its Rising and Have Come to Do
Him Homage”
(Mt 2:2)
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
We celebrate this Sunday the solemn Feast of the Three Kings
that the Church’s Liturgical Calendar terms as the Epiphany.
Epiphany comes from Greek epipháneia
that means “apparition”. So Epiphany
is used in Christian worship to designate the apparition of the Lord God in
human nature, in Jesus Christ, to all peoples and nations, particularly to
those who have not known Him yet.
It is true that God has revealed Himself first through the
creation of the universe and the human race in particular; and secondly through
the incarnation of His Son.
Jesus Christ was born into the world as a descendant of King
David, that means into the House of Israel, as was foretold by the Holy
Bible. However, God the Father, by
sending His Son into the world, wanted to show His merciful love not only to
the people of Israel alone though they, being the Chosen People, really
deserved, in the first place, salvation brought about by Jesus Christ, the Lord
and Savior of the world. God also wanted
to extend His saving power to the Gentiles, or non-Jewish peoples and nations.
The first Reading of today’s celebration taken from the Book
of the Prophet Isaiah depicts a magnificent scenario of a great festival where
the Holy Temple of the Lord God was flooded with countless peoples coming from
the four corners of the world, bringing gifts of precious material such as gold
and frankincense for the worship of the true God:
Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your Light has come, the glory of the Lord
shines upon 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.
So, from the second haft of the eighth century before the
Birth of Christ, God had already informed the human family of this great Good
News that salvation would be obtained by Jesus Christ for all peoples of all
ages and all places in the world.
Saint Paul, the great missionary to the non-Jewish peoples,
though a Jew himself, strongly declared in the second Reading that
The Gentiles are co-heirs, members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.
What does the Gospel say?
Saint Matthew opens Chapter II of his Sacred Book as follows:
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.”
What a concordance, how a perfect harmony between what the
prophets in the Old Testament had said and what has happened as reported in the
New Testament!
Now, we go to these very interesting questions: where did the
Three Kings come from because the Gospel only mentions the Magi? Who were the Magi? Were they only three or more than three?
Indeed we do not have the identity of the Three Kings found
in the Gospel but only that of the Magi.
The Three Kings scenario was the product of popular devotion to the Holy
Birthday of Jesus Christ, the celebration of Christmas.
Magi in the ancient times were scholars who profoundly
studied both sciences and religion matters.
Therefore they were called sometimes “wise men”. The reason why they were limited in only
three because of the number of their gifts offered to Baby Jesus, namely gold,
frankincense and myrrh.
According to tradition, they were
1/ Melchior, or Melichior, a scholar coming from Persia, now
Iran, representing European peoples;
2/ Kaspar, or Gaspar, or Jaspar, or Gathaspa, an Indian wise
man, in behalf of the African continent;
3/ Balthazar, Balthasar, or Balthassar, or Bithisarea,
leading the Asian race.
It is obvious that the feast of the Three Kings, or more
exactly, the Solemnity of the Epiphany, brings us together from all over the
world to the manger in Bethlehem where we see with our own eyes the merciful
love of the Lord God manifested without any doubt or ambiguity in the lovely
Child born of the Blessed Virgin Mary and well cared by Saint Joseph.
We are surely convinced through the celebration of the
Birthday of Jesus Christ of this great truth that Salvation promised by God of
old and awaited by countless generations has finally come true for you and for
me and for all peoples without exception or discrimination.
Together with the three Magi, or Three Kings if you like, let
us happily and proudly proclaim to the world this great Good News:
“We Saw His
Star at Its Rising and Have Come to Do Him Homage.”
Fr. Francis Nguyen, O.P.
