Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 71; Ephesians 2:2-3a, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12
After they have met publicly with the chief priests and
scribes, Herod is anxious to meet the wise men ‘secretly’. It is how politics
tends to be done, through secret deals and meetings outside meetings. But
today’s feast is about the opposite of secrecy. The mystery hidden in God from
all eternity is made known to the world in the birth of Jesus. It is a mystery
of light, a revelation, and an illumination. Like all politicians, Herod is
anxious to control events and he is already devising his strategy. But another
hand is guiding these events, another mind is revealed in how they unfold, and
a different power is at work here for a purpose beyond anything Herod can
imagine. God’s plan – for it is the hand and mind and power of God that are
being revealed – will not be frustrated by Herod.
There had always been a universalist strand in Jewish
thought. We find it in the prophets, who issue frequent reminders that the
choosing of Israel, and her re-establishment after the Exile, are not just for
Israel but are, through her, for all the nations. So the first reading already
provides much of the imagery and meaning of today’s feast: your light has come,
the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. In the darkness of this world’s night
the nations see and are led by the light that has risen over Israel. This
universalism is there from the beginning, in the original call of Abraham. He
is promised a land and a people so that all the nations of the earth might be
blessed through him.
With the birth of Jesus the mystery of God’s love for
humanity is revealed definitively and uniquely. In this mystery, the Gentiles,
represented by the three pagans who present their gifts to the Holy Family, are
fellow heirs with the chosen people, members of the same body and partakers of
the same promise. Following their own best understanding of how truth is to be
sought, they find their way to Bethlehem. All who seek truth with a sincere
heart will, sooner or later, find their way to Bethlehem. The clamorous human
world gathers at the feet of this Child, not just the Jewish world of Mary,
Joseph and the shepherds but the Gentile world from Midian, Ephah and Sheba.
The revelation and the promise are for everybody.
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