The Feast of the Three Magi, or the Feast of the Epiphany (Jan. 6th). The three wise men were the first Gentiles to whom our Lord manifested Himself as the Saviour of mankind; and as the representatives of the pagan world, which was sighing for its Redeemer, they offered their adoration to Him. We ought therefore, especially on this Feast, to thank God for the Christian faith, because our forefathers too were pagans; and we ought to praise the infinite love of God, who gave His only-begotten Son for the salvation of man.
The signification of the gifts of the wise men. The gifts offered to the Child Jesus by the wise men are full of deep significance. “In Israel incense could be offered to God alone, and could be burnt only before Jehovah! Any human king of Israel to whom incense was offered was an abomination in the sight of God” (Grimm). So by offering incense to the Child Jesus the Magi wished to express their worship of God hidden under the lowly form of a child. By the offering of gold they acknowledged Him as king. By the myrrh they desired to testify their veneration for the human nature of Jesus, which was destined to suffering, death and burial. They therefore offered gold to the king, incense to God, and myrrh to the man.
Worship of the Blessed Sacrament. It is the same Son of God whom the wise men worshipped under the form of a child, whom we, full of faith and reverence, worship in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar.
APPLICATION. You have received so many and such great graces from God. Have you always faithfully corresponded to them? Have you never actually resisted God’s grace? “We exhort you that you receive not the grace of God in vain!” (2 Cor. 6, 1.)
You too can offer gifts to our Lord Jesus: the gold of love, the incense of worship, and the myrrh of patience in suffering.
Chapter IX.
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT.
[Mat. 2, 13 — 23 ]
HEROD awaited with anxiety the return of the Magi. At last, perceiving that he waited in vain, he became furious, and gave orders that all the male children of two years old and under, in Bethlehem and in all the confines thereof, should be slain[1].
- ↑ Slain. Herod had cunningly hidden his wicked project from the wise men, and deceived them by an appearance of holiness, believing that the Child Jesus could not escape him. But when the Magi did not return, he saw that his wicked plans were frustrated. The kings did not purposely deceive him, for they had intended to keep their promise of returning to him, had not God forbidden them. But Herod believed that they had designedly misled him, and was therefore doubly angry. The dread of this new-born king of the Jews aroused all his evil passions, and he did not shrink from crowning his many acts of murder by a massacre of innocent children. He did not know whereabouts in Bethlehem the Messias was to be found, so, to be on the safe side, he had all the baby boys there and in the neighbourhood killed. Nor did he know the day of the Birth of the Child Jesus, but he had ascertained from the wise men the exact time of the star’s first appearance, and felt confident that anyhow the Child could not be more than two years old; and therefore ordered the massacre of all the little boys of two years old and under. The number of these children must have been about 50.
