We don’t spend much time thinking about the three kings or three wise men that journeyed far from their obviously comfortable homes (bringing gold, frankensence and myrr anywhere would have been a pricy and risky endeavor), to follow a star. They found a baby in a manger, a trough used to feed animals, and yet understood in the heart, that this child was more than a child, this was the King of Heaven. Imagine the faith, the trust, the hope they carried as they journeyed, and as they returned to wherever they came from.
What do we do today, to bring our treasure, our gifts, our time to the Christ child?
Do we leave behind what is comfortable, to seek out the holy family, to find Him amongst our squalor?
Some of us have packed up the tree and all the trimmings –efficient yes, and necessary in some case, but do we keep our hearts adorned with the light of Christ, with the joyful songs of the angels, even as we go about the ordinary business that always flows into January?
How do we make sure we are in some way, journeying towards Christ, and not closing the doors and windows of our lives to make things convienent and comfortable and securely snug in the complacency of our souls?
Begin with the feast itself. How will we mark it? What will we do to imitate Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar (or Caspar) with our words and our actions.
We should surrender some gold –naturally, to care for the poor, the cold, the helpless, the needy.
We should offer some prayers –for those who long for the comfort of Christ in their lives, whether they identify it or not.
We should prepare our souls for death and final judgement by receiving the sacrament of confession, because each day is a gift.
This past weekend is proof that we are subject to the whims and sins of others, despite cultivating for ourselves, a false sense of security that comes from being able to cocoon ourselves online and in real life inside our homes. It always is a temptation, to say there is no room for God. We’ve got bills and chores and all the things that can crowd not just Sunday but every day. God waits for us to respond to His many invitations to participate in His joy, to partake of the feast, to accept His love and invitation to love others.
He placed the star in the Heavens and sent his angels to sing and proclaim the good news to any who dared to look up in wonder, or sought Him with an earnest heart. God issues invitations through all of creation, and reveals His love for us in every second of beauty, in all of creation, and in the face of every person if we dare to look and are willing to receive.
By our baptism, we are claimed as part of the Body of Christ, and thus must serve as priests, prophets and kings to the unknowing and in some cased, willfully unlistening world. As such, we are sent out after every mass with the hope that we will bring Christ to those who do not know Him, to all the souls that have not sought the star. We are to knock on the doors of all who said, “There is no room in the inn,” and invite them into the infinite heart of God.
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That is the means by which we may celebrate the feast of the three kings, by knocking on the door of any we encounter, and inviting them deeper and deeper in to the heart we have only just begun to know.
Photo by Jonathan Meyer
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