53. Epiphany (I)

Meditations no. 47 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The Magi: the first Gentiles to be converted.

Not too long ago I saw a marble bas-relief representing the adoration of the child Jesus by the Magi. The central figures were surrounded by four angels, each one bearing a symbol: a crown, an orb surmounted by the cross, a sword and a sceptre. The artist had chosen symbols with which we are all familiar to illustrate the event we commemorate today. Some wise men, whom tradition describes as kings, come to pay homage to a child, after having been to Jerusalem to ask: Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

Epiphany means “manifestation”. Today the Church celebrates our Lord’s manifestation to the whole world. He had already made himself known to the shepherds. Now he shows himself to the Magi, the first Gentiles to know him. The Epiphany is a proclamation of God’s will to save all mankind. Although the newborn Child is the Messiah promised to the Israelites, his redeeming mission extends to all people. He is the new Adam who, appearing in human flesh, has renewed us in the new light of his immortality.

The adoration of the Magi foreshadows the future coming of millions of souls of every race and tongue, called by God to adore Christ. Such is the full meaning of Isaiah’s prophecy: Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Isaiah addresses the holy city, which is a figure of the Church, the new Jerusalem, the light of all nations. Kings and peoples will come from all over the world, drawn by the brightness of its glory. The Church, as Mother and Teacher of every nation, welcomes them and presents them as a precious gift to Christ, her Spouse.

We know that all this began, says St Leo the Great, when a star led three Wise Men from a far country to come to know and adore the King of heaven and earth. The Magi’s obedience is held up to us as a model, so that we may also respond to the best of our abilities to this grace that draws all men to Christ.

Whoever lives a pious and chaste life in the Church, whoever savours the things that are above and not those of the earth, resembles, in some way, that heavenly light. By preserving in himself the splendour of a holy life, he shines like a star and shows many people the way leading to God.

Fortified by this zeal, dearly beloved, help one another to shine like the children of light in the Kingdom of God, which is to be reached through sincere faith and good works.

Spreading the Redemption to all souls.

Twenty centuries have gone by since the Magi knelt before God. And that long procession of people from the Gentile world is still only beginning.

After the Magi, whole peoples and nations have come to Christ’s feet. The apostolate carried out by the early Christians enabled them to spread their faith in the Redeemer throughout the whole of the known world. They sowed generously, and the harvest did not take long to come. Since that time, new peoples have continued to draw close to Jesus and Mary. We have also come, from the four corners of the world, from every race and every nation. Lift up your eyes round about, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar.

It is important to keep reminding ourselves that Jesus did not address himself to a privileged set of people; he came to reveal the universal love of God to us. God loves all men, and he wants all to love him -everyone, whatever his personal situation, his social position, his work. Ordinary life is something of great value. All the ways of the earth can be an opportunity to meet Christ, who calls us to identify ourselves with him and carry out his divine mission - right where he finds us.

God calls us through what happens during our day: through the suffering and happiness of the people we live with, through the human interests of our colleagues and the things that make up our family life. He also calls us through the great problems, conflicts and challenges of each period of history, which attract the effort and idealism of a large part of mankind.

It is easy to understand the impatience, anxiety and uneasiness of people whose naturally Christian soul stimulates them to fight the personal and social injustice which the human heart can create. So many centuries of men living side by side and still so much hate, so much destruction, so much fanaticism stored up in eyes that do not want to see and in hearts that do not want to love!

We have a mission to carry out. My children, we are here to help the crowd, the multitude. There is no soul we do not want to love and help. We must become all things to all people: omnibus omnia factus sum. We cannot turn our backs on any human concern or need. God has shown us the star of our vocation and asked us to be generous and give ourselves completely. That is how the salvation which Christ brought to earth will reach all souls.

To be co-redeemers, we must let Christ live in us.

And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. The Magi are the first Gentiles to adore the Child. They represent all the millions and millions of people throughout the centuries who will fall down at the Redeemer’s feet.

Now that two thousand years have gone by, we look around and see a world which is very distant from God. We could be tempted to pessimism because so much still remains to be done. But we should reject this thought immediately. Is it because in twenty centuries nothing has been done? In these two thousand years much work has been done. I don’t think it would be fair or objective to discount, as some people want to do, the accomplishments of those who have gone before us. In two thousand years a great task has been accomplished, and it has often been accomplished very well. On other occasions there have been mistakes, making the Church lose ground, just as today there is loss of ground, fear and a timid attitude on the part of some, and at the same time no lack of courage and generosity in others. But, whatever the situation, the human race is being continually renewed. In each generation it is necessary to go on with the effort to help men realize the greatness of their vocation as children of God, to teach them to carry out the commandment of love for God and neighbour.

Christ has taught us in a definitive way how to make this love for God real. Apostolate is love for God that overflows and communicates itself to others. The interior life implies a growth in union with Christ, in the bread and in the word. And apostolate is the precise and necessary outward manifestation of interior life. When one tastes the love of God, one feels burdened with the weight of souls. There is no way to separate interior life from apostolate, just as there is no way to separate Christ, the God-man, from his role as Redeemer. The Word chose to become flesh in order to save men, to make them one with him. This is why he came to the world; he came down from heaven for us men and for our salvation, as we say in the Creed.

For a Christian, apostolate is something instinctive. It is not something added onto his daily activities and his professional work from the outside. I have repeated it constantly, since the day our Lord chose for the foundation of Opus Dei! We have to sanctify our ordinary work, we have to sanctify others through the exercise of the particular profession that is proper to each of us, in our own particular state in life.

It is we Christians who obstruct Jesus’ redemptive plans, because at times we don’t act as he hopes we will. So on this great feast, let us carefully contemplate the Epiphany scene and learn from those wise men from the East, people of great importance, who humbly kneel before the Child in Bethlehem.

Our Lord became man to teach us the Father’s will. And this he is already doing as he lies there in the manger. Jesus Christ is seeking us - with a call which is a vocation to sanctity - so that we may carry out the redemption with him. Let us reflect on this first lesson of his. We are to co-redeem, by striving to triumph not over our neighbour, but over ourselves. Like Christ we need to empty ourselves, to consider ourselves as the servants of others, and so to bring them to God.

Where is the king? Could it be that Jesus wants to reign above all in men’s hearts, in your heart? That is why he has become a child, for who can help loving a little baby? Where then is the king? Where is the Christ whom the Holy Spirit wants to fashion in our souls? He cannot be present in the pride that separates us from God, nor in the lack of charity which cuts us off from others. Christ cannot be there. In that loveless state man is left alone.

As you kneel at the feet of the child Jesus on the day of his Epiphany and see him as a king bearing none of the outward signs of royalty, you can tell him: “Lord, take away my pride; crush my self-love, my desire to affirm myself and impose myself on others. Make the foundation of my personality my identification with you.”

Let us ask our Lady to teach us to be humble and self-sacrificing, so that we never think about ourselves. Only then will Christ be able to live in us. And only then - once we are made one with him - will our co-redemptive work be fruitful.