
Magi, gifts, palace intrigue surely there must be a deeper significance than these things in today’s Scripture readings (Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12)?
We, perhaps, tend to take these verses for granted because of we are so familiar with them.. Yet, they are packed with significant meaning for us today. The entire Church cycle of readings reminds of one major fact: we are all pilgrims on a specific journey. So we need to look for specific things on this journey, especially to see that we are on the correct path.
For each of us, the goal of our journey is to find Jesus, the Christ, and bring our gifts of worship and love to him. He calls us to be his followers. Yet the “Evil One” desperately tries to distract us from that path, and he tries to show a different road that invites us down the trail of sinful pleasure, greed, and selfishness. These are the “herod’s” of our life; they are deceitful, and they have the goal of our eternal death in their sights.
As Catholics we can and must always come back to the core of our being: we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. We believe that in some mysterious way he’s been dwelling within us ever since our baptism. So our entire spiritual journey is one of seeking him. It is obviously a journey of faith. Our path on the journey can get very dark many times. It’s at these times that we need the “star,” the guiding light of truth, that we receive from Holy Scripture and from the teachings of the Catholic Church. This light always leads us to Jesus!
As those are truly the sources of our light for our journey, it is time to take our annual review of our lives (which perhaps might result in a resolution), ands ask ourselves “How much quality time do I spend every single day in this light?”
KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! “Arise, shine out” – this is our call and mission as Christians to become the light for the world that God demands of us through the Prophet Isaiah (today’s first reading). Your “shining” starts with finding the
truth through scripture and the teachings of the Catholic Church. You are called to be a star for others by your words and example. CCC 528 reminds us that the Epiphany is the manifestation of Christ as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world; now let him be manifested through each one of us!