HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
Vatican Basilica
Tuesday, 6 January 2015
Tuesday, 6 January 2015
That child, born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary, came not only for the people of Israel, represented by the shepherds of Bethlehem, but also for all humanity, represented today by the wise men from the East. It is on the Magi and their journey in search of the Messiah that the Church today invites us to meditate and pray.
These wise men from the East were the first in that
great procession of which the prophet Isaiah spoke in today’s first
reading (cf. 60:1-6): a procession which from that time on has continued
uninterrupted; in every age it hears the message of the star and finds
the Child who reveals the tenderness of God. New persons are always
being enlightened by that star; they find the way and come into his
presence.
According to tradition, the wise men were sages,
watchers of the constellations, observers of the heavens, in a cultural
and religious context which saw the stars as having significance and
power over human affairs. The wise men represent men and woman who seek God in the world’s religions and philosophies: an unending quest. Men and women who seek God.
The wise men point out to us the path of our journey
through life. They sought the true Light. As a liturgical hymn of
Epiphany which speaks of their experience puts it: “Lumen requirunt lumine”; by following a light, they sought the light, “Lumen requirunt lumine”. They set out in search of God. Having seen the sign of the star, they grasped its message and set off on a long journey.
It is the Holy Spirit who called them and prompted them to set out; during their journey they were also to have a personal encounter with the true God.
Along the way, the wise men encountered many difficulties.
Once they reached Jerusalem, they went to the palace of the king, for
they thought it obvious that the new king would be born in the royal
palace. There they lost sight of the star. How often sight of the star
is lost! And, having lost sight of the star, they met with a temptation,
placed there by the devil: it was the deception of Herod. King Herod
was interested in the child, not to worship him but to eliminate him.
Herod is the powerful man who sees others only as rivals. Deep down, he
also considers God a rival, indeed the most dangerous rival of all. In
the palace the wise men experience a moment of obscurity, of desolation,
which they manage to overcome thanks to the prompting of the Holy
Spirit, who speaks through the prophecies of sacred Scripture. These
indicate that the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, the city of David.
At that point they resume their journey, and once more they see the star; the evangelist says that they “rejoiced exceedingly” (Mt 2:10). Coming to Bethlehem, they found “the child with Mary his mother” (Mt 2:11). After that of Jerusalem, this was their second great temptation:
to reject this smallness. But instead, “they fell down and worshiped
him”, offering him their precious symbolic gifts. Again, it is the grace of the Holy Spirit which assists them. That grace, which through the star had called them and led them along the way, now lets them enter into the mystery.
The star which led them on the journey allows them to enter into the
mystery. Led by the Spirit, they come to realize that God’s criteria are
quite different from those of men, that God does not manifest himself
in the power of this world, but speaks to us in the humbleness of his
love. God’s love is great. God’s love is powerful. But the love of God
is humble, yes, very humble. The wise men are thus models of conversion
to the true faith, since they believed more in the goodness of God than
in the apparent splendour of power.
And so we can ask ourselves: what is the mystery in which God is hidden?
Where can I find him? All around us we see wars, the exploitation of
children, torture, trafficking in arms, trafficking in persons… In all
these realities, in these, the least of our brothers and sisters who are
enduring these difficult situations, there is Jesus (cf. Mt 25:40,45). The crib points us to a different path from the one cherished by the thinking of this world: it is the path of God’s self-abasement,
that humility of God’s love by which he abases himself, he completely
lowers himself, his glory concealed in the manger of Bethlehem, on the
cross upon Calvary, in each of our suffering brothers and sisters.
The wise men entered into the mystery. They
passed from human calculations to the mystery: this was their
conversion. And our own? Let us ask the Lord to let us undergo that same
journey of conversion experienced by the wise men. Let us ask him to
protect us and to set us free from the temptations which hide the star.
To let us always feel the troubling question: “Where is the star?”,
whenever – amid the deceptions of this world – we lose sight of it. To
let us know ever anew God’s mystery, and not to be scandalized by the
“sign”, that sign spoken of by the angels, which points to “a babe
wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger” (Lk 2:12), and to
have the humility to ask the Mother, our Mother, to show him to us. To
find the courage to be liberated from our illusions, our presumptions,
our “lights”, and to seek this courage in the humility of faith and in
this way to encounter the Light, Lumen, like the holy wise men. May we enter into the mystery. So may it be. Amen.
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