Christmas IV Epiphany

The Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord

Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72; Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12

They came from the East. The East – conjuring up images of the exotic, the foreign, the unknown. Veiled and mysterious, yet enticing… Their attire and manner were different than ours, as was their language. They struggled to communicate as we struggled to understand.

Their presence was disturbing yet drew on our curiosity. Their presence caused fear and troubled our hearts. They were asking questions – uncomfortable questions. Questions that disturbed our status quo. Questions whose answers might make us reflect, reconsider, or worse – change.

Strangers still roam the earth.

The come no longer from the East but from the South. They continue to strike fear and trouble our hearts. Their language is no longer Farsi but Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Swahili, French with a colonial Moroccan, Sub-Saharan, or Mali accent…

Their questions are not about stars, newborns and kingship but about help, basic life needs, freedom and a chance to begin afresh. They tell stories of violence and death, famine and poverty, fear and courage. Stories that we perceive as threats to our peace and status quo though they come with the same aspirations as our ancestors.

The strangers from the East had no names so we gave them names, exotic names: Melchior, Gaspar and Balthasar. Today’s strangers have no names either. At best we call them the anonymous, “they”; at worst some have called them “criminals and rapists…”

We created the magi in our image and likeness. We even deigned to make one of them black. They come now in all shades of brown and black.

They do not bring frankincense, myrrh and gold. They bring us their raw humanity. They bring us their children. Some bring us our vegetables and fruits. Not exotic gifts but daily staples.

They are not magi, astrologers, or kings. They are not…Well, I was going to say ‘not wise’ but they may have a wisdom far beyond us. “[P]oor people have something many rich people do not have – dignity. That is more important than money, and you cannot hurt this dignity.”*

Today’s strangers go by the name of refugee, asylum seeker and migrant; the poor, the mentally ill, the hungry, and the homeless.

I have to wonder if the negative reaction to the ‘space age’ Vatican Nativity scene is because they – there’s that ‘they’ again – they do not look like us. They look like strangers from space.

As mysteriously and quickly as the magi emerged from the desert sands – those same sands embraced them and they disappeared. Today’s strangers are not receding into the background as many of us would like. They are staying. Their presence alone posing questions about human dignity and value.

It was a cloudy evening, the Monday of the solstice, and we could not see the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, the supposed ‘Star of Bethlehem’. Maybe all the better. As long as we concern ourselves with questions of stars and look up we are not looking at our sisters and brother. It is a conscious convenience for us. 

If the Feast of Christmas remains a past event rather than a present reality, no wonder people are bored and can’t wait for 26 December to chuck out the tree. Why not? Christmas is than nothing other than a dead object not a living being both in God as a human in Jesus and God as the stranger, our neighbor, our sister and brother.

If you don’t want to change don’t welcome strangers into your life. Build walls around yourself. See, strangers always leave an impression on our hearts that cannot be erased or gotten rid of no matter how much we might try.  We cannot remove the ache in our conscience. The presence of strangers always remains with us and we are never the same. It is what our spiritual tradition calls conversion, a change of heart.

*Passion By Design: The Art and Times of Tamara de Lempicka, revised edition by Kizette de Lempicka-Foxhall, Abbeville Press Publishers, New York. page 185.

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PLEASE NOTE: Homilies presented here are also being videotaped and put up on the Saint Mary, Oneonta website: http://www.SMCCOneonta.org.