Thoughts on the Magi

Many of us enjoy a good mystery novel, movie or TV show. As the story unfolds, we begin to wonder how it is going to work itself out, and indeed we often feel an increasingly intense “need to know” as the story develops.  One important criterion of this kind of storytelling is that the conclusion cannot come completely out of nowhere.  Even with false leads, the mystery’s conclusion is satisfying only if we have been given hints of the “truth” along the way.  Another criterion is that once the mystery has been revealed, the whole plot ought to make sense.

God, it seems, has been luring us all along with his own mystery.  This Sunday’s reading from Ephesians is just one of many times when St. Paul speaks of God’s mystery, a mystery, which contrary to expectation, reveals that non-Jews and Jews alike belong to the same body and are co-heirs and partners in Christ Jesus.

Of course, like any good mystery, hints were laid from the beginning.  For example, in the book of Genesis, we learn that all the families will be blessed through Abraham.  Isaiah the prophet -- who provides us with this Sunday’s 1st reading -- often declares that God’s salvation reaches to the ends of the earth.  While the glory and light for the world are centered on Israel, that light draws peoples from all the nations.

And that brings us to the Magi whose story is told in the Gospel.  Their journey from afar, and their worship of the newborn King, manifest that God’s universal salvation has indeed come.  While God’s desire that all peoples come to know him and be saved seems obvious to us, really integrating that truth into our hearts can be very challenging.  We may believe that everyone is created in God’s image and therefore cherished by God, but we still find ourselves putting others “on the margin,” outside the circle of those whom we love.  A great gift, a great epiphany, is to know the glory of God’s love revealed in everyone we meet.  It is truly a profound mystery which challenges us to make our love more like God’s. 

Fr. Frank Reale, SJ