EPIPHANY 2015
Today we celebrate the great feast of Epiphany – a word which means
“manifestation.” The Christ Child, the Word Made Flesh, manifested Himself to the
three Magi who came to do Him homage.
We are not sure exactly who the Magi were; in tradition they are also called
Wise Men or Kings. We know they were not Jews; tradition has it they came from
different nations, representing all the non-Jewish, or Gentile nations who were in
darkness about the true God, showing that people from these nations would come to
accept Jesus as their Savior. Our readings today contain prophecies about the Magi:
“the wealth of nations shall be brought to you; [they shall come] bearing gold and
frankincense,” says the Prophet Isaiah; & our Psalm: “All kings shall pay him
homage, all nations shall serve him.”
Tradition gives them the names Casper, Melchior and Balthasar, and they are
regarded as saints in some parts of the world. The Cathedral in Cologne, Germany
contains the relics, or bones, of the Magi. They came from the East, guided by a star.
Over the centuries there has been much debate over this star, as to what exactly it
was: was it a comet or meteor, or a huge star that God made appear miraculously?
We are not sure; but a very convincing theory has been put forth by an
evangelical Christian, Frederick Larson. Mr. Larson used a computer program
which allows one to see the configuration of the stars and planets on any particular
day or time period, simply by plugging in dates. We know now that our dating is
wrong for Christ’s Birth; that he likely was born some years earlier.
Mr. Larson demonstrates that beginning in September of 3 B.C. and for many
months into 2 B.C., as Jupiter, called the King Planet, traveled across the night sky,
it entered into what is called a “retrograde motion” – it’s path made it appear to the
naked eye to loop back and forth around the Star Regulus. The Babylonians called
Regulus “Sharu” which means “king”; the Romans called Regulus the King star
(Rex); Regulus is another Latin word for “king.”
Mr. Larson says that during these months, the Planet of Kings (Jupiter) danced
a halo above the Star of Kings (Regulus), a “coronation.” This was something the
Magi, who read the stars, would likely never before have seen.
Moreover, all this took place in the constellation of Leo, the Lion constellation;
Leo is the Latin word for Lion, the king of beasts. Regulus is the brightest star in
the constellation Leo. This likely would have been a sign to the Magi foretelling
some great event – perhaps, the birth of some great Jewish king, based on the
Hebrew prophecies: In Genesis, Jacob makes a prophecy to his son Judah that his
descendants shall be kings: “Judah, like a lion, the king of beasts . . . the scepter
shall not depart from Judah” (Gen. 49:9-10). King David was from the tribe of
Judah, and Jesus was born in the line of King David, in the town of Bethlehem,
King David’s town, as the Prophet Micah foretold and as King Herod learned when
the Magi came to visit him, as our Gospel today from St. Matthew tells us.
But there is more. Mr. Larson discovered that as Jupiter (the King Planet) was
beginning to crown Regulus (the King Star) in the constellation of Leo, the Lion,
another symbol – meaningful for us – appeared in the sky: the constellation Virgo
(the Virgin) was rising in the east, behind the constellation Leo. And when the
constellation Virgo first rose in the east it was clothed in the Sun, and the moon
appeared to be beneath the feet of Virgo, the Virgin.
Listen to Rev. 12:1: “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed
with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head, a crown of 12 stars.”
But there is still more. In June of 2 B.C., after Jupiter had just finished
“crowning” Regulus (recall that the retrograde motion went on for months), the
Magi would have witnessed an even more spectacular event in the skies: a
conjunction, or coming together, of Jupiter and Venus – so close that they appeared
to the naked eye to be one star – the brightest star ever to appear in the heavens!
This coming together of Venus and Jupiter would have been so bright as to be an
intensified “Morning Star” and “Evening Star” – visible just before sunrise and just
before sunset.
And in December, as the Magi headed south from Jerusalem to Bethlehem,
Jupiter would have appeared hanging over Bethlehem, the city of David, where
Christ was born.
Using Mr. Larson’s theory, let’s sum up: Jupiter, the King Planet, crowns
Regulus, the Star of Kings, in the constellation of Leo the Lion, a year and a half
before Christ’s Birth;
when it begins to do so, the constellation Virgo (the Virgin) rises in the east,
clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet;
then comes the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus, which led the Kings of the
East to the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.
Mr. Larson made a fascinating video in which he explains all of this. To watch
it all you have to do is simply type in an Internet search, “Star of Bethlehem,” and
then scroll down to the YouTube video.
But back to our Gospel: St. Matthew tells us that the Three Kings brought
gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. These gifts are highly symbolic: gold for a
king, frankincense which is burned to honor God, the smoke of which, as the
Psalms tell us, rises like our prayers to the heavenly Father; and finally, myrrh,
which is used to anoint a dead body.
Somehow – maybe by a private revelation from God, we do not know – the
Magi knew that this little Babe lying in the manger was no ordinary child; rather,
He was their God and their King, who would one day die for our sins.
Their great faith in whatever message they received inspired them to follow
the star until they found the Christ Child; and then, in expression of their faith, they
humbly prostrated themselves before the little Babe, and offered Him their gifts.
This same Jesus – in the flesh, whom the Magi came to worship – we adore in
every Catholic Church, at every Mass. This same Jesus is the Eucharist.
He is present, in His full divinity as God, and in His full humanity – His Body
and Blood - right now in our tabernacle;
and he will be present in the same way on our altar at this Mass when I
pronounce the words over the bread and wine that Jesus Himself spoke at the Last
Supper: “This is my body . . . This is my blood.”
When I say those words, a miraculous change will take place before our eyes,
although we will see it’s only through the eyes of faith: after the words of
consecration, Jesus will be present on our altar – so that we, like the Magi, may
worship and adore Him.
At every Epiphany Mass, I like to stress that with the Eucharist, we need
greater faith than the Magi: they saw only the humanity of the Christ Child, but
they believed in His divinity.
We see neither the humanity nor the divinity of Christ in the Eucharist; all we
see is what still looks like ordinary bread and wine; but we believe, in faith, that it is
now the true Body and Blood of Christ.
The beautiful Eucharistic hymn of St. Thomas Aquinas says that all: “Visus,
tactus, gustus, in te fallitur; sed auditu solo, tuto creditor”: “Seeing tasting,
touching, all these senses fail. It is only in hearing that the mystery is believed.
At ever Mass we worship and adore Jesus, truly Present in the Eucharist: An
ancient tradition – when the priest holds up the Consecrated Host, and the chalice
with Christ’s Blood, we strike the breast and say, “My Lord and my God.”
At the end of Mass on this Feast of the Epiphany we will have Benediction:
we will fall down on our knees to worship Jesus in the Eucharist – our Savior and
our King, our Lord and our God.