Epiphany, the conditions for an encounter

I read in today’s paper that there is a teenager in Singapore who refuses to use a mobile phone. That would not be news some 10 years ago but today we think it is unthinkable to go around without a mobile phone. “Where are you now?” “I don’t see you yet.” “What time are we supposed to meet?” These conversations have become an obligatory prelude to meeting anyone. The mobile phone has become the most necessary condition to meet people.

It was not always like that. In ancient times, when I still combed my hair, we did not need mobile phones to meet people. We only needed to agree on two coordinates: time and space. You asked where and when, and you made sure you reached there in time. That’s all.

Today’s gospel tells us of a particular encounter. Before GPS technology, people relied on the stars to know the times and the places. Some people were good at it, others not so. Today’s gospel tells us of some astrologers that were good at it. They saw a new star and they knew that a new king had been born. How to find him? They knew the time, but not the exact place. So they needed help.

They started to enquire about the place and they were helped by the most unsuspecting character: Herod the Great, someone who hated rivalry and felt most uncomfortable with this new king. But Herod and perhaps only Herod could summon the most knowledgeable scribes to find out the exact location. Still he did not know about the time when this was supposed to happen. So, with twisted intentions, he called the astrologers secretly to his palace. There the fruitful exchange of information takes place. Herod tells them the place, the astrologers tell him the time. And voilá! It works, once you have the two coordinates, finding and meeting the baby Jesus was possible.

The prophecies were not enough. Science was not enough. Only through the fruitful dialogue, albeit corrupted by the evil intentions of Herod, and made vulnerable by the naiveté of the astrologers, was due homage made possible.

The Second Vatican Council has acknowledged that the world needs the Church, but that the Church also is helped by the world and that only a fruitful dialogue can help both. This dialogue started when the Baby Jesus was born and provoked one of the main endeavours of the first evangelization: the epiphany. ‘Epiphany’ means ‘manifestation’. It is acknowledging that the good news of salvation is not for the selected few, but destined to reach the ends of the world. St. Paul, in the Second Reading, made an effort to emphasize that we are all equal before the gift: everyone is called to be co-heir, co-member and co-partner in the one salvation from God because God wants “all to be saved” (1 Ti 2:5).

The gifts the wise men offered to the baby have been interpreted as symbols of Christ, gold for a king, frankincense for a priest, and myrrh for one who is dead. However, the first reading hints to us that what Matthew was trying to tell us, is that the prophecies had been fulfilled. That God has made his people the centre of the world. Or, in more realistic terms, that the whole world is called to turn its gaze to this baby, to become the People of God to receive the fullness of the promises of old.

St. Maximus, the Confessor, took the star the astrologers discovered as a sign from God, another expression of the word of God. The whole creation speaks of the seasons and times to those who are attentive to read them.

The astrologers did not know of the promises of Israel. However, they had the insight to read the signs of creation, they had the constancy to pursue their goal, the humility to ask for what they did not know and the devotion to “fall on their knees to pay homage”.

To discover the saving action and direction of our lives today we also need to work together, to learn to ask, to learn to respond. Anyone, even Herod, may have something good to tell us about God’s plan. Anyone, even we, have something good to tell others about God’s salvation plan.