Epiphany of the Lord
I love astronomy. I am not a scientist, but I have a great appreciation for the study of the universe outside of our planet. Even as a kid, there was something mystifying about laying out on our deck on a clear summer night and staring out into the endless sea of stars, stretched out over me like a cosmic planetarium, pondering the fact that the shining light we witness in the sky has traveled for hundreds of thousands of years – and knowing that some of these stars no longer exist. There is something about that knowledge that makes me feel small, but also important – that maybe the God of the Universe extravagantly created every incredible, mysterious, unbelievable aspect of the time and space to reveal a little bit of Himself to us.
On this feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, we remember and celebrate an interesting part of the Christmas Story – the Magi from the East coming to pay tribute to Jesus. If you remember, they follow a “star” to Bethlehem. They may not have known, but what they were about to do was prophesied in Scripture by the Prophet Isaiah nearly 800 years before, which we hear during the first reading at this Sunday’s Mass. The reading revolves around a light piercing through the darkness. “Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance.” It speaks about people raising their eyes and seeing this light, and coming from afar to experience it, and the final line reads “bearing gold and frankincense and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.” There are layers of meaning to this passage. The imagery of light speaks about Jesus, the Messiah, coming into the world, but the analogy also turned out to be literal in the sense of the “star.” Spot on. Way to go Prophet Isaiah.
But what was it that the Magi saw in the sky that so captivated them? This Sunday’s Gospel quotes the Magi saying to King Herod, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” One compelling theory that has gained some attention last week (right before Christmas) was a cosmic phenomenon that happens in a particularly impressive way every 400 years. It is an occurrence called the “Great Conjunction” when the two largest planets of our Solar System (Saturn and Jupiter) line up from our perspective on Earth and create what looks like a massive star. I tried to look at it with my kids, but it was cloudy so we ended up pointing an app on my phone at the sky and finding it, along with some constellations hidden behind the clouds, which the kids loved.
It seems that a Great Conjunction occurred around the time of Jesus’ birth. Over the course of 7 months, the planets seemed to dance around each other and cross paths 3 times (which is referred to as a “Triple Great Conjunction.”) This event would have definitely caught the attention of men who spent time looking at the stars, hoping to find something significant. Interestingly, that 7-month span of time would likely have been long enough for the Magi to make their journey from the East, to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem where they found Jesus. And just like the Prophet Isaiah noted – they brought him gifts of gold and frankincense, as well as myrrh. While we might present a new baby with something practical (like onesies or diapers), it was a significant gesture. When they laid down their gifts, they recognized that even the treasures in their hands paled in comparison to the gift of Jesus Christ. So, let us follow their example. Whatever leads us and however long it takes us to get there, when we encounter Jesus, let’s lay everything down before him and recognize that he is the light of the world.
