Wednesday, January 6, 2016

My Magi Journey



"When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the East arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ' Where is the newborn King of the Jews? We saw His star at its rising and have come to do Him homage.'  When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. . . . Then, Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance.  He sent them to Bethlehem and said, 'Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found Him, bring me word, that I too may go and do Him homage.'  . . . They set out. And, behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother. They prostrated themselves and did Him homage. They opened their treasures [for] Him. . . And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way." --[Matthew 2: 1-12].

I grew up a believer, in a non-believing household. A nun, who gave a lecture to us in Catholic Biblical School, said that anytime you have a believer, in a non-believing environment, there is persecution.

I guess that as a child, I was not thinking so philosophically.

All I knew was what I had heard in Sunday School and in church, all about how God created us and everything else in the natural (and supernatural) world, how it is better to give than to receive and so forth. . . . By the time my parents took church away after I was Confirmed, I was already a believer. It was too late: I knew in my heart that I had heard the Truth.

And so, it pained me when I would suggest to my family that we give to charity; and they would gasp at me and hiss, "We do not GIVE our money away !!"

I would ask to continue to go to church, even after I had been Confirmed. I was told, quite firmly, "We don't do that anymore."

As a child, of course, I expected that I would be just like my family. Only I wasn't. We all want to belong to someone, somewhere. Sometimes, I would ask myself, 'What is wrong with me?' Every time I opened my mouth, for example, saying something about tolerance for minorities, or the issue with Civil Rights, I would be met with talk about "Those People." As if these folks in my community were aliens.

I would flinch at this talk, the same way that a puppy or a small child flinches when she is shown a threatening fist.

After awhile, I simply stopped speaking. What was the use, if I was just going to be shouted down, mocked, and contradicted? Obviously, I was not the one with the power here. I was the baby and the only daughter. I was small. I had no voice. Even Jesus, in the Gospel of Mark, utters a loud cry but speaks nota word, when He breathes His last.

I began to wonder: Where was the place for Christians in this world?

Matthew's Scripture and other readings from this week begin to answer this. The magi came from the East to find Jesus, then returned there to spread word of his coming. The implication is that Jesus' reach extended to far -off Eastern lands. Some scholars believe these lands refer to Iran, or to Parthia, near Babylon. Others have tried to pin down evidence from a lost Syriac manuscript housed in the Vatican Library, that indicates the magi might have come from as far as China.

Isaiah 60: 1-6 predicts, "Nations shall walk by your light. . . Raise your eyes and look about you: your sons come from afar, and our daughters. . Camels [ and] dromedaries from Midian and Ephah; all from Sheba shall come." Psalm 72 says, "Every nation on earth shall adore You."

How beautiful and utterly magical this notion is!-- That Christianity should sweep the earth, and all should bow down in homage and believe. . .

Yes, Christianity is available to the whole world. But, this idea of universal acceptance was far from my experience.

It was also far from a Christian's experience during Jesus' time. Men with great power, such as King Herod, were so threatened by Jesus' very existence, they systematically tried to hunt Him down and kill Him.

We complain that it is too hard, too dangerous, to be a Christian today. Were it ever thus.

My own family rejected me for my Christian beliefs.

Here was I, expecting to be just like my family. As a child, and even to this day, I want everyone to like me; and I want to like and agree with everyone.  Oh, I tried to disbelieve, for my family's sake. But I could not do it. It was not in me.

Now, I am not a baby Christian any longer. Sooner or later, we Christians have to realize that there is a cost to being a Christian. It is not a popularity contest. Even with our own families!

Before Jesus' death, He promised His disciples that "the Spirit of Truth will be with you forever. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him for He lives with you and will be in you." -[John 14: 16-17].

Today, I believe. Fully. I have received the light of Jesus' star. I shine my light everywhere I go. I try not to become threatened or disillusioned by the rhetoric of non-believers. I realize that not everyone will accept Jesus, nor know Him nor see Him.

I refuse to be tripped up into hating others, just because others are hateful. But, if things become too harsh and threatening, I leave. I continue my journey elsewhere. Just like the magi did.

If the magi had returned to King Herod, the Source of all Hate, the magi could have been killed. The magi could have precipitously caused harm to baby Jesus and His family.

We are all called to spread the Light and to follow where the Light takes us. We are NOT called to play in the dark.

WHERE will YOUR journey take you?

[Related Postings: "Epiphany", Jan. 1, 2011; "The Magi", Jan. 1, 2012; "My Epiphany", Jan. 5, 2013; "The Worship of the Magi", Jan. 1, 2014; The Epiphany of the Lord", Jan. 16, 2015]

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2016. All Rights Reserved.






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