The Epiphany of the Lord

Lectionary: 20

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.

E ven after sixty years of ecumenical efforts, Catholics are often questioned by irreverent parties about our devotion to Mary. These skeptics claim an allegiance to Jesus that categorically excludes attention to the Woman who bore, nursed, trained, cared for, and accompanied the Savior throughout his life. 

There is little point in trying to answer their questions for their intention is harm; but, very often, Catholics find themselves unprepared to explain the obvious reason for our devotion to the Mother of God – because we love her! And some are so distressed by their inability to express the obvious, they suppose they've been misinformed or misled by the Church. 

Perhaps it will help if we reopen the Gospel of Saint Matthew and hear again today's gospel again. First, we can ask, "Who, or what, are magi?" The word appears rarely in the Bible, we hear only of a single magus in the Book of Numbers. He was a pagan seer hired by Balak, the King of Moab, to place a curse on God's people as they passed through his land. It's a comical story for many reasons; but in any case, Balaam foretold not only the conquest of Moab by the invading Hebrews, but the ascendance of King David, whom he described as a rising star. He said,

I see him, but not now;

   I behold him, but not near—

a star shall come out of Jacob,

   and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel;

it shall crush the borderlands of Moab...

And so, twelve centuries later, magi came to Jerusalem because they had seen the star of David rising over Judea, and remembered the prophecy. They came to the royal city of Jerusalem to honor the newborn king.  However, as you know, the child was not in Jerusalem and so King Herod directed them to Bethlehem, David's hometown. There, Saint Mathew says, they found the child with Mary, his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage.

As she appears in this story, Mary is the New Jerusalem, and the royal seat of the child sitting in her lap. And when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, Christians throughout the world recognized the Mother of Jesus as the new, Holy City where the Lord rules over the entire world. 

The Angel Gabriel had said she would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit as Solomon's temple had been overshadowed by the cloud of God’s glory; and so she is also the temple where we visit and come to know her Son. There are literally thousands of references in the Old Testament to Jerusalem and its temple, and Catholics find in all of them, references and allusions to Mary. Like the  magi, we come before Mary and her Son with our gifts and joyfully welcome them into our lives. But we also come before them with our foolish sinfulness and the mess we've made of our world, and ask the King and his Mother for mercy and love. 

Recently, as we prepared for Christmas and the new year, we also celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Meaning, we celebrated her worthiness to be the Mother of God. Her virginal conception of Jesus was no accident. She was not God's random choice from all the healthy female human bodies on Earth. 

God does not use women as surrogate mothers to give birth to his son. He may use his enemies to demonstrate his power; but he wants his people to demonstrate his holiness. (Sirach 36:4) And so he chose the Woman whom he had already blessed with amazing graces to be the Mother of God and he found her entirely willing and ready, despite the fact that she "did not know man."

Her innocence, willingness, and worthiness to be the Mother of God also makes us -- her sisters and brothers --  worthy to be the People of God. And more: her singular innocence makes our planet -- of all the planets in the entire universe -- worthy to be the Home of God. God has chosen her, and us, and our Earth; and there is no denying God. He does whatever he wills. If God, like the landowner in the Lord's parable, chooses to give this Woman more grace than he gives to others, he is absolutely right in doing so. As the Landowner said, "Am I not free to do as I wish...? Are you envious because I am generous?’

Would anyone envy the young woman who was preternaturally pregnant? The young, nursing mother who was awakened in the middle of the night and rushed from Bethlehem to Egypt because her husband had a nightmare? The woman who watched her Son set out on the Gospel Road only to learn of people who hated him and wanted to kill him? The woman who met her son on his way to Calvary, and stood by his cross as he died? Would anyone envy her sorrow and complain that she had too many blessings? 

As we hear today’s gospel we can imagine the Mother of God both mystified by the appearance of the magi, and welcoming their prostate homage before her infant. She would not deny them the opportunity to worship the one whom she adored. Nor does she deny us. Rather she welcomes and urges us to know, love, and serve him. 

Her last recorded words in the Bible urge us to, “Do whatever he tells you!” And we have heard him echo the angel’s instruction to Joseph. Gabriel said to Joseph, “Do not be afraid to take Mary into your home!” And Jesus told John, “Behold your mother!” 

We do as he tells us, and as she tells us: we worship her Son.