Adoration of the Magi… Come and Adore

“After their audience with the king 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. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ” (Matthew 2:9-11)

The Adoration of the Meiji – ” Come let us adore Him ! ”

In the next Mystery we encounter the 3 Wise men, who have come from the East to adore Jesus and pay homage to him.

Let us consider that these men traveled a vast distance, committed to finding Jesus. They were inspired and faced mortal dangers, in order to seek Jesus and to give him the glory that was due Him.

In this narrative, they brought him gifts in spite of the hardships, in spite of the dangers, etc. They were all brought before Herod They could have left gifts for Herod.. He was an earthly king. They probably would have been treated very well. Instead they kept these gifts to lay them at the feet of Jesus.

They completed their mission ! They came and offered gifts and offered their praise to Jesus, and then they left the earthly kingdom to go back home by a different path..

The magi , were part of a priestly caste. fulfilling the prophetic story within the Psalms. ( but we will leave that for another time.. )

Consider for a moment that our baptism calls us each to be priest, prophet and king. Interject that idea into the story of the Adoration and then lets look at where we are in our spiritual lives.

We have, like the magi been given knowledge that the Lord is among us, but we have been given signs, and directions on how and where to find him, BUT we have failed to go, we have failed to seek Him, we have failed to find Him and offer Him the glory that is due His name. How ? We have failed to see Jesus in our brothers and sisters. We have failed to offer to Him our gifts, our talents, our treasures. We have failed in leaving the things that are of this earthly kingdom alone, in favor of Jesus.
and the Heavenly kingdom. We have chosen comfort, and sloth instead of the challenges of the road to the Christ child.

We have failed to seek Jesus, in the education of our own faith, and even in our very own charism !
Our seeking to become formed in our own faith is our responsibility… Our duty. Our formation does not end at Confirmation, ! In the same light, it is up to each Brother, Sister, and Priest to understand that our formation does not end when our initial formation is over … NO ! It is just the beginning.

Our responsibility in our faith formation begins in the 10 commandments, specifically, the 1st commandment – ” I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me.” and the 4th commandment – and the 3rd commandment ” Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy “. OK so now you are asking yourself why the 3rd Commandment ? You can not keep what you do not know.

One of the first things every child learned in the Baltimore Catechism, was to ” know God, to love God, and to serve God, so that we can be with Him in Heaven.”. The first part of that is to KNOW God. You can not know, what you do no seek to understand.

We need to be like the magi to seek Jesus out and to adore Him in others .and in creation. We need to be like the magi and bring our gifts to adore Christ in the church, and in the world. We need to be like the magi in being in the early kingdom, leaving behind the things that hinder up from being in adoration and on our journey to the Heavenly kingdom.

The 4th Mystery – The Adoration of the Magi

We beg pardon Lord, for the times when we have failed to adore You , in our brothers and sisters, and in creation.

We are sorry for those times when we did not make the act of Adoration, because it was not easy, or convenient.

We are sorry for those times, when we have missed or ignored those opportunities to grow and deepen our faith , and to know You better.

We ask pardon, for when we did not follow our own Rule, in placing bring life to the Gospel , and Gospel to Life.

Our Father who art in Heaven…..

May God give you the gift of His peace !