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OMELIE / Omelie EN

06 gen 2019
06/01/2019 - The Epiphany of the Lord - Year C 

06/01/2019 - The Epiphany of the Lord - Year C 

Reding 1 IS 60,1-6 Psalm 71 Reading 2 EPH 3,2-3.5-6 Gospel MT 2,1-12

 

The mystery, which Saint Paul reveals he is the messenger of, it is the work of grace and new life that is announced by the Church, and not only announced, but also passed on through the sacred sacraments! This work is salvation! Nobody else and nothing else can reveal the salvation that the mysteries of our faith reveal: this is why this is desired by many, and this is why it is hated by every Herod that want to become the ruler of the world and therefore oppressor of every human person.

We are looking at this mystery today: Jesus is introduced by His Mother Mary, and by the Mother Church, to the whole world, to every people, to every religion, to every culture: he is announced as the one who came for them, in order to welcome them and give them that joy that they are blindly searching for. The magi, of whom the Gospel is talking about, represent the search of human hearts. Not only the people of Israel is and was waiting for a Savior, the Messiah, but all people can feel they need someone who can fill the void in their hearts. Everybody is searching for the Son that is born for everybody. Everywhere you look, even if you look at the stars, you can see that needs to come to light the one for whom and thanks to whom all has been made.

The page of the gospel tells a significant event, almost a picture of what happens to every human being and every people. Those who start searching for the meaning of life and history, meet people important and famous for their power or intelligence or richness, as the magi, who met with Herod, with the scribes and the priests of the temple. They are not the ones to decide the course of the research, but – strangely and mysteriously – they are the very own, unknowingly, to discover the important of the Sacred Scriptures!

To be in contact with the Sacred Scriptures begins to dispel the fog on the path. Here they come, trustworthy clues in order to proceed with the search more clearly. Together with these certainties, even still wrapped in mystery, here it comes joy that is a sign of the proximity to God!

Joy accompanies the last stages of the search, when it is almost perfectly clear that the powerful man’s greatness is not the one of the actual powerful ones, of the rich, of the so-called learned men. And joy is still there even in front of the envy, jealousy, falsity of these ambitious, powerful, bully, selfish and thick headed men.

When, at last – like the magi – we find the hidden treasure, the Son of God, the Child in His Mother’s arms, then all worries for ourselves, for our life, disappear. Then we can find the joy to be poor and little, to be hidden, to donate every glory and attention to that Son that has filled mind and heart with His humility and sweetness, with His life and His mysterious poverty.

Once found the Child, the magi empty their caskets, leaving their riches (the gold), their dreams of glory (frankincense), their desire to affirm their name for the future (myrrh), everything they leave to that Child: in fact, He is the one that can use gold with love, He is the one who deserves the obedience of the peoples, and it is His name only that can give value to the centuries to come.

The magi are a prophecy for us. We are going through the stages of their search in order to get to Jesus and, in finding Him, to get to enjoy the true joy, that joy that, in order to live on, does not need richness any more, but, on the contrary, it make you give away the richness: in that way, it becomes even greater.

The magi represent the pagan peoples, that is to say the different religions of the world. The whole world is searching for Jesus, even if it does not know it.

We, who carry Him in our hearts, can, at least a bit, be a ray of that star that clearly guides towards Bethlehem, the place in which the Child is, towards the Mother, in whose arms He rests and awaits!

Let us continue to carry Jesus in our heart, to cultivate His love, to stay close to Him, to obey His word: our life will become testimony, attraction, indication in order to take the steps to reach Him! And we ourselves, first of all, even if the anger of the disappointment, or the hate, or the jealousy of someone else may make us suffer, will be full of joy!

Isaiah took onto him the task to announce this joy, making clear that the whole world will gather in a single place in order to praise God: we know that that place is the shed in Bethlehem!