LOOKING FOR LIFE AND SALVATION

FEAST OF EPIPHANY: Mt 2:1-12

Salvation is offered to all

In the feast of Epiphany, we celebrate the fact that salvation is not the privilege of a few, but it is offered to all. It is true that the People of Israel played a special role in the mystery of salvation, but Israel was set aside for the sake of all nations. And the same applies to the Church, the community of believers and followers of Jesus Christ. We are not called and chosen just for our own good, but for the good of all.

The prophet Isaiah already hinted to the universality of the mystery of salvation, when he wrote that the People of Israel was entrusted with the light, so that all nations may come to the light (Is 60:3). To the Ephesians, Paul wrote that the deepness and the extension of the mystery of salvation was not known in past generations, being only revealed in Jesus Christ that God decided that “the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” (Ep 3:6).

The Magi and Herod face to face

Before the Light of Salvation - Jesus Christ - we are confronted with two choices or two attitudes, represented one by the Magi and the other by Herod. The gospel read in the Feast of Epiphany (Mt 2:1-12) puts before us two groups of people, in which one is set on the destruction of the other, but fails.

MAGI

They look towards the future.

Their hearts are full of hope and expectancy.

Their hearts were open to the Spirit of God, who gives wisdom and courage.

They do not rest until they find what they are looking for.

They put all their intelligence and their energy in the search for the Promised One.

Their journey was hard and difficult and they went through darkness, when the star disappeared.

Lost, they asked for help.

HEROD

Herod was blinded by his own power and by the fear of loosing it.

In spite of his old age and his pestilent sickness, he trembled with fear at the news of a child being born.

His throne was set upon violence, oppression and injustice.

The ones surrounding him, even priests and scribes, were not more than bootlickers, always saying what pleases the one in power.

Herod was feared and despised by the common people.

Herod is presented as evil and being evil in heart and mind, he is ready to destroy the future, by killing all children, thus killing hope. He refuses the light and hides in darkness, the darkness of his fear, which made of him a tyrant, ready to kill even his own children.

In our world, in this twenty first century, we need people with the attitude of the Magi, full of hope, looking towards the future, searching tirelessly for life and salvation.