Are you a seeker? Do you seek Christ? What made the wise men wise is that they were seekers. Their whole orientation was to discover Christ. They wanted to find him.
It is very interesting, because they begin to find him because of this star that is in the sky. They follow the star, and they are searching for this king. The prophecies had said that the king is born, and they begin searching for him. They go to the logical place where they think the king will be, which is in Jerusalem where Herod is. Herod is the king at the time.
What was very fascinating is when they get to Jerusalem, they no longer see the star once they begin interacting with Herod. Herod, of course, finds out that they are searching for a king, and he cannot tolerate that there might be another king in this world and, perhaps, even a greater king than he. And so, he sends them out to find this little child. The interesting thing is the Scribes and the Pharisees, Herod summons them together and he asked them, “Where is this king going to be born?” And they tell him, “In Bethlehem the king will be born.” Now, what is interesting is they knew the king would be born and they knew that the king was being born now and the king was being born in Bethlehem, but none of them went. They didn’t go to Bethlehem. The only ones that went on their journey were the wise men because they were the seekers. As they were journeying towards Bethlehem, they began to see the star again, and when they saw the star, they were amazed because it had come back out again, and it led them to the child, where they prostrated themselves in front of the King of Kings and they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. They were seekers.
There are times in our lives where the star seems very evident, where we feel the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit. We know the Holy Spirit is working in our lives. Sometimes in our lives it is very clear. We know the way to go, but then we might have interactions with people throughout the week and the star seems to disappear. When we lose that feeling of the Holy Spirit, or that guidance doesn’t seem to be present in our lives, sometimes we stop journeying, we stop seeking. Those are the times that we need to seek all the more. “Where are you Jesus? What is your direction in my life? What is your purpose in my life?” Like the wise men, it is not until we begin that journey again that the star will manifest itself and the Holy Spirit will guide us and lead us to him.
When the wise men came to Jesus and they prostrated before him, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I would like to focus on not only seeking Christ but, when we find Christ, giving to Christ. So, how do we give gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and what does that mean for us? In baptism you were all baptized as priest, prophet, and king. Those three things became your identity from the moment of baptism. You became a priest for the world, a universal priest, a prophet for the world, and a king for the world.
What does it mean to be priest? These line up with the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Priests use incense, as we do today at Mass, and priests offer this fragrant offering to God. Your priesthood is fulfilled, primarily, by what you are doing right here at Mass. Your presence, you attending Mass, matters. I know a lot of times we focus on people who are not here, and how do we reach the people who are not here. But I want to focus on you and how amazing it is, how wonderful it is, that you are living out your priesthood. That you know where Jesus is going to be born every Sunday. You come here to worship him and offer your fragrant incense.
The second thing is that you are called to be kings. Whatever dominion that you have is your kingship. That kingship can be represented by the gold. One of the kings, one of the magi, offered him gold. What that represents is offering him everything that we have. All of our possessions, all of our lives, all of our gifts and talents. It really is being stewards of God’s grace by giving him our time, our talents, and our treasure.
Third, and finally, is the myrrh, and there is a prophetic sense to that. The myrrh, which is given by the magi, represents the death of Jesus because when someone died in that time, they would anoint the body with myrrh. What it means for us to be prophets is to realize that we, too, are called to unite ourselves with Jesus’s death. We’re called to lay down our lives and give ourselves completely to him. That we don’t wait till the end of our lives to die. We die right now because he promises us that if we suffer with him, and if we die with him, we rise with him. Meaning, we can experience eternal life right now every time we die of our own will and give ourselves to him.
We are here today because we know about this great place where Jesus is going to be born right here on the altar. We give ourselves fully to him. But the difficult thing is when we go back out into the world during this week, we still need to be seekers. We still want to find and discover Christ in the midst of our lives. During this week and during every week that you go out of church, sometimes it is very hard to see Jesus and discover him in the world. But we need to be seekers.
For the next seven weeks here at the parish, we are offering this program that we do once a year, called Discovering Christ. It is a wonderful way where, I promise, you will discover him in a new and profound way. I invite you to think about that for yourselves. Could this be a way to seek him? Could this be a way to discover him? Not only that but try to think of somebody that you can invite and ask the Lord to place it on your heart. “Lord, who do you want me invite? Who do you want me to take to this place of discovery?” He wants us all to not only be seekers, but to be givers.
On this great Feast of the Epiphany, we come to worship Christ. We come to be priests, prophets, and kings for him. We come to lay down our lives and worship. We come to discover him once more in the Eucharist. Are you a seeker?
