‘To proclaim the Savior’
Those three wise men came a long way. They probably weren’t the only three people on the face of the earth who saw the star, but they are the only ones that we know of who responded to the star by journeying the distance to see the King whose birth the star announced.
In the homeland of the wise men there were others who studied the stars, and they knew what this particular star meant. The “wise men” were most likely scholars who knew not only the stars, but the history and myths of many places. So, if others knew how important this event was, what kept them from making the journey? And why did these three wise men go into foreign lands and risk danger, when others did not?
It may be that Jesus tells this story in a slightly different way in the parable of the man who gives a feast and his invited guests do not come. They are busy about the “important” business of their daily life. As we all are! Someone has to earn the living, someone has to take care of the family – often someone has to do both.
What happened in the story is not so different from what happens in our own lives. In some way, the journey of the wise men is like the procession we make during our liturgy. When we bring the gifts of bread and wine to the altar we connect our lives to the bread and wine. We go about our lives, doing the work of living. And then we pause, like the wise men, and make a journey to bring to God the gifts of our lives. We may not have traveled many miles, but in any given week our lives probably cover a lot of territory!
And that is what we bring with us when we gather for liturgy. We join the gifts of who we are, as we are. We bring the gifts of what we do, as well as we can do it. And we bring it in the confidence that the gifts, our lives, will be accepted, and transformed, and given back to us as the body and blood of Jesus. And then we leave; we return to our homes, as the wise men did, nourished by spending time with the Son of God, the Body of Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia!