Happy New Year to all!
Epiphany Sunday always brings the reading about the magi, the wise men from the east in search of the King of kings, the incarnate God.
I have felt it nearly impossible to escape from the sway of the poem of TS Eliot, The Journey of the Magi, every time we celebrate the feast of Epiphany. The poem narrates the temptations and hardships, the visions and hallucinations the wise man comes across during the journey to find God. What did the magi expect to get in return for making that dangerous journey?
The magi were making no conquest expeditions; they were not kings either. They were just wisemen. They were not there to make an alliance. They take the tedious journey with only one purpose: to worship him. True worship. That is what they did when they saw him.
On the way, they had wandered into a palace in search of him. He was not there. We admire in them the willingness to accept the truth that the King is born in a manger. They were in search of truth and would not be satisfied by anything short of that. They were perhaps overwhelmed by the truth of the Messiah. He was not in the palace but in a godforsaken cattle shed! Well, in the godforsaken place they were daring to search for God, where ordinary people would not. They had that courage, and God revealed the truth to them.
While lost in the palace, they were enticed into false worship. Herod wanted them to let him know where the newborn king was, so that he could go and worship too. Herod is making an evil intent to kill the Child and seeking an easier route of finding him. He does not want to begin his own search to find God. He wants to imitate the routes that others have taken. Herod is also a metaphor for self-seeking worshippers. Worshippers of false images. They are unwilling to let go of the comfort of their securities and want to appear to be worshipping God. Pope Francis says this is not worshipping God but worshipping oneself. Very often, the false desire for worship is originated from those who worship themselves. At last, the magi reached the presence of the truth and worshipped. At the end of every true search for God is worship, true worship.
The anecdote of the visiting magi is complemented by the story of Artaban, the otherwise man. Artaban could not catch up with the caravan of the otherwise men. By the time he reached Bethlehem, he learned that the family had escaped to Egypt for fear of the king seeking to kill the Child. So he went to Egypt and other places in search of the King. Thirty-three years. During the thirty-three years of his search, he sold his treasures to save a child, a woman, and many others. Finally, when he dies, he hears a voice telling him that whenever he helped the needy, he was helping the King himself.
What captivates my mind in this story is how Artabanunwittingly makes an alternate way to find God by selling all his treasures to help the needy. Artaban makes a perfect model for Christians today who are still seeking to find God. Find him in the poor and the needy. True worship begins there.
The magi are metaphors for the journey of faith of everyone seeking for divine vision. It is a pilgrimage. The goal of the seeker is to attain a blissful divine vision. The vision happens to those willing to leave the comfort of home and face the uncertainties on the way. One encounters the demons and angels in one’s inner world on the journey. Before one gains the vision of the divine, one has to tackle them or befriend them. Once the inner resolve is seasoned and the intentions purified, one gets the eyes needed for the divine vision.