Sunday January 7, 2018
The Magi give us the word ‘magic’. In ancient times a ‘magus’ was someone with occult knowledge, particularly astrology. The significance of the Magi in today’s gospel reading is that they were non-Jews, and they represent the pagan world paying homage to Jesus, while his own world rejects him: a particular theme of Matthew’s gospel. It is not the gospel but early mediaeval legend that makes them kings, and three in number. All the details in the story refer to biblical texts. The Magi came from “the East”, proverbially the land of the wise (Job 1:1; Jer 49:7); the “star” (Num 24:17); “Bethlehem” (Mic 5:1-3); the “gifts” (Ps 72:10); etc. Clearly, the symbolic meaning is uppermost. We are entitled to ask, then: what is the symbolic meaning of this story for me today? Perhaps this, among other meanings: there are many pagan elements in my life, areas where the gospel has not been heard, where the baptismal waters have not soaked in! I need to take the riches of those places and lay them down at the cradle of the New-born.
