Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR C EPIPHANY - 4.1.04 Is 60,1-6; Eph 3,2-3.5-6; Mt 2,1-12 Foreigners teach us wisdom Multicultural
Australia is
here to stay: no amount of misunderstanding or prejudice will limit or revert
the cosmopolitan composition of our people. For years, we will argue and write
books about national identity, cohesion and continuity of culture. The reality
is that we, - apart from our few, decimated aborigines-, are a people, who’ve
come from far away countries and, while valuing and holding our individual
traditions, are called to form a new people, the model of which is already
offered to us in our Christian Religion: itself a religion that from its
beginning has dared to proclaim that we are all born equal, irrespective of
nationality or culture, race or
social status. And we are all called to form -in God’s Church- one family and
one pilgrim people, with no barriers between Jews or Greeks, rich or poor, male
or female. Today we celebrate three ‘wise men’ all three were foreigners,
coming from far away countries. Their ‘wisdom’ was expressed in that they
dared to proclaim to the Jewish Nation and to its King -Herod the Great
himself!-, that a New King had been born, a king of Kings & Lord of Lords:
he will establish a Kingdom of peace, who will abolish bondage
& boundaries, invasion & oppression. In it, God alone will be all, in
all, for all. This universal dream of fatherhood of God & brotherhood of
man, is at the centre of today’s story of the three wise men, each a king in
his own right. Their wisdom presents the essence Christ’s Church, as one new
family, gathered from all the nations of the world. In the end, Jesus was
condemned for presenting this universalistic world vision: it was seen as
dangerous and subversive, aimed at getting rid of all structures of law,
empires, nationalities, positions of power and prestige. The
Wise Men’s Wisdom: Let
us, perhaps for the first time, read the story of the three wise men from the
above perspective, and appreciate the challenges that their wisdom poses on our
present day world vision, with its scare of terrorists, Taliban &
freedom-fighters. The very idea of foreigners coming to celebrate a Jewish
Messiah-King is disturbing: what have these foreigners got to do with Jewish
affairs? What do they know of God’s plan? Hasn’t God chosen the Jewish
people as his own!... how dare these foreigners encroach on their sacred
territory!... Still, the story tells us that the 3 Wise Men came to address the
Jewish great King, who in turn addressed the leaders of the Jewish nation. And
they agreed that it would be unthinkable to even suggest that non-Jewish nations
& cultures could be chosen into God’s Kingdom, and be God’s children as
they were.... Yet they came and were received with grace by Jesus, Mary &
Joseph. A
lesson & a warning: Jesus
was born and formed in Judaism, yet
he is King of Kings & Lord of Lords for people who seek the truth from all
nations, cultures and empires. Sadly, for many Jews of Jesus’ time and of
early Christianity, (as indeed for many of us today), it was impossible to
imagine that perhaps they were misreading God’s plan. That perhaps, human
positions of power & prestige -in society or in Church- can and do at times
run contrary to God’s plan, who wants everyone saved, especially the oppressed
& underprivileged. Today, as we move into the new year, look around and see
how many are the people near you, who feel unwelcome or alienated, opposed or
confronted in the midst of our world - society - church - families - religious
orders... What would Teresa of Calcutta or Padre Pio even our Chris Riley say to
our left brain, when we tend to exclude & judge others, when our attitude
towards others stays condemnatory & not conciliatory? ______________________________________ |
