The Feast of the Epiphany
January 7, 2007
12:45PM Meditation
Matthew 2:1-12
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Two months ago, on the eve of Election Day, I found myself in the midst of a conversation about the saying, “Vote early and often”. It sounds like a joke, but we know that it refers to the actual practice of individuals voting more than once for their candidate, voting in the name of people who are dead or those who didn’t make it to the polls. While we were talking somebody said to Msgr. Feldcamp, “Of course, there were never any Catholics who voted early and often.” Our Pastor responded, “The Catholics invented the practice”.
Living in Scranton it is easy to become frustrated with those who put their politics before their religion, those who are willing to compromise their faith in order to advance the agenda of their political party. We could easily dismiss these people as non-believers, those who are Catholic in name only, or label them with one of the names we give to Catholics who don’t make it to church very often, Chreasters, PTA Catholics, or PACE Catholics. But I think there is something more going on here, and it isn’t just about politics. Our Gospel today shows us how we might be pressured into doing something that is wrong, while also giving us an example of how to avoid wrongdoing.
Our Gospel relates how the wise men from the east sought out King Herod to ask his help. They needed to know where the king of the Jews was to be born. Herod summoned his chief priests and scribes, determined the place was Bethlehem, and gave the wise men the answer they were looking for. He also made a final request. He said, “When you find him, let me know where he is, so that I too can worship him”. Of course, Herod had no intention of worshiping Jesus, but instead wanted to kill him. But on its face, to the wise men, Herod’s request, I’m sure, sounded reasonable. After all, Herod had done them a favor by telling them where Jesus could be found. They could return the favor by searching out the Christ child and giving Herod the answer he sought.
It sounded like a simple case of ‘you watch my back, and I’ll watch yours’, but Herod in fact wanted to make the wise men complicit in murder. Had the wise men told Herod where Jesus was, he would have sent his soldiers to the house in Bethlehem, and his soldiers would have killed the newborn Savior, and probably Mary, and probably Joseph. The wise men themselves, having helped in the murder, would likely then have lost their lives, as well. This is not conjecture on my part. We know the depths of Herod’s depravity, for St. Matthew relates that when the wise men didn’t do what he wanted, Herod killed every boy in Bethlehem two years old and under. We remember this event every December 28th, Holy Innocents’ Day.
The wise men refused to be complicit in murder. Warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they slinked away, saving their own lives and the life of the baby they had just come to worship. It was easy for them to see that doing this favor for Herod would be very costly, not only to Jesus, but to them as well. They may have felt they owed Herod something to show their gratitude for his help, but they certainly didn’t owe him their lives. They weren’t about to help him kill Jesus, especially if it meant they would die, too. But what if Herod had sweetened the deal? What if he had promised them wealth, power, and influence, if only they would give Jesus up? We can’t answer these questions about the wise men, because all we know is that they did the right thing. How often, though, have we seen our fellow Catholics do the wrong thing? How often have we seen our coreligionists willing to be made complicit in grave crimes because they owed somebody something, or at least thought they did? How often have we been willing to compromise ourselves and our integrity because our relatives, our boss, our friends, or our leaders asked us to?
The wise men are an example to us because they show us that we don’t have to compromise ourselves and we don’t have to be complicit in sin, just because someone did us a favor. Nothing ever obligates us to do wrong, because our first obligation is to God. We don’t even have to make a big stand, if doing so would result in our destruction. I imagine that the wise men, having been told in a dream what Herod wanted to do, probably desired to tell Herod where to go. But they knew how to choose their battles, knowing that that battle was one they could only lose. Moreover there was another way out. They didn’t have to die, though I’m sure they would have been happy to be martyrs for Christ. The point is that they looked for ways out of their predicament that would not compromise them and would keep them from being complicit in evil. We, too, must look for ways out of such situations that don’t result in harm to others or the destruction of our souls.
It is helpful to remember, also, just what Herod wanted the wise men to do. He wanted them to help him hurt Jesus. Every time we sin we hurt Jesus. Whenever we willfully decide to contravene God’s law we may as well be the one wielding the whip or placing the crown of thorns on our Lord’s head. When people ask us to be complicit in evil because we owe it to them, we must recall that they are asking us to hurt Jesus, and we owe our Lord more, much more, than we owe anyone else. We’ll never owe anyone so much that we can be willing to pay off our debt with our souls.
So what does all this have to do with Epiphany? Epiphany, of course, is the celebration of the revelation of Christ to the Gentiles. The Gentiles still need this revelation. Wise men still seek Jesus and men like Herod still ask us to help them kill Jesus. The difference is in the star. The wise men saw a great light and followed it. Today, we are the ones called to show the light, called to be the star. And Christ’s light in us will reveal Christ to the Gentiles. When we refuse to vote for the pro-abortion candidate, when we refuse to help our neighbor cheat on his taxes, when we won’t write a letter of recommendation for our lazy cousin, people are bound to ask why. Why won’t you just bend a little, just this once? We can answer, “Because I’m a Catholic”, and know that in our stand for Truth we are revealing Christ to those who need to see him.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.