This Sunday, Jesus Wants More Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

We all know the story the Church celebrates this Sunday, Epiphany Sunday. We love the strange elements it introduces into the Christmas story: The star, the camels, and the wise men with their gold, frankincense and myrrh.

But those three gifts are more than just strange foreign objects from the past. Here are five takeaways drawn from Sunday Readings columns at this site and the Extraordinary Story podcast.

First: Jesus wants us to give him the “gold” of wisdom so that we will “shine in his sight.”

St. Gregory the Great explained the meaning of the magi’s famous gifts and said Christ expects them from each of us, every day.

First, St. Gregory compared gold to wisdom. “Wisdom is typified by gold; as Solomon says in the Proverbs, ‘A treasure to be desired is in the mouth of the wise,’” he wrote. Wisdom is also the first of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. We receive it at baptism and it gives us the ability to “relish what is right,” to see the goods of God and love them. But it only works if we give it back to God. The Gospel shows us what happens when we use wisdom only for ourselves.

Herod, troubled by the wise men’s news, assembles the chief priests to answer the question: Where is the Christ to be born? They answer “Bethlehem of Judea,” and explain exactly how they know. The specificity of their answer is astounding. They know exactly what the Scriptures say — yet none of them rushes to the manger.

St. Augustine says they “read the Scripture unprofitably.” That’s putting it mildly. The First Reading, from Isaiah, predicted the magi’s visit to the new king and described how the priests ought to have reacted to it: “You shall be radiant at what you see; your heart shall throb and overflow.” But the chief priests hearts’ didn’t throb. They had intellectualized their faith and failed to take it to heart. They lacked wisdom.

Contrast the priests with the wise men. Not only did the magi have the intelligence to know that the astronomical signs they saw were significant, they had that added quality that our Epiphany hymns stress: They had “wonder,” which is shorthand for awe at the truths of God — wisdom.

How about us? Do the facts of our faith fill us with awe? Does our intellect touch our hearts? Or, like Herod’s priests, do we have belief without wisdom; faith without wonder?

Second: Likewise, we either give Jesus “frankincense,” or end up like Herod.

St. Gregory says frankincense, like the incense used at Mass, symbolizes prayer. He writes: “By frankincense, which is burnt before God, the power of prayer is intended, as in the Psalms, ‘Let my prayer be counted as incense before thee.’”

Herod, who descended from Edomites forced to convert to Judaism, was not a pious man. If he appreciated incense, it was to bolster his own self-image as the great king who had built up the Temple. In fact, he was regarded as a petty king whose lust for power had become such a prominent idol in his life that he killed his own family members for it.

When he meets foreign visitors looking for Jesus, he tells them: “Go and search diligently for the Child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I, too, may go and do him homage.” But he wants to do the opposite of “give homage” — he wants to eliminate Jesus as a threat to the power that he holds so dear.

Instead, he could have learned piety from the magi. They did what Herod only pretended he wanted to do. When they met the baby Jesus, “They prostrated themselves and did him homage.” Herod’s whole life would have changed if he had done that.

The magi’s lives did change. They put aside their desire for human respect and bared their souls in front of a child in a crib. They put aside the pressure they felt from the authorities and put their dedication to the true Lord first, even though he was only an infant. And it all started when, instead of staying comfortable in a life where they had all they needed, they journeyed to a place far away to find a new North Star, a new king.

Our lives can change even now if we do the same. St. Gregory said we should offer Christ daily frankincense “by the sweet savor of our prayers.” To do this the magi’s way, we should be willing to put love of God above the opinions of others, to prioritize God above political pressures, and to be willing to go outside our comfort zone to do what God wants.

Third: We need to give Jesus “myrrh,” as the magi did.

In the ancient world, myrrh was a healing ointment and a burial ointment. Therefore, says St. Gregory, “In myrrh is symbolized mortification of the flesh. We offer myrrh when we offer up the desires of the flesh.”

The magi did exactly that at the end of the Gospel. They had received a royal welcome from Herod and had been treated as fellow scholars by his leading intellects. They were promised more of the same if they returned to Herod as requested. But they refused. They gave it all up.

“And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way,” says the Gospel. They saw their lives as a quest for Jesus Christ, and once they found him, they were satisfied.

We can live our lives the same way, forsaking all the lesser goods that fascinate us — food, pleasure and control — and choosing him. Starting today.

Fourth: Epiphany is a time to reject all the idols we have and to put Jesus in their place.

Herod removes all doubt about the identity of the Christ child by getting the chief priests and scribes of the people to establish who he is. By rising from the dead — after being anointed with myrrh — Jesus showed Herod’s priests were right.

Now all that is left is for us to accept his reign. The Second Reading spells out exactly how this will happen. “It was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed,” he says.  “The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and co-partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.”

To enter into his promise, says St. Gregory, we need to give him all three gifts: “Gold, as to a King; frankincense, as sacrifice to God; myrrh, as embalming the body of the dead.”

Half measures won’t work, St. Gregory says. If we are religious, but don’t let him enter our politics, we are like those “who believe him to be God, but do not at all believe that he reigns everywhere. These offer him frankincense, but refuse him gold.”

If we put him in our politics, to justify our stances, but don’t seek his friendship in our daily life, St. Gregory says we are like those who “think that he is king, but deny that he is God. These offer him gold, but refuse him frankincense.”

And if we say we follow him while simultaneously trying to maximize our comforts and pleasures, St. Gregory says we “offer him gold and frankincense, but not myrrh for the mortal nature which he assumed.”

He said the only way to proceed is to offer God everything.

Fifth: Therefore, do this at communion today.

At communion, approach the priest holding the host the way the magi approached the Holy Family with Christ in their midst. Do him homage in the sacrament where he is really present in his body, blood, soul and divinity. Then, when you return to your pew pray:

“Lord Jesus, I offer you my politics, putting the wisdom of the Church’s social teaching before my preferences.

“Lord Jesus, I offer you my prayer life, prioritizing time spent with you before all else each day.

“Lord Jesus, I offer you my sufferings, united with yours, for the salvation of the world.”

This is how the Kingdom of the “newborn king of the Jews” will spread — “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Image: Google Art Project, wikimedia commons

By Tom Hoopes