What to Give the Prince of Peace This Year? The Visit of the Magi to the Christ Child is one of the most beloved scenes in the Gospels. Were there three of them? Or four? Or five? St Matthew does not specify the number. However, tradition favors three since there were three gifts mentioned, viz., gold, frankincense and myrrh.
The gifts represent the identity of the Christ Child, the Emmanuel (God with us), the Word made flesh Who dwelt among us, the Prince of Peace. The gold represents His royalty since He was a descendent of King David. The frankincense represents His divinity. The myrrh (comparable to after-shave lotion) represents His humanity.
Symbols abound in the beautiful story. The Gospel tells us that the visitors from the East were astrologers (magoi)
The star hints that the very structure of the universe is affected by the birth of this Child. The biblical antecedents of the gifts appear in the psalms in which we sing about that Kings who brought gifts to the Davidic King. The fact that the child is born at the end of the 42nd generation (a multiple of seven) from Abraham is no accident. God’s plan was fulfilled at God’s pre-appointed time. Not mentioned in the reading but part of the tradition for over a thousand years is the depiction of one of the visitors as Black. Fr Andrew Greeley says that the Gospel was “equal opportunity” and ahead of its time. The point is that the visitors were the vanguard of billions of Gentiles (non-Jews) who come to worship Jesus, the Christ Child, as we do this Christmas.
Beautiful biblical symbolism points to all of us who enter a new “Year of the Lord” this January. We are the Gentiles now worshiping Jesus the Prince of Peace.
There are three gifts that United States Catholics can present to the Prince of Peace as we celebrate His Nativity and His Epiphany among us. They were enumerated in their present terminology by the Catholic Bishops of the USA in their Peace Pastoral of 1983, The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response.
As we enter a New Year with the gifts of life and faith in the God of Jesus Christ, let us remind ourselves of these gifts that we can offer the newborn King in our lives. First, let us ask God to remind us again and again that we are indeed living in a new moment in human history. Since 1965, with the advent of super-nuclear weapons as well as the mega-problems with a polluted environment, the bishops, as well as Pope John Paul, remind us that traditional forms of conflict resolution are no longer applicable in the new moment.
Second, another gift to the Prince of Peace is an honest effort to commitment to a consistent life ethic. As American Catholics, let us try, with God’s Help, to be pro-life on every human life issue. Let us try to behave that whether “we care to admit it or not, we are all sisters and brothers, we are one family and God is the Father of us all.” Every human life is God-given and every human person is a child of God. God is the Father of all, not some, the bad as well as the good.
Third, we can ask for the grace to be practice “disarmament of the human heart” not only now, but throughout the new “Year of the Lord”. Let us ask for the strength to forego any violent word, action or behavior that tempts us. What better gift to offer the Prince of Peace on His birthday than to practice His Gospel as best we can each moment of our life. May our lives be lives of positive, not negative, energy, forces for good and not for recrimination.
Each holiday season, gifts abound. Our Magi predecessors brought three gifts to the Christ Child. Now, more than ever, each USA Catholic can also try to present three gifts as well as we celebrate the birthday of the Prince of Peace. Let us try to remember and behave that we are in a new moment of human history. May we try to be consistently pro-life on every human life issue. (It is not easy, but it is logical.) May we try to disarm our hearts and actions to stress our belief that it really was the Prince of Peace Whose birthday and Epiphany we celebrate. 010602 AD jfq
Three kings hold each other up
We are afraid of astrologers and prefer kings.
