January
6, 2007
Matthew's
Magi
Milestones
Did you baptize your baby in 2007? Then we’d love to see you at
the special 1pm Mass on Sunday, January13th as we celebrate the Feast
of the Baptism of the Lord with all the babies baptized this past year.
Are you celebrating your 25th or 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2008? Then
we hope you’ll come to our wedding jubilee mass on Sunday, February
3rd at 1pm. Please RSVP to Adriana Miller adriana@saintbrigid.net
and let us know how many of your family and friends will be attending
with you. We’re having a coffee/cake reception afterwards.
Are you in 7th grade and want to officially become a candidate for Confirmation?
We’ll have a special ceremony for becoming a candidate later this
month. Your catechist will have details.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past
Columns:
December 30: Matthew's
Magi
Christmas 2007
Homily
December 23:Joseph Awoke
December 16: Already
but not Yet
December 9: Extreme Peace
Makeover
December 2: In Joyful
Hope
Columns from 2007
Columns
from 2005
Columns
from 2004
Columns
from 2003
Columns from 2002
Over
the years, the powerful meaning behind the Feast of the Epiphany got co-opted
by all sorts of charming songs (e.g. “We Three Kings”), dramas
(e.g. “Amahl and the Night Visitors”), and Christmas cards
featuring camels. These aren’t really inappropriate, but they have
locked us into some assumptions (the bible doesn’t say they were
three in number or that they were kings; scriptures say that they visited
the Holy Family in a house, not a stable) and led us away from St. Matthew’s
main reason for telling this part of the Christmas story.
Here’s what was happening:
the first century Christians in Matthew’s community were Jewish
and they saw in Jesus the fulfillment of prophecies -- they came to believe
that Jesus was the Son of God, and the Messiah of the people of Israel.
The problem was that the gentiles were coming to believe in Jesus too
as their Kyrie (Lord), and it was very difficult for the faithful Jewish-Christians
to accept these new non-Jewish believers. After all, they had been taught
from childhood that the gentiles were unclean and that they were to have
little contact with them. Now they were being expected to pray with them,
eat with them, treat them like brothers and sisters?
The strong emotions being felt
remind me of the strong emotions some people have about today’s
immigration situation. There is great fear, anger, dislike, and mistrust
among some people when faced with people who are here without documents.
And it hasn’t helped some people to be reminded that these are our
brothers and sisters in Christ. This is what it felt like in Matthew’s
community.
So Matthew when tells the story
of Jesus’ birth, he is sure to include the travels of these pagan
magicians who come to accept Jesus as the new-born king. Meanwhile, Herod,
the king of Israel, not only rejects Jesus, but seeks to have him killed.
Can you imagine how upsetting this story was to the folks in Matthew’s
community? Pagans accepted Jesus FIRST? Now they were “stuck”
with the gentiles! And what’s more, they knew they had to accept
them in Christ. This is no longer a cute story. It’s one that can
shake people up across the centuries.
