“THE KINGS HAVE arrived. Please come in!” exclaimed Fr. Juan Navarro, parochial vicar of Christ Cathedral during the solemn Mass of the Epiphany of the Lord celebrated on Jan. 4.
He continued, “What a joy that the kings have come to visit us! Your names, please?”
“I am King Melchior, I am King Gaspar, I am King Balthazar,” replied the parishioners who played the role of the Wise Men, who, according to the Gospel of Matthew 2:1-12, traveled from the East —guided by the Star of David— to adore the baby Jesus who had been born in Bethlehem (Judea).
At that time, that region was under the rule of King Herod, who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents.
“Dear kings, why have you come?” asked Fr. Juan.
“We have come to adore the King of Kings,” the Wise Men replied in unison in front of the altar and before hundreds of parishioners.
“I bring gold to the King of Kings to adore his kingship on earth,” said King Melchior (played by Alex Guevara), who is an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion.
“I bring incense for the Son of God made man and to honor his divinity,” said King Gaspar, interpreted by Lorenzo Reyes García, an usher at Christ Cathedral.
“I bring myrrh,” said Balthazar, which symbolizes Jesus’ human condition and his future sacrifice.
This wise man was played by Marcos Reyes, another usher. Each person approached the Nativity scene in front of the ambo to kneel in prayer. After the Holy Mass concluded, they distributed gifts to all the children. The Epiphany of the Lord, known as the appearance or revelation in Greek, is a Christian feast celebrating the manifestation of Jesus to the world. It is symbolized by the visit of the Magi to Jesus, emphasizing that Christ is light and salvation for all humanity. It is also called “Little Christmas.”
“…After hearing the king, the Magi went on their way, and suddenly the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, His mother, and bowed down to worship Him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts of gold, incense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their home country by another route…,” says Holy Scripture (Matthew 2:1-12) about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem of Judea.
“We must be clear in our lives that our hearts have deep longings that need to be satisfied,” said Fr. Juan during the homily. “Our hearts are truly thirsty and will not rest until we have truly filled them with several elements: one of them is the longing for truth.”
He said that the celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord invites us to discover the truth, not in a concept or a thing, but in someone: Jesus.
“That is absolutely extraordinary because that someone is the greatest gift that God has given us: His most holy Son, the man par excellence, where the truth has become flesh in the person of Jesus, shown to the world as the light of the world,” said Fr. Juan. “The world must seek the one who is the light of the world in order to find Him.”
On the morning of Epiphany, the reading of the Word of God was accompanied by something beautiful: Isaiah 60, which talks about Jerusalem finally emerging from darkness, a light rising at dawn, dispelling shadows and bringing a light that will finally allow the people of Israel to see clearly.
“The interesting thing is that this light is not the light of the sun,” Fr. Juan added. “It is the light of the glory of God. It is all of His truth that comes to us because Jesus is the light that illuminates our lives.”
This is why Jesus’ truth reaches us. Because truth is light that shines on our lives, as the prophet Isaiah described. It’s like, in the presence of that light, other nations become aware of it, see it clearly and follow its glow.
“That is why the Magi see that light and follow it. They go to meet the true God; the one and only God,” said Fr. Juan. “It is crucial in our lives that this longing for truth is satisfied by finding Him, and those kings who read the stars (they were astrologers) leave everything behind to go in search of the truth.”
“I have found Christ and, therefore, the joy of living,” said Alex Guevara, a construction worker from El Salvador, who played the role of Melchior and brought gold to the infant Jesus. “He is the one who sustains me when I am downcast. He is always with me.”