Oldie but goodie

I see I forgot to do a sermon for Epiphany last week, so here's one I made earlier:

In dulci iubilo Now sing with hearts aglow
Our delight and pleasure Lies in praesepio:
Like sunshine is our treasure Matris in gremio:
Alpha es et O; Alpha es et O.

I’ve chosen that carol rather than the more obvious “We three Kings” or “Three Kings from Persian lands afar” not because I have doubts about the royalty, origins or number of the Magi (none of which matter in the least) but because this year I am struck more by Christ’s response than by our gifts, by the reality more than the appearance.

Of course, it’s not really accurate to speak of Christ’s response to our gifts, since our gifts are themselves a response. As the Preface has it, “You do not need our praise, but our desire to praise you is itself your gift”. That reminds me of Chesterton’s answer to the question “Why did God make us?”: “Because he thought we would like it”. Christ, God, does not do anything for the sake of a response. he does everything for its own sake – or rather, ultimately for his own sake – because what he does is by definition good in itself. But when we see what he does, and far more when we get a glimpse of what he is, it is impossible not to respond; and that response evokes a response in its turn. “For our praise does not add anything to you, but works for our salvation”. All the same, perhaps I should have said not “Christ’s response to our gifts” but “Christ’s Being, which is at once the inspiration and the reward of our gifts”. I’ve always regretted discovering that “Ego Deus tuus and merces tua magna nimis” is not correctly rendered by the Douay’s “I am thy God and thy reward exceeding great”. Because, mistranslation or not, it is eminently true. The only reward that really is exceeding great is, after all, God himself.

“Like sunshine is our treasure, Matris in gremio”. The Magi knew they were travelling towards the real treasure; their instinct to bring gifts, their own best treasure, to give when they found him, was a sound one. Like calls to like: the divine treasure called for the human treasure. how could it be otherwise?

Like sunshine is our treasure: the nations shall walk in his light and kings in the brightness of his rising. All they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense: and showing forth praise to the Lord. This is not quite what it looks like. It is in fact an exchange of gifts between God and humankind; it is one example of the wonderful exchange whereby God made himself like us so that we might become like him. “To him that shall overcome I will give power over the nations, as I also have received of my Father; and I will give him the morning star. Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, ad he with me. To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me on my throne, as I also have overcome, and am sat down with my Father on his throne.” The Magi knew quite well that the initiative had not been theirs: the root and stock of David, the bright and morning star, had done the knocking. They had simply answered the call.

They had simply answered the call: and it was clear to them, when they arrived at where the star stopped, that they had arrived at the gate of heaven. “O Patris caritas! O Nati lenitas! Deeply were we stained per nostra crimina; but thou for us hast gained caelorum gaudia. O that we were there!

I said that I was more struck this year by the reality than by the appearance; I think that the reality of this episode in the earthly life of Christ is told – as so often when John does not relate an episode in his gospel – in Revelations. What the Magi saw with their physical eyes was rather an unimpressive sight; but I think their inner eye might well recognise this description:

“After these things I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven…immediately I was in the Spirit: and behold there was a throne set in heaven, and upon the throne one sitting, and he that sat was to the sight like the jasper and the sardine stone, and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.” “Like sunshine is our treasure, Matris in gremio!”

We don’t know who else was visibly in that house, but there were certainly angels singing nova cantica, and all the bells were ringing in caeli curia. The Magi were just a small fraction of the vast multitude worshipping Christ. “The living creatures rested not day and night, saying: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come. And when those living creatures gave glory, and honour, and benediction to him that sitteth on the throne, and adored him that liveth for ever and ever; the four and twenty ancients fell down before him that sitteth on the throne, and adored him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: Thou art worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory, and honour and power: because thou hast created all things: and for thy will they were, and have been created.”

This is not just a visit of a few Magi to a child in Bethlehem. It is not even just the first visit of the Gentiles to the Christ. It is the start of the consummation of the age, the turning of humankind to God; the reconciliation of heaven and earth, the marriage of God and humankind. It is what John describes thus: “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of great thunders, saying: Alleluia: for the Lord our God the Almighty hath reigned. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath prepared herself…and he said to me: Write: Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb”. the Magi knew they were blessed. I’ve always been fond of Matthew’s phrase: “they rejoiced with exceeding great joy”. Nothing so strong is found anywhere else in the gospels, not even after the resurrection. Because here in the stable is the dawn of the new dispensation, in which God is with us. This stable is the new Jerusalem “coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adored for her husband…Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and he will dwell with them. And they shall be his people, and God himself with them shall be their God. The Lord God Almighty is the temple thereof, and the Lamb…and the city hath no need of the sun, nor of the moon, to shine in it. For the glory of God hath enlightened it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof…and he that sat on the throne said: Behold, I make all things new…Write, for these words are most faithful and true…I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” Rightly did the Magi rejoice with exceeding great joy!

O Jesu, parvule: For thee I long alway;
Hear me, I beseech thee, O puer optime;
And let my pleading reach thee, O princeps gloriae.
Trahe me post te; trahe me post te.

Amen! Even so come, Lord Jesus!