The Ephinany: Discovering Jesus

The Magi finding Our Lord in the manger officially marks the end of the octave of Christmas. While Heaven rejoiced at the birth of Jesus on December 25th the rest of the world knew Him not. The coming of the Magi is a true representation of the outside world coming to discover Jesus for the first time. These Magi were astronomers and reportedly were not of the Jewish faith.

Despite being an outsider to the Israelites they were able to recognize that there was a new born king in their midst and they came to bring him homage. Since God is the creator of all, He is able to use circumstances and natural phenomena to bring about His glory. At the birth of Jesus, the world was not aware of His coming, but the three shepherds that were in the area were able to come to witness the new born Christ in the darkness of a cave. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:5)

Many in our world today believe that they know who Jesus is, but they have not encountered Him as both the shepherds and Magi have encountered Him. In order to encounter Christ we must be open to the possibility of being sought after by the Lord Himself. Jesus cares about all of His creatures and not only a select few. Our coming towards Him will always be a response to His initial call. Through His love for us, God gave us the free will to either accept or reject His call for our lives. In order to know what this call is we must first get to know Our Lord through delving into the scriptures and speaking to Him through prayer.

Jesus is in constant pursuit of His creatures and calls each one of us into a relationship with Him, with every relationship comes the initial encounter of discovering who the person is for the first time. Jesus shows Himself to us at His most vulnerable, He encounters humanity in order to bring us back to Himself. Jesus experienced everything we experienced except for sin. He is a Divine Person but due to Him taking on flesh and becoming one of us, He is able to relate to His people on a closer level than what would have otherwise been.

God wants to be with us, and the ultimate question is will we accept His invitation? We can either take it or leave it which demonstrates His love for us. God loves His people enough to give them a choice to either accept Him or reject Him. The Lord knows that it ultimately would be better for us to accept His will rather than choose something to the contrary. This is precisely where trust in God comes to the forefront. Will we trust God enough to follow Him wherever He leads us? Or will we choose to do something that we ultimately know God doesn’t want us to do? The choice is yours.

The article was written by: Br. Athanasius Mary of the Knights of the Holy Eucharist