“…and
on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated
themselves and did him homage.” (Matthew 2:11)
Yesterday
I was meditating on all the wonders that Mary and Joseph saw on the day and in
the weeks following the birth of Christ.
The shepherds came that very night, and now these strangers from the
East come and prostrate themselves before their Son. These magi went in search of a king to the
point of putting their own lives at risk when they start asking questions in
Jerusalem about where the newborn king of the Jews was. Their lives were at risk because Herod, who
was tyrannical as a king, could have killed them the same way he slaughtered
the Holy Innocents. Herod saw this Child
as a threat while the magi saw him as a blessing they had to see. Through the grace of God the Magi complete
their journey when the star leads them to Bethlehem. They prostrate themselves, and in the Spanish
translation of this passage, the gospel says they “adore” the Lord.
This
verse jumped out at me when I was preparing my homily. Here we are on the third day of a New Year
making up all sorts of resolutions when there is golden one spelled out for us
in today’s gospel. Like the magi, we are
called to seek out the Lord and adore him.
I have always said that one of the greatest treasure that we have in
this parish is our Perpetual Adoration Chapel where Jesus is waiting for you,
longing for you, thirsting for you. That
chapel is like the manger in Bethlehem where Christ, as an old song says,
forever a child, waits for you so that you may adore him like the magi. So how’s that for a New Year’s
resolution? Why don’t we spend more time
in that chapel this New Year? In prayer, in adoration, or we could simply just
sit there. I say this because some of us
may not know what to do or what to say in there when it is perfectly fine to
just sit there in his divine presence. St.
John Vianney was once asked what he does in front of the Blessed Sacrament:
“Nothing. I just look at Him and He
looks at me.” That’s all we need to
do. The fruits that you will receive are
endless, and the fruits this parish will receive will be beyond anything we
could possibly imagine.
So
Christ is waiting for you. Sure the gym
is a great resolution, a diet is reasonable, but oh how I wish that my chapel
be as full tomorrow morning as every gym in Miami. The change that we need in this New Year, and
the peace that we long for are all in that tiny chapel. I know I didn’t write a homily on Christmas
or New Year’s Day, but the fine points that I touched upon in those homilies
dovetail into what I just preached. On
Christmas, I invited the faithful to approach the manger and in silence simply:
adore, pray, and listen. And on New
Year’s Day I tweeted four simple mini-resolutions for 2016: 1) be joyful, 2) be
merciful, 3) be prayerful, and 4) be holy.
Very simple goals that the Herod’s of the world want to destroy. Yet we are called to be joyful, merciful,
prayerful, and holy. All attainable
goals, if we simply go and adore him.
