key to wisdom

Jan 2, 2022

..

The Adoration of Magi”
by Emil Nolde (1933)

Today marks the final Advent / Christmas FFF email post and today’s feast of the Epiphany is a perfect high to finish on.

A healthy human is an adventurer on a journey and the spiritual life is often spoken about as the following of a hunger and a yearning for God.

The Magi were wise because they were searchers, perhaps astronomers and/or astrologers, adventurers on a mission in search of life’s meaning and purpose, and willing to leave home comforts and securities in their quest.

Many people’s prayers consist of pleading that a distant God will come to lift them and those they love out of the difficult circumstances of the present moment. Of course God does not hesitate to answer these desperate prayers and the Magi who sought Christ may well have been driven by such motivations.

But the Magi then found the one whom they sought. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that they were found by Christ, and this encounter with their God in the unexpected form of a helpless baby changed their lives forever.

When they began their journey home a few hours later they were different. As Eliot ponders in his Journey of the Magi, “We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation…”

Perhaps this is because the Magi as they returned home after their encounter with Christ were less searchers and more pilgrims who had been found by Christ who had always been seeking them.

From the moment of this encounter with Christ these wise men became even more wise, no longer simply seeking in the external signs of stars and guided by random conversations with strangers. The new wisdom of the Magi was that they now knew how to listen for and recognise the voice of Christ dwelling within each of them.

On their journey to Christ they needed external signs and asked “where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” Now that they had been found by Christ they were able to trust the divine voice within and had the courage to change direction as led by the Spirit of God: “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,  they departed for their country by another way.”

While much of the time we may feel lost searching for and grasping at any path that promises quick satisfaction, the central fact of our faith is that we have already been found by the one whom we seek.

We are therefore not only those who seek, but they who have been found.

And this central fact of our faith makes all the difference.

+++

Because today is the final daily (Advent / Christmas) post you might like to take a moment to update your email preferences

Click on the image to visit the SIGN UP page where you can choose which emails to receive:

Every blog post You’ll get everything

Regular blog postsyou will receive two or three posts every week.

Monthly Updatesonce a month I’ll send a FFF update of new initiatives and resources

Lent & Advent daily reflectionsYou’ll receive only the Lent and Advent posts

Lectio Divina podcastsDaily 20 minute audio reflections  using the gospel of the day.

Homily Studio podcast Every Tuesday you’ll receive a 30 minute conversation based on the readings of the following Sunday. Try the Homily Studio for today’s Feast of the Epiphany at this link.

Talks and Reflections –  Every now and then one of Fr. John’s homilies, talks or reflections will be posted as audio podcast.

 

 

 

 

 

3 Comments

  1. What if as Church we focussed more on helping people encounter Jesus in the ordinary circumstance of their lives and through the sacraments rather than focus on appeasing God who has already promised us salvation.What difference would that make to our World and how we treated one another not just near but afar.

    Reply
  2. John
    Thanks for your insights and mediations since the beginning of Advent. Prayful good wishes to you and your work.
    Michael McCabe ⁷

    Reply
  3. It’s a great way to finish the Christmas season, a reminder that all wise people go looking for Jesus. After following the star to find him, they then return to whence they came on a mew path provided by the Lord and become the star to illuminate the path the path they took so others can find him.

    Carry on team, there’s a big year of ligthing the path coming up.

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Posts

I AM

I AM

I try not to repeat these daily Lenten posts year to year but there are times when the same scriptures pop up annually and I realise that I can’t write it better than I did last year. Today is one such day, not only because of the thought I share but even more in the comments that are added by FFF readers. Today I have left some of last year’s comments helping us to appreciate the power of today’s readings.

my word your home

my word your home

The heart of the home in years past was the hearth.
It was at the hearth that the family gathered for the warmth and light of the flame and the food that was prepared there.
The fire was treated with respect since the same flame which provided energy for the home could just as easily destroy it.

stand up look up

stand up look up

The Israelites in their forty years in the desert were journeying from captivity to freedom, but the struggle of their desert years made them vulnerable to attack from every temptation as today’s first reading continues

confident in God

confident in God

I’m not sure if children today are told the great story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, but if not let’s make sure that the parable is taught at all schools of higher learning.

the teenagers

the teenagers

A few years ago I discovered the wonderful way that God uses my imagination in my prayer.
Such openness to imagination when seeking God does not take us away from reality into fantasy but instead brings me into what is most real and inescapably personal and intimate.