Gospel Reflection: What gifts will you bring?

 What gifts will you bring? 

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. We've been watching since Christmas our three 'kings' getting closer to the crib. Today they arrive and represent that important moment when Jesus was seen by the wider world. Many of us will know, or think we know this story well because of the words we sing in the Christmas carol, but if we listen carefully to the Gospel you'll find that there is no mention of the number of wise men, and no mention of kings! 

However, the wise men have come from the East and they did follow a star. The wise men followed a star to find Jesus who is the Light of the World, or as we heard last Sunday in the song of Simeon, the light to enlighten the gentiles – the world. The wise men came to pay homage and brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. These gifts all tell us something about Jesus. Gold given to him as a king, frankincense because he is God, and myrrh which would be used to anoint his body after his sacrifice on the cross. 

Gold - Frankincense - Myrrh

Whenever we come into Church we find Jesus in the Tabernacle and genuflect or bow to pay homage to Jesus. On Sunday our children will come to place their gifts in the crib – these will be things they will do for Jesus using the gifts they have been given by God. As adults we too can take time at the feast of the Epiphany to think about what we might do to help others at church, at home, at work in the form of gifts for our king. AMH