The Feast of the Epiphany
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| The Three Kings come bringing gifts and came to pay homage |
The wise men followed the star. Through the language of creation, they
discovered the God of history. To be sure – the language of creation
alone is not enough. Only God’s word, which we encounter in sacred
Scripture, was able to mark out their path definitively. Creation and Scripture, reason and faith, must come together, so as to lead us forward to
the living God. There has been much discussion over what kind of star it
was that the wise men were following. Some suggest a planetary constellation, or a supernova, that is to say one of those stars that is initially quite
weak, in which an inner explosion releases a brilliant light for a certain
time, or a comet, etc. This debate we may leave to the experts. The great
star, the true supernova that leads us on, is Christ himself. He is, as it
were, the explosion of God’s love, which causes the great white light of
his heart to shine upon the world. And we may add: the wise men from
the East, who feature in today’s Gospel, like all the saints, have themselves
gradually become constellations of God that mark out the path. In all
these people, being touched by God’s word has, as it were, released an
explosion of light, through which God’s radiance shines upon our world
and shows us the path. The saints are stars of God, by whom we let ourselves be led to him for whom our whole being longs.
Pope Benedict XVI, Epiphany 2012
