The three 'wise' men who visited the infant Jesus in the manger, are they called 'wise' because they visited Jesus or were they wise beforehand and therefore able to find Jesus?
As this debate raged on in my mind as I entered the Church for Mass this morning, I tried to find the answer to it in the readings. So, after long, many many days, I paid close attention to the readings read in the Church. Nothing very clear to clarify that doubt. But then sometime after the gospel reading something else struck my mind which totally answered the question, but in a very different way.
What flashed in my mind was the fact that their wisdom was not their doing!! That they were termed 'wise' is actually not for what they did, but basically for recognizing that they were part of something greater. The actual work was being done by God! He was manifesting Himself - Epiphany. That was the great event. The three men who visited the infant did not make that happen. They did not have any direct role to play in this manifestation. All that they did was become aware of it and witness it! Their greatness lay not in making the manifestation happen, but in discerning it, recognizing the event, and participating in it with reverence. That's what wisdom consisted in!
It is easy to get our focus misplaced... after all, the three kings/wise men are the new entrants to the crib. The rest have been there for sometime now! What is new or different easily catches our eye and we tend to focus on it, rather than the main event unfolding. But the wisdom of the three kings offers us this lesson: to be able to discern the main point, from out of a million other things (perhaps new and flashing and great and amazing things!) happening. And see ourselves in the light of that main point, rather than make ourselves the centre of attention and the rest revolving around us.
As this debate raged on in my mind as I entered the Church for Mass this morning, I tried to find the answer to it in the readings. So, after long, many many days, I paid close attention to the readings read in the Church. Nothing very clear to clarify that doubt. But then sometime after the gospel reading something else struck my mind which totally answered the question, but in a very different way.
It is easy to get our focus misplaced... after all, the three kings/wise men are the new entrants to the crib. The rest have been there for sometime now! What is new or different easily catches our eye and we tend to focus on it, rather than the main event unfolding. But the wisdom of the three kings offers us this lesson: to be able to discern the main point, from out of a million other things (perhaps new and flashing and great and amazing things!) happening. And see ourselves in the light of that main point, rather than make ourselves the centre of attention and the rest revolving around us.
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