Life is full of paradoxes: You may be in the light and be experiencing darkness. You may be wise and still lack wisdom! Experience have shown that the proximity of anything to us makes us less likely to notice them sometimes. That explains why atimes when looking for something, say your mobile phone, you find it in your hand or pocket only after asking someone to ring it.
When this concerns spiritual matters, it is called spiritual blindness- the inability to perceive and understand spiritual things even when it is glaring. That is why many Christians today, though illuminated in baptism, are experiencing darkness in various aspects of their lives: relationship, marriage, finance and spiritual life, etc.
If you want to train yourself to understand spiritual things, continue reading slowly…
Matthew 2:1-12
After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod, some WISE MEN came to Jerusalem from the east. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews?’ they asked. ‘We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ‘At Bethlehem in Judea,’ they told him ‘for this is what the prophet wrote:
And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.’
Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared, and sent them on to Bethlehem…Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went forward, and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage.
POINTS OF REFLECTION
1. Child of God, understanding how God communicates is very important. Every Epiphany sunday the church celebrates the auto revelation of God to the world. How God communicates through the light of reason and faith. From the Gospel we see the interaction between faith and reason: faith does not contradict reason but they complement each other.
2. The Maggi represents those guided by reason. They are astrologers who read the meaning of stars and predict events in the world. The priests and scribes in Israel represents those guided by faith in the Word of God. When the light of knowledge failed the astrologers, the light of faith provided for what was missing.
3. The most difficult times in life is when we don’t have explanation to the difficulties and problems around us. In such moments we are in darkness, hence we become perturbed. The feeling of uncertainty does not respect status, it affects everyone. Hence it is written: ‘Herod and the whole of Jerusalem were perturbed’.
4. But after they sought divine illumination in the Word of God, all the uncertainties were resolved: their destination came to light, the star guiding the Maggi appeared again and their joy returned. And so experience have shown that through the lights of reason and of faith in the word of God, we can arrive at certainty and resolve the doubts in us and drive out the darkness blocking our spiritual visions. This is possible because God communicates through the lights of faith and reason. Where reason stops, faith continues.
TASK
The Bible is always close to us but we seldom see the need to study and meditate on it. The best way to interpret spiritual things is by searching the scriptures. Keep a bible study plan for yourself and your family. Learn to pray with the Word of God as well. You can begin by praying with the psalms.
I Pray for You
May the Light of Christ dispel every darkness preventing your progress as you declare these words:
“You Lord are my lamp; my God, that lights up my darkness.
With you I will breakthrough any barrier,
and with you my God I can leap over any wall.” (Ps. 18:28-29)
