For the Epiphany: Homage to T.S. Eliot
by Fr. Richard Cipolla
The stars have always been important to me. My name is Melchior and I am a king of a small country, but I have always been interested in the stars. I believe the stars are not just objects in the sky. They are part of the mystery of the universe and tell us things> I have studied the stars for most of my life, and so have my two friends, who are also kings of small countries near mine. So when I saw this star, this particular star that shone brighter than any other star I have ever seen, I knew that it meant something great, something very important. It announced the birth of someone very special, a king that was much more than I was a king, a king whose power was greater than any other king.
I met with my two friends. They also had seen the star, its intense brightness, the rays that surrounded it. We agreed that this star was an announcement of something extraordinary, the birth of someone who must be a king, but not only a king, but the King of Kings. I ssid to them: “Do you think it is a crazy idea to follow this star to the West to see where it leads and to whom it lead?”. They paused for a while, and then said: “Yes, we must follow this star to the place that it shines over”. When we told our families and friends what we were about to do, they were upset and tried to talk us out of it. “What, you are going to follow a star without knowing where you are going and without knowing what you will find, if you find anything at all? This seems very foolish. Stay home and enjoy the beauty of the star. It will pass and life will go on. “
But the three of us knew that we had to take this journey, that if we did not do this, we would regret it for the rest of our lives. And so we prepared for the long trip. We hired guides and servants, we found three of the best camels for the journey, we got horses and mules for the servants, we packed some food but knew that we would have to stop each night to eat and rest. And so we left our palaces, we left our families and friends, we left everything we knew and loved and we set out, guided on our journey by the star. After the fifth day, the weather turned bad, first a cold rain, then later ice and snow. The places we stayed in were not always great, and there were times when we wished that we were in our own beautiful and warn beds in our palaces. But we went on, following the star. The servants and the men in charge of the camels and horses became surly and nasty. They were tired, tired of the terrible weather, tired of being cold and wet. They threatened to leave us, but we offered them more money, and they stayed. As we plodded along, the only thing that kept us going was the star, the star going ahead of us, leading us with that intense light.
Finally we arrived at a place called Judea, where we knew there wss a king. So we asked around to find out where this king’s palace was. It took a while, but we found the palace and went into the great courtyard with all of our stuff, our men, our animals, and carrying gifts that we had brought to give to the king: gold, frankincense and myrrh. We decided on these gifts before we left: gold, a gift fitting for a king; incense, whose fragrance comes from the sacrifice of the grains themselves that burned, so that the fragrant smoke rose as if to heaven; and myrrh, that special spice that was used to anoint the body of someone who had just died.
And so we entered the palace, and after a short while King Herod himself came to the great hall and welcomed us. He treated us as important guests, gave us our own rooms, very lovely, and had a special dinner for us with great food and wine. And so he asked us: what brings you here? And we explained about the star, and how we knew that it announced the birth of a king and we were here to find the place where this king was, and it would seem that the star was so close now that he must be the king of the Jews. Suddenly King Herod became agitated and called in his experts in astrology and the chief priests to find out what this was all about.
They quoted a prophet who said that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judaea. The king then said to us: “When you find this king, come here again on your way home and let me know where this baby boy is so I can come to worship him too.” But the way he said this we knew that he did not mean this at all, and that he was very disturbed by this news of the birth of a king so close to his own palace and his own power.
So we set out again and there was the star, now shining like a small sun. And we stopped at the place where the star shone directly overheard, and there we found the child, whose name was Jesus, with his mother, Mary, and her husband Joseph. We opened our gifts and gave them to the child. But then we did something that we knew we had to do. We just knew that we had to do this.We fell down before the child, and we prostrated themselves before him. We worshiped him as we would worship not only a king but as our God.
We went back by another route and did not stop to see King Herod, because we did not trust him. It was a long trip back, and we did not speak very much, each of us aware that something had happened to us when we visited the Child. When we arrived home, our families were so happy to see us, and we were happy to see them. But when they asked us if we saw the King that the Star pointed to, we had a hard time answering. I can speak for myself, that what we saw, or rather who we saw, that child, with his mother, changed my life down to its very heart. Everything else in my life now seemed unimportant. My kingdom, my kingly crown, the very life I led, had no meaning for me any longer.
I had to return to Jerusalem some thirty years later to see a dear old friend who was very sick. The city was in a turmoil. I asked someone what was going on, and they told me that some Jewish man had been put on trial for blasphemy and some of the Jews were demanding his death and that he had been crucified just an hour ago on a hill and that the sign on his cross called him the King of the Jews. The word “King” startled me. I said to the man: What is the man’s name? He said, “Jesus”.
“ Tell me where this hill is” I shouted. “Only a short distance away. I will show you how to get there.” I ran as fast as I could. My heart was racing. The young child, the mother, gold, frankincense and myrrh. There was the hill, and there were three crosses on it. I ran up the hill and saw that there was something written over the middle cross: It said: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. This was the child, now a man, suffering and in agony, dying on this cross. And all I could do was what I did those thirty years ago. I fell down on my knees and worshipped him.
