Have you seen the star? The Magi have said, Vidimus stellam!(We have seen the star!) when they came to Jerusalem and asked Herod, king of Judea, where the newborn king of the Jews was.
The star that the Magi saw was not just an ordinary one but stella ejus!, stella Dei! …his star!, the star of God!
Vidimus stellam is Cantus Alleluia for Sollemnitas Epiphaniae Domini :
Alleluia. Alleluia.
Vidimus stellam ejus in Oriente, et venimus cum muneribus adorare Dominum.
(We have seen His star in the East, and are come with gifts to adore the Lord.)
Alleluia.
The text is based on Matthew 2:2, vidimus enim stellam ejus in oriente, et venimus adorare eum./For we observed his star at its rising (in the east) and have come to pay him homage.
As this stanza from “We Three Kings”, bearing gifts we traverse afar, field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star, reflects, the Magi’s journey to find baby Jesus, the newborn King of the Jews, was very long and arduous. It was not that they traveled a well-established road. Rather, it was likely that they journeyed on the road that nobody else had taken. Perhaps, their journey to meet Jesus has some aspect reflecting Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”. It means that they traveled where there was no road sign but pretty much wilderness.
Imagine if we could slip back in time and bring ourselves to the time of the Magi and had to travel as they did. How many of us could make it through and find Jesus, without a paved road…without a car…without a GPS?
When we travel, we plan ahead and prepare itinerary. This is very important especially when we go abroad and venture out to unfamiliar places. We have to have something to guide our journey. In this post-modernistic high-tech era, many of us heavily depend on GPS, which is in communication with a satellite through an electric-magnetic wave. On the other hand, for the Magi in the early first century A.D., their “GPS” was the stella ejus (his star), namely, a star of God (stella Dei), star of Christ (stella Christi). It was this star of God that the Magi saw as it was rising in the east, and they began following it westward to find Christ in Bethlehem via Jerusalem. When the star stopped to show where the newborn Christ was, they overjoyed in finding and encountering him (Matthew 2:10).
The Magi must have been exhausted as they had endured a very long difficult journey. Nevertheless, they accomplished their mission to encounter the newborn King, the Christ. Matthew does not tell if they acknowledged baby Jesus as Christ. He does not indicate whether these pagan wise men from the Orient became “Christian”. Perhaps, what is more important for us to understand, according to Matthew, is that they made a significant investment to pay homage to Jesus, acknowledging as the King (i.e. Daniel 7:13-14, Song of Songs 3:6) by offering gold, frankincense and myrrh. It is also possible that they also acknowledged Jesus not only as the King but also as the Priest (i.e. Hebrews 2:17 ; 4:15 ; 7:26 ; 9:14) by offering frankincense, and as the Suffering Messiah (i.e. Isaiah 52:13-53:12) by offering myrrh. Furthermore, they bowed down to baby Jesus held by Mary and worshiped him (Matthew 2:11) upon their encounter with him.
What about us? Are we putting strenuous efforts in seeking a personal encounter with Christ, as the Magi did? If so, have we seen the star that can guide us to find Christ?
As the Magi said, we, too, want to say, “Vidimus stellam!…stella Dei est…stella Christi est!”, and “inventos Christi!”, “superventum Christi!”, finding the star of God, the star of Christ, finding Christ himself upon his arrival and appearance. After all, it is Epiphaniae to us. The Magi represent how we are to be.
We actually started our journey to find Christ as we began a liturgical year on the First Sunday of Advent. These four Sundays of Advent are like road signs to make sure that we are on the way to find Christ. While it was the shepherds, called by an angel, who first came and found Christ in joy on the very day of his birth, in Luke’s account (Luke 2:8-20), Matthew indicates that it was the Magi, who were learned pagan, to have found Christ before anyone else in the world, perhaps, some time after his birth (Matthew 2:1-12).
If the shepherds in Matthew 2 represent you, you may not to have to journey so far to find and encounter Christ. However, we are more like the Magi, being on a long difficult journey to find Christ, as we live in the sinful world, which Dante Alighieri reflected in “Inferno” of his “Divina Commedia”.
We live and journey in darkness of sins of this world. For us, the star that guides our way to Christ is his mother, Mary the Theotokos, as she is the “Morning Star”, heralding the rising of the sun, the birth of Christ, as well as the resurrection of Christ. It was Mary, whom Christ first met, when he came to this world as a newborn baby (Luke 2:1-20), and when he ressurected, according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola (First Contemplation, Fourth Week, #218-225, 299) and St. John Paul II (citing Coelius Sedulius’ “Paschale Carmen” in his May 21, 1997 address to general audience), and the Filipino devotion of Salubong ng Pagkabuhay . Thus, as a morning star signals sunrise, Mary the “Morning Star” leads us to epiphany of Christ.
In fact, Advent journey into the Christmastide reflects our journey to find Christ's appearance. We started this journey of searching in darkness, juxtaposing the darkness of sins and the darkness of night, on the First Sunday of Advent. We were reminded to stay awake and vigilant (ἀγρυπνέω(agrupneo) and γρηγορέω(gregoreo)) throughout our journey.
While our journey was in Advent season, we were reminded to see with the eyes of faith rather than naked eyes, reflecting 2 Corinthians 5:7, on the Memorial Feast of St. Lucy (Santa Lucia), December 13, so that we do not lose our way even in darkness. This is also reflected in “La noche oscura del alma”(the Dark Night of the Soul) by St. John of the Cross (San Juan de la Cruz) , whose Memorial Feast is on December 14.
With the increasing light of Advent Candles, the darkness became lessened as our journey advanced in Advent, nearing Christmas. Then, came Christmas day predawn, when Christ was born of Mary in Bethlehem.
If the shepherd in Luke 2 represent you, then, you have found Christ in the stable, then. However, like most of us, if the Magi represent you, you have not yet found Christ at that time and were still traveling, following the star. However, while Christ was still a baby, you, too, finally found Christ and rejoice, as the star points the place of Christ.
What was stella ejus in oriente (his star in the east) for the Magi is now Maria Stella Matutina (Mary the Morning Star), and she is also known as Stella Maris (Star of the Sea). It is because Mary has been Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven), shining with heavenly light, to guide us and guide our way to her son, Jesus Christ.
Have we seen the star? Now, let Mary, Stella Matutina, guide our way, because she is also Madonna Della Strada (our lady of the road) in the Ignatian tradition, as stella ejus in oriente did to the Magi. May our journey guided by Maria Stella de Caelo be consummated with our full encounter with Christ, as he desires for us in John 14:20. Until we are one with Christ, our journey is not complete and we do not experience true epiphany.
Though the Magi left once they paid homage to Christ, leaving gifts for him, we will not leave where he is. Unlike these pagans, we will stay with Christ and become one with him, because we are also adopted to the Holy Family.
Though the Magi left once they paid homage to Christ, leaving gifts for him, we will not leave where he is. Unlike these pagans, we will stay with Christ and become one with him, because we are also adopted to the Holy Family.
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