Weekly HOMILY for January 5, 2014: Epiphany, Cycle A -- The Gift of the Magi

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Feast of the Epiphany, Cycle A

Terranuova Hermitage

January 5, 2014

The Gift of the Magi

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

The Gift of the Magi

About 100 years ago, one of the best-known American writers was O’Henry.

O’Henry was the pen name for William Sydney Porter.  One of his famous short stories is titled The Gift of the Magi.

At first sight, this story doesn’t seem to be about the magi who are the center of today’s gospel.  Instead, it is about a poor, young couple named Jim and Dela.

As Christmas approaches, Dela wants to give Jim a very nice chain for his nice pocket watch.  The problem is that she doesn’t have enough money to but it, but then she gets an idea.

Dela has beautiful, long curly hair, and she decides to cut off her curls and sell them to get enough money to buy the chain.  Christmas Eve comes, and she arrives home with a nicely wrapped box containing the chain.

Dela enters the apartment and there is Jim also holding a nicely wrapped box with the gift he has bought for Dela.  They exchange gifts and are amazed at what they find.

Dela has given Jim the expensive chain for his watch and Jim has given Dela a beautiful set of combs for her long curly hair.  Of course, they immediately learn what has happened.

Dela has cut and sold her curls to buy the chain.  And Jim has sold his watch to buy the combs.     

The Symbolism

This short story is in many ways a classic.

It is touching not so much because of the actual gifts that Jim and Dela give, but because of what the gifts symbolize.  The watch chain and the hair brushes symbolize their unselfish love for each other.

And this must be why O’Henry called his story The Gift of the Magi.  The gifts that the magi present to the infant Jesus are not that important in themselves.

Instead, they point to something else.  They symbolize something about Jesus and even about the magi.

Gold

The first gift is gold.

Ancient peoples realized that this was the king of all metals.  And so, this gift points to the Child Jesus as in some way a king.

The magi sense that this Child will lead and do something great for his people.  Without their knowing it, the gold points to Jesus’ identity as the spiritual king.

The Child Jesus is the Son of God.  He is God on this earth and he will do something great for all of humanity.

Frankincense

The second gift is frankincense.

Frankincense is like the incense we sometimes use here at Mass.  In Jesus’ day, when animals were sacrificed in the Jewish temple, frankincense was burned to produce a fragrant and sweet smell.

This gift points to the sacrifice that the Child Jesus will eventually make of himself.  It points to Jesus’ sacrifice of himself on the cross.

At the Last Supper, Jesus told us to “Do this in memory of me.”  So whenever we celebrate Mass, we are repeating the sacrifice of the cross under the forms of bread and wine, the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Myrrh

And then the third gift is myrrh.

Myrrh was used to prepare a body for burial.  So in this sense, the myrrh follows from the frankincense.

After Jesus is sacrificed on the cross, his body will be prepared for burial.  So interestingly, with this gift Jesus’ birth and death are connected or wrapped together in the visit of the Magi.

And the myrrh also points to a birth and death in the Magi themselves.  For them, their finding the Christ Child means the death of their old perspective on things.

For them, it is especially a dying to seeing greatness and security in human power.  We see this in their wise discerning not to return to King Herod.

Their visit to the Christ Child also means a birth to something new.  They are born into a new way of seeing God as embracing all people and as identifying in a special way with the poor and vulnerable.

So the myrrh is the most complex of the three gifts.  Its symbolism is rich and it is the crowning of the gifts they bring to the Christ Child.

It links Jesus’ death to his birth and it involves both a death and a birth for the Magi.  And for us today, as we view the manger, it involves the same death and birth.