Universal salvation

Coming, as it does, shortly after Christmas, the feast of the Epiphany is usually too mixed with a sense of joy and with celebrations to bring out for us its true meaning, one which is indeed very deep not only for us Christians, but in reality for all men no matter of what religion.

Epiphany is a Greek word meaning revelation or manifestation. The message of today's feast, as a matter of fact, is this: Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, is indeed the Saviour not only for us Christians, but for all human beings no matter what religion they may profess.

Today's 'Good News' is therefore one of universal salvation. The angels announced to the shepherds of Bethlehem the birth of Jesus as "their" Saviour, whereas here we have some important personalities coming from the East looking for their own Saviour as well. No wonder that in the past the feast of the Epiphany was so pregnant with meaning for the entire Christianity as well as for all human beings, whether they are aware of it or not.

Against this background, however, today's narrative raises quite a few questions, although these remain quite unimportant and do not deprive the message of its deep meaning, as mentioned above.

We cannot help, for instance, asking who and how many were the Magi? Traditionally, they have been referred to as the "three kings", and the names attributed to them were Melchior, Kaspar and Balthasar.

There is no indication that they were actually kings. The Gospel only says that they were "wise men", a term which gradually came to signify Magi, which was often incorrectly exchanged for "magicians". From the context, where St Matthew's Gospel says that they were continually being led by an unusual star, we can perhaps say that they were astronomers of some sort.

From the entire context we can conclude that, although they were not Jews, they must have been quite familiar with the Jewish expectations regarding the arrival at some time or other of the Messiah, an extraordinary person who was to be a real king for the Jews.

The Israelites had spent a considerably long time in exile in Babylon and other Eastern countries. No wonder then that, soon after reaching the Jerusalem area, their first question was: "Where is he that has been born, the king of the Jews?"

Another point worth mentioning is that regarding the three gifts they offered to baby Jesus when they finally found where he had been born, or at any rate the house to which the Holy Family had moved some time after the baby's birth. The Gospel says these gifts were gold, incense and myrrh.

We cannot know for sure what the Magi actually meant when they chose these three elements. The interpretation traditionally given is that gold symbolises kingship, incense indicates divinity, and myrrh has some reference to humanity because it was traditionally used for anointing the human body after death.

After reading all this, however, we should be careful not to pay too much attention to these details and miss the profound value of the feast of the Epiphany. God the Saviour has appeared in the person of Jesus to proclaim the message of salvation to all human beings without exception. And it is here that all of us have a part to play. As Christians, as was the case with the Magi, we too are called to "shine" like a star in our dark world and so to proclaim Jesus Christ to all around us as the universal Lord and Saviour.