At the Magi’s question as to where the King of the Jews, whose star they had seen, was born, “Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him” (Mt 2:3). Why is King Herod terrified? Was it selfishness, ambition or jealousy? He feared losing his kingdom!
We also become troubled, sad or discouraged. Is it because God is offended? Or because we have been humbled, reprimanded, contradicted? The bottom line is pride, vanity, jealousy, or loss of comfort!
Herod privately learned from the wise men the time the star appeared. Sending the Magi to Bethlehem, he said, “Go and diligently inquire after the Child; when you have found Him, bring me word, that I also may come and adore Him” (Mt 2:8).
What was Herod’s real plan in this seemingly respectful and pious counsel? To find out the age and home of the Divine Child, that he might put Him to death. And to ensure success of his evil plan, he orders a massacre of all children of the same age born in the vicinity of Bethlehem. What hypocrisy!
Hypocrisy offends God and men. To make a pretext of virtue, unmindful of its reality, is hypocrisy. Some examples of hypocrisy are: To obey orders, or conform to rule, only because we are observed. To pretend that we approve of our director and of his orders in his presence, but condemn him at his back. To speak out just to obtain what we desire. To speak ill of one’s self, so as to attract praise.
The angel of the Lord ordered the Magi to return by another way. Then he told Joseph to flee with the Child into Egypt. Thus, the wicked plans of King Herod were rebuffed. The massacre of the children peopled heaven with new saints. Herod earned the hatred of men and of posterity.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp21-3
Our supernatural growth
In the growth of Jesus, Divine Wisdom required that the Redeemer should be like us in all things. (St Cyril of Alexandria, "One in Christ") Our maturity in years must be accompanied by a commensurate progressive increase in human virtue and the supernatural life. The growth the Lord requires of us is unique: to renew and refresh our youth instead of leaving it.
In the supernatural life, the Christian never grows old. We can always turn towards “God Who gives joy to my youth” (Ps 42:4) even in old age. God keeps young those who love Him. We might have known saintly people who, though old in years, have had great interior youthfulness of spirit due to a faithful relationship to Christ as manifested in all their acts.
This supernatural growth comes from grace, obtained especially through the Sacraments and continual practice of the virtues. Grace, deposited in our hearts like a seed (cf 1 Jn 3:9), struggles to grow and brings us to its fulness (cf Eph 4:13). “The obstacle it contends with is sin -- ... a diminution of the human person -- which prevents a man reaching his fullness of spirit.” (Second Vatican Council, “Gaudium et spes”, 13)
The spiritual man acts through the impulse of the Holy Spirit (cf Eph 3:16) by practising the virtues; and reaches his fulness of being with the help of the gifts of this same Holy Spirit, whose mission is to perfect the supernatural life by means of the yet imperfect theological virtues. These gifts are found in every soul in a state of grace.
Both human and supernatural maturity is a daily task of many minor successes gained by responding to grace in small things. By habitually practising the virtues and with an eye for detail we fashion a true character -- docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, a will fixed on God and on the needs of others for God’s sake.
Our supernatural growth must accompany our human growth to maturity. The natural virtues are the foundation of the supernatural. One’s true vocation is to be found embodied within one’s supernatural Christian vocation.
“When a soul strives to cultivate the human virtues, the heart is already very close to God. The Christian sees that the theological virtues -- faith, hope and charity -- and all the other things that bring with them the grace of God, impel him never to be neglectful of the good qualities that he shares with so many other men.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Friends of God”, 91)
Maturity makes one realistic and objective besides requiring the tenacity to continue a work, once begun, to completion despite any difficulty.
Our Blessed Mother Mary, “the model and living school of all the virtues”, (St Ambrose, “Treatise on Virginity”, 2) will “help us to reach a perfect maturity according to Christ Jesus” (Eph 4:13).
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 1:369-73
Prayer for Patience
· “O God, Who by the patience of Thine only-begotten Son has crushed the pride of the old enemy, give unto us, we beseech Thee, ever devoutly to have in mind what He with love endured for us, and thus, after His example, to bear with long suffering the troubles which come upon us. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.” (Very Rev Charles J Callan, OP, STM and Very Rev John A McHugh, OP, STM, “Blessed Be God”, 1925, p490)
Offer Our Gifts to the Divine Child with the Magi
Modern man, too ... meets with God when he opens up to Him with the interior gift of his human "ego", to accept and exchange the immense gifts which He presented to him first: the gift of existence, the gift of the Redemption, the gift of faith.
And that Child, who accepted the gift of the Wise Men, is still always He before whom people and entire people “open their coffers”, that is, their treasures.
The gifts of the human spirit take on a particular value in the act of this opening to the incarnate God; they become the treasures of the various cultures, the spiritual wealth of the peoples, and of the nations, the common patrimony of all mankind.
The center of this exchange is Christ: the same who accepted the gifts of the Magi.
Ref: cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, p51
Our Lady beyond the Tiber, at Rome. This church was built by Calixtus I in the year 224. (Bethlehem Observer Historical Calendar)
Our Lady beyond the Tiber. Rome. 224. Built by St. Calixtus I. [DeLigney here cites Baronius in apparatu ad annales et in Annales ad Ann. 224.] www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm
Our Lady beyond the Tiber (Rome). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
Our Lady of Beyond the Tiber, Rome/ Our Lady of Clemency, or Mercy of Absam, near Innsbruck, Austria (1797). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
Our Lady of Clemency. Innsbruck, Austria. 1797. Ancient icon in Rome. Shrine in Philadelphia. In “Salve mater redemptoris” motet. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
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