SEARCHING FOR GOD
"When JESUS was born in Bethlehem of Judaea..... some wise men (Magi) came from the East to Jerusalem saying: where is the infant king of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship Him......" (Gospel according to St. Matthew. 2, 1-12)
This story of the Magi from the Easet raises many questions. For example, how many were these Magi? From where did they come? What kind of prodigious star was this that rose, disappeared and could stand still? Questions like these receove no answer. We have to look for the meaning of the story not in the details we are given but in what it intends to convey; not in the report but in its symbolism, not in the information it gives as it describes the event, but in our meditation as we reflect on it as people of faith.
This story is about us. We can recognize ourselves in these wise men from the East. We can identify with them and see in them our urge to keep seraching for God. They were people who yearned for God and their dream was to find Him. We have the same experience as they had: we seek God in roundabout ways; as we are unsure where to find Him, we ask others if they can show us the way. We feel lost when our landmarks and directions disappear and there is joy when we unexpectedly encounter God.
The story of the Magi is the story of our way of the faith. It is good of us to take these wise men as our models on our way of the faith.
The Gospel wants to tell us very clearly that God cannot always be found there where, according to our insights, we would normally look for Him, but rather there where God means to reveal Himself to us. The Magi were looking for a king, but they did not find him in a palace nor in the royal city but in the shape of a child living in very normal human conditions. People are easily blinded by their own expectations and imaginings; that is why much courage and trust are needed to go on and to keep searching, also when every thing looks meaningless.
May we be as wise as the Magi, these wise men who kept searching until they had found God and recognized and accepted Him even in the form of a little child. Keep searching, keep accepting God even in difficult and surprising moments and forms.
God invites all men to search and find Him.