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| Adoration of the Magi -- 3rd century fresco in Catacombs of St. Priscilla |
Were
the Magi for real? When I was young, I used to think they were legendary—inserted
into the Scriptures as a grandiose tale, a story within a story, a startling
splash to emphasize the divinity of Jesus and foreshadow the fact that the
Messiah came for all nations, not just Israel. Pa rum pa pa pum, was I
mistaken! Nothing in the Bible is fiction, unless it’s an explicit allegory or
parable. Why in the world would I ever have dismissed these amazing, godly travelers
as mythical? Well, it started with Genesis 6 and the Nephilim. When I first
read the Bible through from cover to cover, I hadn’t gotten very far when I was
stopped dead in my tracks by a passage that sounded like Jack and the
Beanstalk. Um, monsters in the Word of God? Hybrid humans? Wha? The biblical
footnotes and commentaries I was using at the time were no help, so I filed
Genesis 6 under the category: “Hiccups in the Scriptures,” hoping to find
answers later. Maybe the author wanted to incorporate some mysterious
origin-story into the Pentateuch to preserve it for future generations? When I
read Matthew 2, the Magi threw me back to Genesis 6. Maybe these Nativity scene
figures, these lawn statues, these Christmas card fellows were like the
Nephilim: fantasticals placed in an historical account to make sure we
understood a point being made, akin to a literary device.
Flash
forward to my not-so-young days. I began to seriously research the Magi (whom I
was always drawn to because I can’t relate to poor shepherds). Conclusion: the
wise men were the real deal! In 325 A.D., my saint, the Empress Helena, while
finding the True Cross and building shrines in the Holy Land, inquired about
the Magi. Folks knew exactly where she needed to go: Persia. Although the Magi
are depicted as three different ethnicities in most artwork, it’s actually a
lovely symbol of the universality of Jesus’ Redemption and the mission of the
Church to baptize all nations. The Western Church has assigned them the names
Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, but Eastern traditions give them other
appellations. Once in Persia, St. Helena was led to the burial place of the
Magi. (Tradition has it that they preached Christ when they returned to their
homeland.) St. Helena transported their remains to Constantinople where her
son, the Emperor Constantine, gifted them to the Bishop of Milan, Italy, who
built a beautiful church to house them. This Basilica di Sant’Eustorgio became
a major place of pilgrimage. In 1164, Frederick Barbarossa conquered Milan and
brought the remains of the Magi to Cologne, Germany, where the magnificent
Cologne Cathedral was built specifically for the Magi (only took seven
centuries to construct). There, the Magi finally stopped journeying.
Would
you like your mind further blown? Around 2015, I had the good fortune of
meeting a former rector of the Cathedral of Cologne. Here’s what he told me.
The Cologne Cathedral is the only Catholic cathedral in the world that does not
have a cross on its central steeple. It has a STAR. There are not three skulls,
but four (and assorted bones)--thus the lore of “The Other Wise Man.” The Bible
never says there were three wise men, only that there were three gifts. These
skeletal remains have been scientifically examined, are two thousand years old,
and the cloths they were wrapped in contain pollen and flora from all the
places they were purported to have rested. Every Epiphany, the golden reliquary
of the Magi is placed on display in the cathedral for veneration.
I
appreciate the Magi more and more. I ask for their help frequently in prayer.
Here are just a few of the reasons I love 'em:
--I am not a “king,” but neither am I a simple peasant. I feel I can find my
place at the manger next to them (if only out of admiration).
--Those costly gifts of the Magi may very well have gained the Holy Family
passage into Egypt and sustained them in exile.
--I’m tickled how the Magi outfoxed the “fox” (Herod) and returned “home by
another way.”
--Why did these foreigners come from so
far to find the King of the Jews, and what can we learn from them? The wise
still seek Him. The wise still adore Him.
Oh, and it turns out those Nephilim characters are also as real as rain.
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| Adoration of the Magi -- Jan De Bray (c. 1658) |
