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4. The wise men from
the East.
Wise men from the
East, from a distant land, came to Jerusalem with precious gifts,
exhorted by God, and asked: ‘Where is the newborn King of the Jews? We
have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him.’ They
thought he had been born in Jerusalem, where the impious King Herod once
lived. They could not help thinking that all Jerusalem would be full of
joy; every child in the street would be able to answer their question.
Oh, how astonished they were when everything was so quiet! Everything
was as quiet as if nothing had happened. Whoever they asked knew nothing
about the newborn miracle child. They came before King Herod. He knew
nothing yet either. He first had to learn from these strangers what the
angels had announced to the pious shepherds, and the news did not please
him even then. For when the wise men asked about the newborn king, he,
the poor man on his royal throne, was startled! What was a joy to the
innocent shepherds and the God-fearing Simeon and all pious people, he
was terrified by. For the wicked have no peace in their hearts.
Herod conceived the wicked idea that he would have the child killed, lest
he take his crown one day. So he first asked the priests and scribes if
they could tell him where Christ was to be born. They answered him: in
Bethlehem, for so it was written by the prophet Micah. Then he sent the
wise men to Bethlehem and said to them with deceitful dissimulation that
they should enquire carefully about the child, and when they had found
him, they should tell him again; he would also come and worship him. The
wise men came to Bethlehem and found the house where Jesus lay, and were
very happy, the upright and pious men. They knelt down before the child
and gave him gold, frankincense and myrrh. But when they were about to
return home, God warned them not to go back to Jerusalem. They took a
different route back to their own country. This enraged King Herod and
he was so afraid of the innocent child that he gave the cruel order to
kill all the children in Bethlehem who were two years old and under, so
that he would not miss the right one.
But man's cruelty and cunning can do nothing against God. - For where
were the child Jesus and his mother and his foster father Joseph at that
time? No longer in Bethlehem, nor in the land of Judah, but in Egypt.
God had sent them there so that the child could be saved. - But when
Herod, the bloodthirsty, had died, they returned to the land and from
that time on lived again in Galilee, in the town of Nazareth.
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