The Sánchez Archives EPIPHANY Year C

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

The Greatest Treasure

ISAIAH 60:1-6
EPHESIANS 3:2-3,5-6
MATTHEW 2:1-12

William Sydney Porter, better known by his pseudonym, O. Henry (1862-1910), gained literary fame as a prolific writer of short stories. His tales, which romanticized the common place and accented the importance of values and character often had surprise endings. In his story, The Gift of the Magi, he featured a loving but economically strapped married couple named Della and Jim. The only possessions of any worth in the James Dillingham Young household were Della’s cascade of thick shiny brown hair and Jim’s watch.

With Christmas only a day away, Della counted the little she had managed to save to buy Jim’s present. . . a mere $1.89. Determined to give her husband something that would reflect the deep love she had for him, she sold her beautiful hair for $20.00 and bought him a platinum watch fob. No sooner had she wrapped Jim’s gift and arranged her bowled hair as best she could than he returned home. Della watched the expression on Jim’s face morphed from joy to dismay and then erupted in laughter. Moved by a love that complemented that of his wife, Jim had sold his precious watch in order to buy genuine tortoise shell combs for Della’s hair. After allowing his readers a moment to absorb the surprise he had created for them, O. Henry drew attention to the moral of his Christmas tale: “Each had sacrificed for the other their greatest treasure!”

On today’s feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, readers of Scripture are offered a moment to absorb the surprise of God’s love. Out of love for humankind, God sacrificed the greatest treasure, the gift of Jesus for the life of the world. Initially manifested among the people of the first covenant, Jesus is also God’s gift to all the nations of the earth.

In the first reading, the anonymous prophet known to us a Third or Trito-Isaiah, presents believers with a verbal vision of universal salvation. He understood and would have his readers understand that the gift of God’s presence to humankind dispels the darkness of sin and the clouds of discrimination that obscure and separate the peoples of the earth from God and one another. Because of God, there is light and goodness among us and all, without exception are privileged to share in it.

Similarly universalist in tone, the early Christian author of Ephesians (second reading) refers to God’s greatest treasure and gift to humankind as a mystery or secret plan which has been revealed in our midst. Not a secret reserved for a few or for the elite, God’s saving gift reaches out to embrace all people. As a result of the power of that saving embrace the lives of all of us, Jew and Gentile, man and woman, rich and poor, saint and sinner, slave and free are necessarily intertwined. To live otherwise would be to contradict and thereby forfeit our sharing in God’s gracious gifts.

In the gospel, and through the gifts of the astrologers, or magi from the east, Matthew teaches his readers something of the treasure God bestowed upon humankind in Jesus. A precious metal, gold was understood as a fitting gift for a king. Jesus’ unique kingship was exercised in loving service for sinners; his followers and sharers in his reign ca do no less. Frankincense signified the priesthood of Jesus whereby he freely offered the sacrifice of himself so as to draw all people nearer to God. Through the gift of myrrh, which was used to anoint the dead, Matthew signified the extent to which God loves humankind. . . so much that God sacrificed for each of us the greatest treasure, the Son and Brother of us all, Jesus Christ.

ISAIAH 60:1-6

Some critics have championed a theory that the Mesozoic Era or age of the dinosaurs came to an end some 64 million years ago when an enormous meteorite plunged through the atmosphere and collided with Earth. The resulting dust and ash so clouded the skies and obscured the sun, that eventually the great beasts were driven into extinction. In a sense, the prophet and author of today’s first reading believed that his contemporaries had suffered, albeit metaphorically, through similar circumstances.

Writing near the end or immediately after the Babylonian exile (ca. 538 B.C.E.) Trito-Isaiah attempted to encourage his contemporaries to find new hope in God. Admitting that their own sins and infidelities had caused great clouds of suffering and a darkness of alienation to obscure their vision, and virtually sap them of the life they once knew, Isaiah promised that God could and would lift the pall that hung over the people. No longer would they be in danger of “extinction” nor would they suffer the pain of exile because God would provide them with a new beginning. Today’s short but graphic reading represents one of a series of similar hopeful visions of what Jerusalem could be once again (Isaiah 60-62).

Describing Jerusalem as a city from whom the mourning veil of sin and sadness had been removed to reveal the radiance of the divine glory, Trito-Isaiah promised that this same glory would shine upon all the nations of the earth. Unlike many of his predecessors whose prophecies were geared exclusively toward Israel, Trito-Isaiah’s universalist vision was representative of an insight into God’s plan of salvation that began to emerge only after the exile. Because of the saving and illuminating manifestation of God within it, the redeemed Israel would become the radiant manifestation of God’s forgiveness and love for all other peoples as well. What God had done for Israel was a sign and portent of what God would do for the nations.

Trito-Isaiah’s vision of universal salvation was fully realized only centuries later when, through Jesus Christ, God’s greatest and most surprising treasure, was ultimately revealed to the world. Through the words and works of Jesus, the dark clouds of sin and death have been dispersed; through Christ and through the continuing manifestation of God’s saving love which is the Church, all that obscures and alienates people from God and from one another must continue to be kept at bay. The new Israel of God which is comprised of every believer is charged, not simply with being a reflection of the light of Christ, but, by virtue of their baptism and incorporation into Christ, Christians are to be in themselves, both light and life for others.

While the contemporary scene occasionally grows occluded by the various and sundry struggles of the human experience, e.g. war, hunger, poverty, homelessness, disease, calamities of nature, political, economic and/or social injustice, Isaiah reminds believers that cursing the darkness will only lead to extinction; only by carefully tending to the light of God’s presence among and within us, only by continually fanning into a flame the faith which is ours will we survive and triumph.

EPHESIANS 3:2-3,5-6

As I write this commentary, the media has just reported that Mother Teresa of Calcutta has died of a heart attack. She has been lauded as the “Saint of the Gutters,” as one of the “greatest women of the twentieth century” and as “one who made it her life’s work to care for the poorest of the poor.” Never stinting in her commitment to Christ, especially to “Christ in his most distressing disguises” (e.g. the sick, the dying, the outcasts, lepers, people with A.I.D.S, etc.) Mother Teresa described herself as “a pencil in God’s hands. . . as long as God keeps pouring in the ink, I will continue to let God write with me and through me.” Through this physically diminutive, spiritual giant, God has indeed writ large. Through her, God has continued to reveal in our midst the mystery or secret plan of salvation of which the author of Ephesians wrote in today’s second reading. If we were to presume to paraphrase the message of the ancient Christian author, we might hear him say, “It (mystery of secret plan of salvation) is no less than this: in Christ Jesus, the untouchables of this world’s societies are now co-heirs with us, members of the same body and sharers of the promise through the preaching of the gospel.”

At the time Ephesians was written (probably sometime in the latter half of the first Christian century), the author’s exhortation was directed at second and third generation Christians who may have been losing sight of the mystery of God’s secret plan. With the delay of Jesus’ second coming, believers had to be kept in touch with the reality and inevitability of the coming kingdom. That kingdom, which was already propleptically present (i.e. here and yet to come in its fullness) in the words and works of Jesus was and is to be characterized by the solidarity of all people in Christ.

Unfortunately, certain factions within the early church did not share the insights or agree with the soteriology of the Ephesians’ author. Some ultra-conservative Jewish Christians (also called Judaizeres) insisted that gentiles could appropriate God’s gift of salvation only if they were circumcised and observed the Jewish dietary laws and feasts. Aware that such conditions denied the sufficiency of the saving death of Jesus on the cross, Paul (and the Ephesians author after him) repeatedly affirmed that gentiles were not second class Christians or an afterthought in God’s secret plan. Rather gentiles are coheirs with the Jews, members of the same body and sharers of God’s promises (vs. 6). In Greek, all three terms begin with the prefix syn which signifies oneness or solidarity and equality.

Like the early Christian writer, Mother Teresa of Calcutta understood that there are no second class citizens in the people of god. Nor is anyone an afterthought in God’s saving plan. The small nun who ministered to the world’s poor also left the world a legacy and a challenge. At the beginning of this new year, contemporary believers might take time to consider if her legacy will live on in them and how that challenge can be met. Am I willing to accept and cherish absolutely everyone I meet as a co-heir, as a member of the same body and as a sharer of God’s promises? If so, then God’s secret plan continues to be revealed in me; if not, then I have darkened and obscured the manifestation of love and light that we celebrate today.

MATTHEW 2:1-12

While the Ephesians author enunciated the universal character of God’s secret plan in theological terms (second reading), the Matthean evangelist couched the same message in a dramatic narrative. In the wonderful story of the magi or astrologers, drawn to Bethlehem by a star, Matthew has indicated that Jesus Christ was born into time and space so that all who seek salvation may find it in him.

Part of the biblical literature known as the infancy narratives, the first two chapters of Matthew’s gospel (and Luke 1-2) have been described by Raymond E. Brown (The Birth of the Messiah, Image Books, New York: 1979) as a gospel in miniature in which the evangelist has set forth the basic tenets of the good news, viz., (1) the universal scope of salvation; (2) an affirmation of Jesus’ divine origins and messiahship; (3) the implications of God’s plan and of Jesus’ messiahship for the church, i.e. a missiology of world-wide proportions.

Structurally, Matthew’s infancy narrative is comprised of five key episodes of Jesus’ life, each of which is supported by a formula citation or text from the Hebrew Scriptures which the early Christians understood as being fulfilled in Jesus. With each episode and formal citation Jesus was described as (1) the new Moses, (2) the new David, (3) the new Solomon, (4) the returning Elijah, and (5) as the foundation of an everlasting royal dynasty.

At the heart of today’s episode is the refusal on the part of some Jews (Herod, chief priests, scribes) to accept the new king and his dynasty, as contrasted with the acceptance of Jesus by the gentiles (astrologers). Ironically, those who had been raised in the heritage of the Jewish faith and should have recognized and welcomed the fulfillment of centuries-old prophecies (formula citations = v.6 = 2 Samuel 5:2, Micah 5:1) did not do so. The astrologers, on the other hand, who were not privy to these prophecies or to messianic tradition, but had only the lesser witness of nature (star), accepted Jesus. By this antithesis of the Jewish refusal and gentile acceptance of Jesus in his infancy nature, Matthew was reflecting the situation that also characterized the public ministry of the adult Jesus as well as the ministry of the Matthean community of the eighties C.E. As the gospels and the history of the church would affirm rejection, as opposed to the acceptance of Jesus as Messiah and as founder of a new royal dynasty is a choice that every believer is free to make. The scriptures, tradition and even the lesser witness of nature are not proofs in themselves, but invitations to faith.

The star which shone over the area and served as a beacon for the astrologers can be explained scientifically. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), a German astrologer and mathematician calculated that the planetary conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn which occurred ca 7-6 B.C.E. could have produced such an illumination in the sky over Bethlehem. However, the star, as featured in Matthew’s narrative figures more importantly because of its theological significance. No doubt, Matthew, with his penchant for portraying Jesus as the fulfillment of all Jewish hopes and prophecies, intended his readers to recall the story of Balaam in the book of Numbers (chapters 22-24). Therein, Balaam, a pagan seer from the East was co-opted by Balak, king of Moab to curse the Israelites. Inspired by Yahweh, Balaam blessed Israel and prophesied, “a star shall rise from Jacob and a scepter shall arise out of Israel” (Numbers 24:17). Matthew portrayed the astral herald that proclaimed the appearance of Jesus and beckoned the gentiles to salvation as the fulfillment of Balaam’s prophesy.

Today that star, in all its scientific and theological significance continues to illumine Jesus Christ, and to call all of humankind to salvation in him. Like Della and Jim who “each had sacrificed for the other their greatest treasure”, so has God given Jesus to the world. In the face of such a gift, renewed yet again in our midst today, believers may recall the words and wonder of the psalmist: “How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good God has done for me?!” (116:12).

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