As we come to the last day of the Christmas Season, I believe there is something being said to us about arriving and beginning when others might all too easily think it’s time to leave and forget.
The journey, in truth, is just beginning now and as we continue to welcome the baby, we must allow him become a man. We need to grow alongside him and watch him grow with and for us too. It would be too easy to leave him wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger but it would be wrong too. His place is not in the manger but in our lives.
The Three Kings remind us that we need to be willing to travel to meet Him and open to finding him. The Bethlehem Star may well be the ringing of the bell for Sunday Mass or an invitation to come and pray. Are we willing to hear that sound, see that sign and follow the star? It is only in our “yes” to this that we can truly encounter Christ. Having encountered Him, we too may well need to fall on our knees and do him homage.
See this Feast Day as a meeting point where earthly royalty and status meet the Heavenly King. See it as day when shepherds too are welcomed along with their sheep and lambs, see it as a day when we speak to the truth of our faith and show willingness to honour our God.
A beginning for sure …. let us walk to and from the Stable. Amen