I had an aunt who was a fanatic when it came to following horoscopes. She would be glued to the screen every Friday night. Whenever she visited us, we would know that on Friday nights we had to bear with her weekly horoscope ritual. So, we had to start calling Friday night, horoscope night.

But one day we found her in tears and when we tried to find out what was wrong, she said the horoscope had predicted that she will most probably die in an accident and that she will die miserable. It was so incomprehensible to us how she could believe all that ridiculous stuff.

And since I was fond of making jokes of her about horoscopes, I was probably her least favorite and she made sure I knew that. The constant beatings and knocks on the head were frequent and she kept telling me-if you like do not believe in the stars, but the stars guide your destiny. I did not believe her stars but there is only one thing I believed:

That in all of history, only one star really directed and mapped out the destiny of man. And that was the star at Bethlehem. The star the magi saw and followed; the star that led them to the great epiphany or manifestation of God.

This is the guiding star and the only star I will ever follow. I received a knock for saying that. It was quite painful. This feast of today is one that reveals to us who Christ is, his mission and destiny.

The beauty of this feast lies in the fact that the very first people to recognize his divinity are not the Jews who had been awaiting the Messiah, but the Gentiles. They are pagans drawn to him not through Scriptures but by nature, by following a star. So, I have not given up hope on my aunt yet- maybe the horoscopes will lead her to Christ.

Three characters are involved in today’s feast, Herod, the Jewish rabbis and teachers of the law, and the magi.

When Herod hears the news of the birth of a new king, his immediate reaction is to eliminate this baby because he poses a threat to his earthly power. The coming of Christ hardens him, enrages him, and makes him want to eliminate him. In his innocent birth the little child already poses a threat to the powers that be. And so, his passion begins at his birth. He has to be taken away into Egypt for safety. Because of his birth the first great infanticide in the New Testament happens, innocent children are murdered in cold blood by a power-hungry king. Herod represents the many people who see Christianity as a stumbling block to their freedoms and way of life and who will do everything to destroy it. In this episode with Herod, we see who this Jesus is. He reveals himself as King as one who comes to suffer, as one whose only reason for coming to earth is to die.

The second group is the very indifferent rabbis and teachers of the law. When they are called by Herod and asked about the coming of the Messiah, they go back to their Scriptures and give Herod a scholarly answer. The answer remains only at the level of the intellect. But the birth of the child means nothing to them. They are more concerned with their temple rituals and ceremonies. They also represent the many people who are so indifferent to Christ and his church. Those who do not really bother what is going on in the church, those who are spiritually barren and stagnant in faith. Those for who Christ is an afterthought.

Then we have the magi, the wise men. These are the pagans who follow the star, and we are told that when they reached Bethlehem and saw the child, they offered him gifts and they worshipped him. They prostrated before him, paying him homage. We see divine wisdom at play here. As Saint John would say: he came to his own and his own did not recognize him. But it took three pagans to recognize that someone great had entered history. And they took it upon themselves to meet this little God man who will change the course of history.

These three characters reflect very much how Christ has been seen in the world ever since.

We see a shadow of the cross hanging around him already even at his tender age. Kings and rabbis are assembling because of him, plotting his death. And the wise men offer him gifts which remind him of his mission: Gold for his kingship, Frankincense for his priesthood – his mediating role between heaven and earth – He is the link between us and God – and Myrrh for his death and burial. This is a man born not to live but to die. His birth already has death written all over it.

It is his star we have to follow. It is his star we have to seek. The question we have to ask is this: when we see him what must we do? Prostrate ourselves and pay homage to him and offer him gifts. Not gold or frankincense but our hearts, our time, our concern. These are more precious gifts to the lord.

He reveals himself to us today in the Eucharist, in that little wafer of bread. He is God just he was God in that little manger. Let us give him the worship he deserves and like the Magi carry the message of his star to the ends of the earth and invite others to come do him homage. But they will not come if we do not follow the example of the star. Let his star shine on us and lead us and guide us so that we can become little epiphanies of God to the world. Let us be the star of Christ to others and so make our dark world a brighter place to live in, like mirrors reflecting the light from the star.