Tuesday. 18th Week of Ordinary Time

Matthew 2:1-12
Morning Prayer

Today we begin to follow the Daily Office Lectionary through the Gospel of Matthew.  And even at the beginning, we see the principal theme, and tension, that Makes Matthew’s Gospel unique among the four.  No other Gospel writer was as intent as Matthew to show that Jesus did not come “to abolish the law and the prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to complete” (Mt 5:17).  More than the other Gospels, Matthew stresses that the New Covenant of Jesus Christ is consistent with the Old Covenant of Israel.

And yet, the first people to acknowledge the New Covenant and to “worship” Jesus are not the religious leaders of Israel, they are trembling under Herod’s thumb.  What the three astrologers saw in the stars, the teachers of the law saw in the scriptures.  Literally, the three were “magi,” a word used to describe astrologers and magicians.  Israel didn’t need clever men who searched the stars to tell the future.  After all, God made the stars, and God’s will could be read in the law and the prophets.  Yet, it was these pagan astrologers whom God led in the way that they understood to Bethlehem. 

Today, we have the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Covenants.  We read them diligently as a guide to our lives.  But today’s piece of the Gospel leaves us with two questions.  Are we willing to be led by that Gospel, even in the face of obstacles?  And are we prepared to recognize that God is bigger than a book, and see his Son in places we wouldn’t expect to find him – stars, films, and songs?  Since the world and all in it belongs to God, can we see hints of that God in the entire world he made and still loves?