Spiritus Christi
Father Jim Callan
January 3, 2021
Some of you have been to Corpus Christi Church on East Main Street and you have seen the beautiful blue stained glass window in the front. It is the Nativity scene. Baby Jesus is in the middle flanked by Mary and Joseph, above him the angles – but the striking thing about that window is that in the corners at the bottom are the Magi and the shepherds. They are equally close to the baby. The shepherds are Jews, the Magi are gentiles. The shepherds are poor, the Magi are rich. The shepherds are insiders, the Magi are outsiders. Both are equally close and drawn by Jesus. Jesus is a universal figure. He belongs to the world, the whole world. To Jews, to gentiles, to Christians, to Buddhists, to all seekers of the divine.
Recently an astronaut from Saudi Arabia went to the international space station. He was part of a diverse crew from many countries. He said the first day we all pointed to our countries: Oh! There is Russia. There is Saudi Arabia. There is the United States. He said by the third day we all pointed to our continents and by the fifth day we were all aware of only one earth.
The Gospel writers are poets. They use words like dreams, angles, and stars to convey God’s messages to people. So Joseph had a dream. Mary had an angle, and the Magi have a star. A star is a universal symbol. It doesn’t just sign on my country, or my neighborhood or my tribe or my religion or even my species. It shines on the whole world. Love your neighbor extends to all members of the earth. Who is my neighbor? The samaritan? Sure. My enemy? Sure. But also the whale, the dolphin, the coral reef and the rain forest. We will not protect and save what we do not love. The star shines on all of creation. Beckoning us to stand in awe of everything and everyone.
Now the story of the Magi is not a factual. It’s not a historical account. It is a metaphor for a spiritual journey. The Magi are astrologers, they are scientists. Probably from Persia which is now Iran. They are following a star, or what the Quakers call the inter light. Everybody has an inner light. They are looking for the truth and they set out to find it. Along the way the Magi meet a tyrant. Herod the Great. Herod is not a nice person. By the time Jesus is born he had killed who ever was a threat to him. He killed his second wife, Miriam the First because she was becoming too powerful. Herod killed his three sons because he heard they were plotting to overthrow him. He also killed his mother-in-law and brother-in-law. Cesar Augustus said, “It would be safer to be Herod’s dog than his family member.”
So the Magi say to this tyrant: We’re looking for the king of the Jews! Well, that was the wrong thing to say to him. He says to himself, “What’s this king of the Jews? I’m the king of the Jews. Who is this new king of the Jews? And who are these foreigners coming to honor to him? If they are going to pay homage to anybody, it should be to me.” So he immediately hatches a plot to do what he did to his people in his family who threatened them. He plotted to kill this new rival king. Now this is a preview to what was to come in Jesus’ adult life. He would welcome foreigners; he would be a boundary breaker. He would break down the barriers between Jews and Gentiles, male and female, clean and unclean, clergy and laity, righteous and sinners. All of that would be gone. He would lift up the lowly, he would challenge the powerful and his boundary breaking would be a threat to many people in power. People would plot to end his life. So the story of the Magi is a little preview, little overture of what is to come.
So this is 2021. We are living in remarkable times. A huge demographic shift is taking place in America. Something big is going to happen 29 years from now. Many of you people will be around for this. Twenty-nine years from now, 2050, the people of color will be the majority in America. White people will be the minority. Our country is becoming less white and less Christian. Those on the bottom are rising to the top and those on the top are coming down.
What’s been the reaction to this? In the last few years we have seen a last-ditch effort to fight this shift by some white extremists who feel threatened. They want to stay on top. They want to keep their privilege. They want to make America white again. They want to stop brown people from becoming what Attorney General Jeff Sessions called, “An invasion from the south.” They want to exclude undocumented people from the census count. They want to suppress voting rights for Black and Brown Americans. They want to deny refugees coming from Muslim majority countries. These national policies are trying to protect European legacies of white domination. But they are just a last-ditch-effort to fight the inevitable. And they won’t work! Any more than Herod’s plot to kill the baby Jesus would work. As the Salvadoran proverb says: You can cut back some of the flowers but you can’t hold back the spring! A new world is coming! The astronauts don’t see their own countries any more. Just one earth.
Jesus is universal. His star is shining on everyone.
Covid-19 has exposed the white economic domination of people of color. In June Latinex farm workers in Florida were declared “essential workers.” And yet they are prevented from legal documentation and they live in constant fear of deportation. As Claudia Gonzales, a farm worker organizer said: They use to call us illegals, but now we are essential. So how can you be illegal and essential at the same time? This is calling us to a time of national racial reckoning. Just as George Floyd’s death did last May and Andre Hill’s death did in December. The boundaries are starting to break. We can no longer call some Americans citizens and others aliens and foreigners and migrants and strangers. We are all one.
Bob and Terry Reilly sent me a Christmas card this year. It said: When you have more than you need, fill a longer table. Not a higher wall.
Let’s go back to Herod. This tyrant. It’s a story of power. Raw power that drives Herod to do what he is going to do. He is a classic tyrant. He is brutal. He is paranoid. He is insecure. He is jealous. He is ruthless. He is indifferent to human life. He is ready to use lies and violence against any threat to his power. He hatches a plot to kill dozens of innocent babies to remove this rival baby. No wonder jealousy is considered a deadly sin.
There is a story about three Rabi that were great friends and they often debated the question: What is the worst sin? So they decided that whomever dies first would go up and ask God what is the worse sin and come back and tell the other two. Sure enough, one of the Rabi dies and it take two or three weeks before he appears to the other two. The other two are very anxious when he appears and they ask: Did you see God? And did you ask God the question: What’s the worst sin? He replies yes and then is asked: Is it our sins of the youth? He replied, “No. No. No.” Is it the sins of the flesh? “No. No. No.” What is the worst sin? And the Rabi replied the worse sin according to God is false piety.
Herod is a man of false piety. Fake holiness. He knows how to use religion to serve himself not God. He tells the Magi to get detailed information about this child so that: “I can go and worship him too.” He acts pious but he is filled with malice.
The religious leaders are no better. They are tied to Herod. They don’t like him but they don’t want to cross him either. They know the scriptures but they don’t seem to care about this newborn king. They show no interest. They don’t go to worship him. And again, this is a preview of what will happen in Jesus’ adult life. He’ll encounter hostility from political leaders and indifference and resistance from religious leaders.
God’s power and authority threatens all human power and authority. The Magi, the seekers of wisdom continue their journey. And when they find Jesus they kneel before this rival king. They discover a king much different from the other one they just met. Herod. Jesus is peaceful. He is nonviolent. Nonthreatening. The essence of God is not power but vulnerable love. Although they are outsiders the Magi feel like insiders. They offer their gifts. They leave with empty hands but hearts filled with wisdom. They disobey Herod. Refusing to give information about this child. The commit civil disobedience. They return by a different route. It is interesting that the Magi never again appear in the Gospels. They played an important role. They altered history then they disappeared. Maybe we are called to do something like that. Maybe to do one important thing in our lifetime. Maybe it is a small thing. Maybe it is a big thing. But we all have something to contribute before we exit.
We are beginning a new decade. It’s only three days old. 2020’s. It is an unopened gift. An opportunity of surprise and wonder. Hopefully we can have the attitude of the Magi. To follow that star, that interlight that guides us and trust in God’s guidance on a brand new journey.
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