The Christophers: The Gifts of Advent
- Editor
- 45 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Fr. Ed Dougherty,
M.M. Board of Directors
Advent is a season when we look forward to all that is to come at Christmastime and when we begin our beautiful traditions celebrating the birth of Christ. One tradition places the Wise Men far from the manger scene at the start of Advent and moves them a bit closer each day, until their arrival on Epiphany. In this way, we remind ourselves of the journey toward Christ that is the most important journey we all take in life.
Placing ourselves in the shoes of the Wise Men, we can imagine their sense of anticipation in setting out to find the infant Jesus. And their journey tells us so much about what it means to be wise because they had to exercise such amazing discernment from beginning to end on their journey.
Saint Augustine said of the Wise Men, “They who came from a distant foreign land to a kingdom that was entirely strange to them…But they had learnt that such a King was born that by adoring Him they might be sure of obtaining from Him the salvation which is of God.”
As Saint Augustine points out, the Wise Men had to exercise the keen discernment of strangers journeying in a land and culture unknown to them, and yet amid that challenge they had the wisdom to recognize the salvation of God in a child in a manger.
The Wise Men demonstrate the courage needed to see Christ in our midst, to see Christ in the weak and the vulnerable and recognize God at work in the humblest of places. They also demonstrate the sense of self respect we all must have to answer God’s call, because the Wise Men clearly understood their mission as an important one, and we can see this in their bold endeavor to venture from so far off to perform their great purpose in history.
And what was their purpose? It was to reverence Christ and to announce to all humanity down through the ages that we have a Savior and that He came for every culture and person far and wide, as far off as their lands and beyond. If they could see purpose in seeking out Christ, so might anyone no matter how distant their lands or culture from any other.
In his great American short story “The Gift of the Magi,” O. Henry wrote, “The magi, as you know, were wise men – wonderfully wise men – who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents.”
With this important act in their journey to find Christ, the Wise Men show a unique path for us to follow, because we all have different gifts to give. Discovering how we are called to give of those gifts is the key to our own journey to grow closer to Christ each day.
As we journey through Advent with the Wise Men, searching for worthy gifts to give friends and loved ones at Christmas can help us grow closer to Christ. We see that growth in the turn O. Henry’s story takes at the end of “The Gift of the Magi,” when husband and wife have sold their most treasured possessions out of love for one another.
In this bittersweet ending, O. Henry’s characters answer the call of Christ to give up the things of this world for the things of eternity. And we answer that call every time we give gifts out of love and every time we give of ourselves to build others up and to build up the Kingdom of God.
For free copies of the Christopher News Note IMITATING CHRIST’S HUMILITY, write: The Christophers, 264 West 40th Street, Room 603, New York, NY 10018; or e-mail: mail@christophers.org
