Solemnity of the Epiphany
Adoration of the Magi
“The loving providence of God determined that in the last days he would aid the world, set on its course to destruction. He decreed that all nations should be saved in Christ.
“A promise had been made to the holy patriarch Abraham in regard to these nations. He was to have a countless progeny, born not from his body but from the seed of faith. His descendants are therefore compared with the array of the stars. The father of all nations was to hope not in an earthly progeny but in a progeny from above.
“Let the full number of the nations now take their place in the family of the patriarchs. Let hte children of the promise now receive the blessing in the seed of Abraham, the blessing renounced by the children of his flesh. In the persons of the Magi let all people adore the Creator of the universe; let God be known, not in Judea only, but in the whole world, so that his name may be great in all Israel.” (From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope, the second reading for the Office of Readings, Liturgy of the Hours).
Art: The Worship of the Mages (also known as The Adoration of the Magi), Domingos Sequeira, 1828, PD-US author’s term of life plus 100 years or less, Wikimedia Commons.
