Vigils Reading

TAKING GOD ON HIS OWN TERMS

By Fr Edward Leen4

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Everybody knows that the call of the Magi typifies the vocation of the

Gentiles to the Church of God. But to penetrate more deeply into this mystery

and to read therein an experience common to a multitude of souls demands a

deeper understanding of God’s way of manifesting himself to his creatures, and

a keener discernment of his action in human souls. God is a hidden God, and

must be so for us. He manifests himself obscurely. God does not hide himself

from us purposely or to make approach to him more difficult. He desires

revelation of himself to us, and approach to him on our part. God in his

approach to us but tempters his brilliancy to accommodate it to our weak and

diseased spiritual vision. He, as it were, takes care not to hurt our soul’s sight.

But he aims at revelation through dimmed radiance. The incarnation, which is

the utmost concealment of the Godhead that there is, or that can be — except

that of the Eucharist alone — is the greatest revelation of God.

That we are dull of perception is certainly not due to the mode in which

God reveals himself, but must be traceable to our fault. It is the poor quality of

our faith that is responsible for this dullness. We do not take God on his own

conditions. We are always given to imposing ours on him. We have a tendency

to decide for ourselves what shall be the sensible exterior vesture of God’s

message. We clothe that message with a garment woven of our own ideas and

imaginings, and we reject the material selected by God himself for his

revelation.

Not so the wise men. They took God on his own terms. We choose a

certain mode for his manifestation, and they acknowledged him as God in the

lowliness of the guise in which he appeared. They looked on a babe and they said

God. Their faith was superb. That the three wise men were able to discern in the

form of a helpless babe, lying in an earthly Mother’s frail arms, under a

miserable roof, the king of kings, the great redeemer of the human race that had

been spoken of in prophecy for centuries before, was a truly marvelous thing. It

is a proof that they must have been men of very pure lives and to a large extent

immune from the corruption of the world in which they lived. Gifted with great

science, as their name implies, they must have had clear and docile and simple

minds, minds eager to acquire the truth and ready to submit to it, no matter how

much it might conflict with the traditions and prejudices of their race.

The wonderful faith of these men passes all belief. Their appearance in the

pages of Saint Matthew is like a sudden burst of glorious sunshine, breaking in a

flood of glory, through a sky wrapped in a mantle of somber grey. And the star

went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was; and seeing

the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And entering into the house

they found the child with Mary his Mother. Their long quest had come to an

end. As they saw the humble roof under which the child was, and as they

perceived the lowly simple conditions of his parents, were they taken aback?

Had they any misgivings? Were they harassed by any doubts? Were they

expected to discern in this humble babe an object of their kingly homage? It was

the supreme test to which they were put, and their magnificent faith triumphed

over all appearances. Their hearts responded loyally to the touch of grace, for

they were unprejudiced and ready to concede to God whatever form he should

choose for his manifestation.

 

4 In the Likeness of Christ, pp. 56-68; reprinted in Meditations on the Sunday Gospels: Year A; introduced and edited by John

E. Rotelle, Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1995, pp. 32-33.9