Epiphany 2022 - "We saw his star at its rising"

 In keeping with the ancient practice, following the proclamation of the Epiphany Gospel, I just chanted the announcement of Easter and the Moveable Feasts for this liturgical year.  

Before the age of mass produced calendars and smart phones, the chanting of the feasts was a practical necessity; now, we do it as a way of remaining rooted in our Catholic tradition, and still to help us plan our year around Christ.

God Himself planned creation around Christ. He planned our salvation around Christ. From the Big Bang nearly fourteen billion years ago, God planned the saving birth of Christ at Christmas. “In the fullness of time” writes St. paul to the Galatians, “God sent forth his Son born of a woman.” And this plan of God included the confluence of a multitude of historical events—the census of Caesar, the plotting of King Herod, the appearance of angels to the shepherds, the inquisitiveness of the wise men from the east, the stable, the gifts, the poverty of the Holy family, the Christmas star. 

A few years ago, Frederick Larson, an American university professor set out to investigate the Christmas star using modern scientific methods. And he discovered some very interesting things. 

First, he looked into the bible’s claim of the wise men from the east. There are many references in ancient literature to the Magi who were basically the “scientists” of the ancient world. They didn't have the benefit of modern scientific, experimental methods, but they did make a rational, logical study of philosophy, medicine, and the natural world - including the stars.

One group of these scholars revered throughout the ancient world were the Chaldean Magi, based in the city of Babylon, just south of Bagdad, in modern Iraq. The scholars of Babylon were already well-established 600 years before the birth of Jesus. The prophet Daniel encountered them during the Babylonian exile. In fact, it’s likely thanks to Daniel and the exiles, that the Magi even heard the biblical prophecies of the Messiah and the star marking his birth. 

After verifying the biblical claim of these wise men from Babylon, Professor Larson put modern astronomy to work. He programmed computer software to show what the stars would have looked like in Babylon around the year 3 BC. Larson deduced that the star of Bethlehem wouldn’t have been a shooting star, or a super nova, or even a comet. Those things would have been obvious to everyone, and yet, King Herod and his advisers were astonished by the Magi's news of this strange astronomical event. Instead, this event would have been detectable only by the wise, those who were looking for it. And there was a remarkable astronomical event at that time. 

That September, the Planet Jupiter, the brightest planet in the night sky, known as the King Planet, began to converge upon a star known at that time as Regulus, regulus whose name also means King. The convergence of the King Planet and the King star was an interesting coincidence, but that’s not all. 

The convergence of Jupiter and Regulus occurred within the constellation known as Leo, the Lion. The Magi would certainly have recognized the Lion as the Biblical image for the tribe of Judah, from which the Messiah would be born. 

Thirdly, the constellation Virgo, the Virgin, began to arise in the east, and right at the feet of the constellation of the Virgin, sat the new crescent moon, the "birthing" moon. The birthing virgin—that’s an interesting idea. Where have we heard that?

Together, these astronomical coincidences pointed to Jewish King coming forth from the line of Judah being born to a virgin. But that’s not all…Nine months later, things got even more interesting astronomically.

In June of the year 2 BC, the Planet Jupiter, the King Planet, was no longer in conjunction with the King Star, Regulus. Instead, on the horizon of the western sky, Jupiter was having an even more spectacular rendezvous. Jupiter came so close to the Planet Venus that their light merged, becoming the brightest light in the night sky - the brightest the Magi would have ever seen. The Magi, along with the rest of the pagan world, knew the planet Venus as the Mother Planet - the icing on the cake. 

If at that point the Magi had begun their journey, by the time they reached Jerusalem the orientation of the Jupiter-Venus conjunction would have changed. Looking up from Jerusalem, the Magi would have seen the stars pointing south - the exact direction of Bethlehem. And so, leaving Herod’s company, as we heard in the gospel today, they simply followed this convergence of planets and stars, that God had set into motion billions of years ago.

This scientific research gives credence to the biblical claim and our Catholic faith that God had planned the saving birth of Jesus Christ from the beginning—our salvation is God’s highest priority. His love for us, is truly beyond all telling.

And like the wise men, we are to use our intellectual gifts and talents to seek him out, to understand him, to bow down and worship him. The God who guides the entire universe, who guided the Magi to Bethlehem, wants also to guide our lives because he loves us and desires our salvations.

But we must do our part, we must seek him out. “Seek and ye shall find” the Lord says in the Gospel. Why do so many not believe, even though Christ, Savior, King, and Lion of Judah has been born of the virgin and  has been revealed to the nations? They do not really want to find him. Their egos, like Herod’s eclipse the truth, that Jesus is Christ and Lord, and to him every knee should bend.

Because upon finding him, you have a choice: will your life revolve around him or not? Will you allow him to be the center of the universe or not? Many do not seek him out because, like Herod, they are threatened by Him, by the babe of Bethlehem. They will not allow the universe to spin around anyone but themselves. And their earthly lives are sorrier for it, and their eternity is in danger. 

The feast of the Epiphany reminds us that the wise seek him out, and fall down in worship before him, and by doing so, point others to do the same, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.