The Magi and Their Gifts

1
The Magi and Their Gifts

• The Church's celebration of Epiphany (appearance,
  revelation, manifestation),
• the "twelfth night of Christmas,"
• apparently originated in Egypt sometime during
  the third century.

2
Epiphany

• Epiphany is traditionally celebrated in honor of
  Christ's birth, of the adoration of the Magi, and
  of the baptism of Christ's (also celebrated on
  the first Sunday following Epiphany), three
  manifestations of the Lord's divinity. The Eve of
  the Feast of the Epiphany is the twelfth day of
  Christmas, and tonight is known as "Twelfth
  Night" .

3
Appearance/Magi

• to the Magi who, guided by the great and
  mysterious Star of Bethlehem, came to visit Him
  when He was a Baby (Matthew 21-19)

4
Revelation/Baptism

• through His Baptism by St. John, when "the Spirit
  of God descending as a dove" came upon Him and
  there was heard a voice from Heaven saying, "This
  is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"
  (Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, John 1), and the
  revelation of all Three Persons of the Most Holy
  Trinity.

5
Manifestation/ Miracle

• through His first public miracle -- that of the
  wedding at Cana when Our Lord turned water into
  wine at the request of His Mother (John 2). Just
  as God's first miracle before the Egyptian
  pharaoh, through Moses, was turning the waters of
  the Nile into blood, Our Lord's first miracle was
  turning water into wine.

6
Old Testament Prophecies

• Typified in the Old Testament by the Queen of
  Saba (Sheba), who entered Jerusalem "with a great
  train, and riches, and camels that carried
  spices, and an immense quantity of gold, and
  precious stones" in order to ascertain King
  Solomon's greatness (III Kings 10), the three
  Magi entered Jerusalem bearing gold,
  frankincense, and myrrh for the newborn King.

7
Kingly Gold

• the gold as a sign of His Kingship. The gifts of
  gold and frankincense were both prophesied by
  Isaias in the sixth chapter of his book.  

8
Divinity/Frankincense

• the frankincense -- a gum resin (i.e., dried tree
  sap) from the Boswellia tree, native to Somalia
  and southern coastal Arabia -- as a sign of His
  Deity. Mixed with stacte, and onycha, and sweet
  galbanum, it was used by Moses to set before the
  tabernacle as an offering to God, and was
  considered so "holy to the Lord" that it was
  forbidden to use profanely (see Numbers 30).

9
Humanity/death/myrrh

• the myrrh -- a brownish gum resin from the
  Commiphora abyssinica tree, native to eastern
  Africa and Arabia, and used in embalming -- as a
  sign of His death. Myrrh, along with cinnamon and
  cassius, was used by Moses to "anoint the
  tabernacle of the testimony, and the ark of the
  testament" (Numbers 30). It has analgesic
  properties, too, and was offered, mixed with
  wine, to Christ on the Cross, which He refused
  (Mark 1523). Nicodemus brought myrrh to annoint
  Our Lord's Body after death (John 1939).

10
Magi/Kings/Wisemen

• The three Magi -- Caspar (a.k.a., Gaspar, Kaspar
  or Jaspar), Melchior, and Balthasar -- are seen
  as the "first fruits of the Gentiles" -- those
  outside of Israel who came to faith. They
  undoubtedly travelled from Persia (modern Iran, a
  distance of about a thousand miles from
  Bethlehem), and their ancestral origins are
  probably found in Persia, Babylon (modern Iraq),
  Arabia, India, and/or Ethiopia.

11
Three???

• How do we know there were three? We don't know
  that from Scripture, but tradition relates that
  were were three, and that there were three gifts
  mentioned supports this notion as well. Tradition
  says, too, that these three men were
  representative of the three ages of man and of
  the three "racial types" of man, the three
  families that descended from Noe's three sons
  (Sem, Cham, and Japheth).

12
Melchoir/Gold

• Melchior was an old, white-haired, bearded
  descendant of Sem who brought gold.

13
Caspar/Frankincense

• According to tradition, Caspar was the young,
  beardless, ruddy descendant of Ham who brought
  frankincense.

14
Balthasar/Myrrh

• . And Balthasar was a bearded black descendant of
  Japheth, in the prime of his life, who brought
  myrrh.

15
Feast Days

• Tradition also has it that the kings were
  baptized by St. Thomas, and they are considered
  Saints of the Church. Though their feasts aren't
  celebrated liturgically, the dates given for them
  in the martyrology are as follows St. Caspar on
  1 January St. Melchior on 6 January and St.
  Balthasar on 11 January.

16
Tradition

• Several lovely family customs are associated with
  Epiphany. It is on Epiphany that the Christmas
  creche is finally completed, as the figures of
  the three wise men at last arrive at the crib. In
  many families, the wise men are moved a bit
  closer to the crib every day from Christmas Day
  until Epiphany. Also, recalling the gifts to the
  Infant Jesus, many families exchange small gifts.

17
Tradition

• A time-honored custom (especially in France) is
  the baking of a cake with a bean or trinket
  hidden inside. The person whose cake contains the
  bean is made king of the feast. Processions of
  robed and crowned "wise men" to the manger are
  fun for little ones, and provide them with an
  opportunity to think of a good deed that they can
  offer as a gift to Jesus.

18
Tradition

• The blessing of the home is also a popular
  Epiphany custom. using specially blessed chalk
  (your parish priest will bless the chalk, if you
  ask, or use the prayer of blessing below), many
  households mark their entrance door with the year
  and with the inscription CMB, the initial Caspar,
  Melchior and Balthasar, the names of the three
  wise man in legend. The inscription also stands
  for Christus Mansionem Benedicat, which means
  "Christ, bless this home." The popular form the
  inscription takes is 20CMB11. It remains
  above the doorway until Pentecost.

19
Epiphany Cake

• A common custom in many cultures, is the Epiphany
  cake containing a trinket or bean, the person who
  finds it in his piece becoming the king of the
  feast. Sometimes there are two trinkets, or one
  bean and one pea one for a king and one one for
  a queen. In the royal courts of the later Middle
  Ages, these customs were very popular.

20
Inculturation

• . Some believe these celebrations derived from
  pagan Roman customs associated with Saturnalia,
  which fell at around the same time as Christmas.
  If so, it can be seen as an example of
  "inculturation", or transforming pre-Christian
  customs and practices by giving them Christian
  significance. The Roman theme of the lordship of
  the feast was easily shifted to the Epiphany
  theme of kingship that of Christ himself and of
  the Magi, or "Three Kings".