The search for the Magi is guided by a star, a sign in that sky that they know how to scrutinize and interpret. They know the language of nature and let themselves be guided by it. And when they finally get to where they were headed, what do they see? Something very simple and ordinary: a house and the child with Mary his mother. It is suggestive that at this moment Matthew brings us not the name of the child, but that of his mother, Mary. They look for the king of the Jews, but what they find is the son of a woman, who lives not in a palace, but in a simple house. All those who seek the truth and the meaning of life, even when they do not come to consciously profess their faith in God, can nevertheless meet him where authentic humanity is manifested. Above all they must recognize it in a wounded and needy humanity, as Matthew will recall at the end of the Gospel: I was hungry and you gave me to eat. The Magi look for the “king of the Jews”, a title that never appears in the Scriptures, except on the sign of the Cross. That is the real throne of the king of the Jews. The magi offer him gifts. We meet the one we seek every time we approach the human, especially the wounded human, with the attitude of the gift. Whoever wants to offer gold and frankincense and myrrh to the king of kings must also know how to give clothes to the naked, water to the thirsty, consolation to the afflicted.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey