The January 6th celebration commemorates the arrival of the Magi told in Matthew 2: strange Persian religious figures follow a star to find the baby Jesus and come to pay him homage and to bring him gifts. Since we do not have services planned for Friday, we will be using the Epiphany readings this Sunday (and thus celebrate “Three Kings Sunday”). We will be using incense during the 10 a.m. service (more on that in a minute).
The gifts of the Magi, gold frankincense, and myrrh, help us to see who Jesus is. Gold is a gift one gives a king. Frankincense is an incense used in worship as a symbol of prayers rising to God and a way of driving away the smells and thoughts of everyday life. It is thus an offering to God and points to Jesus as the thinnest of places where divinity expresses itself in humanity. Myrrh was used as a medicine and an embalming agent to prepare bodies for burial. It is thus a gift to the great healer, but also a sign showing that Jesus was born not only divine but fully human and mortal, destined to die.
The wise men’s gifts themselves are symbols that manifest who Jesus is. The wise men themselves are symbols for all the various peoples of the world who would come to believe in Jesus. In honor of Three Kings Sunday, this Sunday at the 10 a.m. Holy Eucharist, we will use frankincense mingled with myrrh to symbolize our prayers and how they drive evil from us, and remind us of how Jesus was manifest in the Magi’s gifts.
For those who want to celebrate in a small way the actual Feast of the Epiphany this year, there is something you may wish to do on Friday January 6.
For centuries, Western Christians (those stemming from the Latin-speaking Church) have had a special tradition of celebrating the end of the Christmas season and praying for blessings in the New Year. It is a practice of simple January 6 door decoration. Since the Middle Ages, some Christians have marked the doors to their homes with the year, the letters C, M and B, and four crosses. They generally mark these in chalk above the main entrance to their homes. This year’s marking is this:
20+C+M+B+12
The letters C, M, and B stand for the names ascribed to the wise men in medieval poetry (Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar). They also stand for the Latin phrase of blessing: Christus mansionem benedicat, translated as “May Christ bless this house.”
If you would like to bless your home for the New Year and mark it with chalk on January 6, the following words can be said while writing each part of the sequence:
“Lord Jesus, around two thousand (20) and twelve years (12) ago, by the light of a great star you showed the way for the three Wise Men, (C) Caspar, (M) Melchior, (B) and Balthasar to find you as a newborn baby. Christ (++) fill our home with Your light, and bless us (++), and remain with us throughout this New Year. You are the Son of God made flesh, and showed yourself to the whole world. Help us now to show forth Your light to all through our acts of love incarnate. Amen.”
–Fr. Tony+
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