St Mary's

This wonderful story which we get to hear every year about this time is not unique to Christianity. These three wise men, three kings, the Magi coming to pay homage to a child who is to be a Saviour is a motif not exclusive to Christianity. In this part of the world many Avatars, Saviours, God men and women are visited at their birth by the three wise men following a star which helps locate them.

Christianity merely tapped into this story as so many other Religions did at the time. As St Augustine wrote in the 4^th century in his Retractiones “the very thing which is now called the Christian Religion existed among the ancients also, nor was it wanting from the inception of the human race until the coming of Christ in the flesh, at which point the true religion which was already in existence began to be called Christians.”

We may ask why so many religions, followers of Avatars and saviours, choose this date, 25^th December, and this story.

To find an answer, we need to look to the skies and to the seasons, as the ancients did for so much. Being a more agrarian, subsistence culture, they needed to be aware of the earth cycles and nature in general in order to survive. We may need to return to such connections if we are to survive as a species on the planet.

So looking to the skies the three stars      which make up what we know as the Orion Belt, were referred to as the three wise men, or three Kings in this part of the world. For some months they follow the brightest star in the sky at that time, Sirius, until, the four stars line up on an angle, and a line can be drawn through the four stars which reaches the horizon. At that point on the horizon, is the point where the winter sun of the Northern Hemisphere stops its journey South and for three days no longer journeys, it remains stationary, it seemingly dies, then on the third day it rises and begins its journey North to become the strong summer Sun of the Northern Hemisphere.

The date when the stars line up on the horizon is the 25^th December, the birth date of Jesus and most of 25-30 Avatars and Saviours around that time – Mithron from Persia; Attis, Asia Minor; Horus from Egypt; Dionysius from Greece; Inanna from Sumeria and the Roman Sol Invictus to mention only a few.

As we trace the life and death of Jesus, so many of the events of Jesus’ life, are found in the life and death of these Avatars. I encourage you to read more and discover for yourself. It makes for fascinating reading.

We begin to realize that the stories and myths that make up the life of Jesus are found in so many other religions. We then have to ask what about these stories, these myths that have a universal appeal and underlying deep abiding truths. And when we discover these truths, to hold these truths and wisdom close to our hearts.

The greatest injustice we perpetrated on these stories was to literalize them, to say they were true, and then to erase all other references to these stories found in other cultures and religions and claim exclusive rights over these universal stories.

As John Dominic Crossan, foremost scholar on the Historical Jesus, and with whom Peter and I and Kerry White had the good fortune of meeting and hearing last year, “My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically, and we are now dumb enough to take them literally.” (From Who is Jesus by J.D. Crossan)

So what are some of the ancient universal wisdoms found in the story of the Magi? I believe some of the answer lives in our first reading from the prophet Isaiah “Arise, shine out Jerusalem, for your light has come, the glory of God is rising on you, though night still comes to earth and darkness the peoples. Above you God now rises …Lift up your eyes and look around.”

The new birthing of the Summer sun beginning its long journey North to become the Strong Summer Sun, signals more light, more warmth, more life-the coming of the light, which is why the long tradition of midnight mass and the lighting of candles in darkened churches. Awaiting the dawn and the turning of the Season, we want to be there when it turns.

Unfortunately with our strong hot Summer season into which Christmas falls in the Southern Hemisphere all the awaiting the coming of more light, more warmth, more heat is lost on us – no more light and heat, we have had enough already, thank-you very much!

But the message of awakening and coming into the light is forever perennial and relevant.

St Paul captures this beautifully in his letter to the Ephesians “Wake up from your sleep, rise from the dead and Christ shall give you light,”( Eph 5;14)

Open your eyes, Wake up, Live your life mindfully in the moment, see its beauty, fall in love with its simplicity, its flawedness, it’s ordinary, extraordininess.

Embrace it all

Love it all

Be present to it all.

Captured beautifully in Michael Leunig’s story and cartoon ….

“I am on my death bed, cold and alone in a dim, sordid room. Through the window I see the city in a grayish, yellow smoke haze. A rocket streaks across the evening sky. Everything is lost. Suddenly some type of angel is present and tells me I can be granted a few minutes of my past to live over again. I am asked to choose which few minutes I want. Without thinking I say I would dearly love any few minutes …anything at all would be precious.

And suddenly I am standing in a paddock of dry grass in the country. The sky is deep blue, the sun glitters through the leaves of a large red gum. It is late afternoon. There are two children….a pond….magpies sing. I am young. How precious….I am standing in a simple and wonderful vision…ecstatic…tranquil. If only I had loved my entire life as I loved these few minutes reprieve from death. Just then, the sun flashed in my eyes and it dawned on me. This is no reprieve ….THIS IS MY LIFE. These trees…..these magpies…..this sunlight…..this rusty old bed, in the pond.”

So wake up! This is your life!

Embrace it, in this understanding is the coming of the light. As the character in Michael Leunig’s Story moves out of the cold, alone, dim and sordid room of his life into the bright sunshine of being in the moment, being in his life, so the invitation of this magical, universal story of the birth of Jesus at Christmas invites us into the light. It is the invitation to birth the light of Christ consciousness within each one of us, not only at Christmas but all year around. It is the embracing of a consciousness which realizes that all of life is sacred. So beautifully captured in the writings of a German Medieval Mystic, Mechtild of Magdeburg (1207-1282) who wrote in her book, ‘The Flowing Light of Divinity’,

“the day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God and God in all things.”