Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Epiphany, or as it is also called the “Feast of the Magi,” “Three Kings Day” and Twelfth Night, since typically the Eve of Epiphany used to fall on the Twelfth Day of Christmas.

And, it celebrates the threefold way in which Christ manifested Himself to the world. In fact, that is where the name of the feast is derived, since the word “epiphany” means  “to make known,” to “manifest” or “to reveal.”

This manifestation occurred in His revelation to the Magi, by His Baptism in the Jordan and His first public miracle at the Wedding Feast at Cana.

But, this feast, in particular, celebrates three men, Three Wise Men, Three Kings, Three Magi. And, almost just as famous as them, are the three gifts that they brought, gifts that symbolized who Christ was, why He was born and what He had was to do for all of us.

Because, in the words of Pope St. Leo the Great in his own Epiphany homily: “With gold they honour the Person of a King, with myrrh that of Man, with incense that of God.” For, this child was not a typical child, no other was sought out with such diligence and purpose, no other brought such a great threat to King Herod, and no cosmic occurrence happened so strongly as with this child that lay in a manger.

And, those gifts remind us of that, because gold and frankincense, as we heard in our first reading, shows us that this, indeed, is Christ the King. In fact, gold was used by kings often, and was always sign of royalty, prestige and power. Incense, however, also carried a great significance, for it is simply a gum resin from dried tree sap and is native to Somalia, but it was used by Moses to set before the tabernacle as an offering to God and was considered to be holy to the Lord, to the point that any profane use, as cited elsewhere in the Book of Numbers, was forbidden. This is why, even today, it is used in church and why it is seen as a symbol of our prayers rising to Heaven.

The myrrh is a brownish gum resin and native to East Africa and Arabia, it was used to embalm the dead, it was used by Moses to anoint the tabernacle and Nicodemus brought it Jesus to anoint His body after His death.

Yet, even these three men carried with them significance as well, for they were seen, by the early Church Fathers as representative of the three ages of man, because, accordingly, Caspar was young and beardless who brought frankincense, Melchior was older, white-haired and bearded, who brought gold and Balthasar was bearded and of African descent and, as it said, in the prime of his life, who brought myrrh. Of course, many people speculate that there were more than three Magi, however, in Cologne, Germany there is a cathedral that contains the relics of the Magi, which was discovered in Persia by St. Helena, only for them to go from Constantinople to Cologne. It is said, that the trip to Cologne took place on three separate ships, hence the Christmas carol, “I Saw Three Ships.”

However, the greatest sign and greatest source of controversy is the Star of Bethlehem. People have speculated it to be anything from a comet, to a supernova, to a conjunction of planets, and while no one but those were there will know for sure, it is St. Augustine who puts it well, he says: “When Christ was born after the flesh, the star which the Magi saw had no power as governing, but attended as a witness. Instead of assuming control over Him, it acknowledged Him by the homage it did.”

So, that, as St. Augustine says further: “But, if as is more likely, a star which did not exist before appeared to point out Christ, it was the effect of Christ’s birth, and not the cause of it. Christ was not born because the star was there; but the star was there because Christ was born.”

For, truly, on that Holy Night when God entered our world, the universe itself bowed before Him in adoration, so that even the stars in the sky did him homage, even the stars in the sky became not just the compass to the Magi, but the very light of Christ in the sky, the very light in our hearts, the star that we all seek to follow, the one leads us from Bethlehem to Calvary, to this altar today.

Therefore, like those Magi, let us seek Christ always, allowing Him to manifest Himself in our lives, especially in the Most Holy Eucharist we will receive shortly, when the greatest epiphany will happen on that altar, when He will manifest Himself in our bodies and in our souls, where He will dwell in the manger of our hearts.