JANUARY 5, 2020
7:30 AM, 10:30 AM (SUN) ORDINARY FORM MASS
Henry Van Dyke - a Presbyterian minister, author, and statesman - was born in 1830 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. He taught English Literature at Princeton University and lectured at the University of Paris. President Woodrow Wilson appointed him Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg. He also wrote the lyrics for the hymn “Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee,” which many of us are familiar with.
Van Dyke wrote two Christmas stories: The First Christmas Tree - in 1897; and before that The Other Wise Man - in 1896.
In the story, The Other Wise Man, Van Dyke writes about a fictional fourth wise man who it would seem was always a little bit behind schedule.
On his way to rendezvous with the three magi, he stops to help a dying man - and so is late. By the time he arrives, the caravan has set out across the desert. He is forced to sell 1/3 of his treasure to finance his own journey to Bethlehem.
When he arrives in Bethlehem, it is in the midst of the slaughter of the innocents by King Herod - which we commemorated three days after Christmas. The Holy Family has already fled to Egypt; and this wise man again uses 1/3 of his treasure to save the life of a child by paying off the troops sent to kill the children.
For thirty-three years he travels around - always just a few steps behind Jesus - living his life as a pilgrim and as one seeking for Jesus. When he finally finds Jesus, it is in Jerusalem ... on Good Friday. He is again distracted, using the last 1/3 of his treasure to ransom a young woman from being sold into slavery.
At the death of Jesus, the earth shakes, and our wise man is trapped under a falling stone at the temple. He feels that he has failed in his life’s quest - never meeting Jesus ... and spending his treasure which was intended for the Christ Child so many years before.
As he is dying - besot with remorse - he hears a voice that tells him:
Verily I say unto thee,That is, despite what appeared to be failures to achieve his own life’s goal, he had lived out the Beatitudes in his acts of mercy and charity. And in that sense, had not only met Jesus - but had served as the hands and feet of Christ in the world.
Inasmuch as thou hast done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren,
thou hast done it unto me.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ; let us pray for the graces to truly be renewed by God’s presence among us. May we recognize Christ in our daily lives … in the people that we encounter … and may we be His hands and His feet … His mouth and His ears … in the world in which we live.
