By Sister Ethel Howley, SSND
Since our earliest years, we have followed the story of the three Wise Men from the east who traveled a great distance to visit Jesus.
We know their unfamiliar names and also their not-very-tempting gifts to be presented to Jesus.
While many facts of this story are vague, there is a clear message for us!
No one is an outsider or a stranger.
The Wise Men were called, as are we all: the lonely and the privileged, the employees and the stockholders, the sick and the healthy, the migrants and the citizens, the saints and the sinners.
Despite that, we can become the outsider through our own behavior.
We can become the outsider by somehow making another group of people outsiders.
The three Wise Men saw the Star, followed it, and found Jesus.
Epiphany is a good time to reflect on our own path. Where are the stars in your life? How, and to what, is God calling you at this time?
It will be different now than it was 30 or 40 years ago, but it's not too late to look for today’s star and begin following it from where you are now.
We don’t know about the Wise Men, but they probably had no regrets about following the star and risking their lives, once they found Jesus.
Image below: Naked Silence by Mary Southard
