A Homily – The Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading - 1 Samuel 3:3-10, 19 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 39(40):2, 4, 7-10 ©

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 6:13-15, 17-20 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:68

Alternative Acclamation – John 1:41, 17

The Gospel According to John 1:35 – 42 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Be mindful!

 When leaders arise among us we must acknowledge them. When that leadership is pure and we see that their work is holy, we must acknowledge that. In acknowledging these things it is important that we do not embellish the record…let the bare facts speak for themselves.

 Remember.

 God speaks to all people. The creator of the universe speaks in the human heart. God is present to anyone who will listen, but God does not favor some over others…and God does not appear in visions.

 In every way, save the way of the heart, God is silent.

 Consider the wisdom of the psalmist:

 God is the God of mercy and of listening; bend your ear to God. Stretch out your feelings and you will find your way through the troubles of life on Earth, beyond the filth and past all misery as the psalmist says.

 Seek salvation, which means wellness; look for wellness by freeing yourself from the addiction of sin, and while doing so, do not dwell on the sins of others.

 When you are beset with difficulties, do not cast blame on those around you. Rather look to yourself, to your own faults, seek relief from them by following in the way of love, humility, justice and mercy.

 Consider the words of the apostle!

 The Holy Spirit dwells with us, the spirit of God dwells within everyone. Each one of us has been created in the divine image, each of us bears a fragment of the eternal God within us, where that fragment abides, the fullness of God also resides.

 The divine spirit is joined to us in this way, and what God has joined, no-one may separate.

 Know this.

 Everything we are, we owe to the creator of the universe. The spirit of God that rests within us is our truest self.

 Use your time on earth in service to God, serving God who dwells within you, by serving God who dwells within your neighbor…even those who persecute you.

 Remember this!

 When God made you, God made you free. When God made you, God knew your capacity for sin, and God made you anyway because God also knew your capacity for love; your capacity for love is greater than your capacity for sin…God has faith in you, and so should you have faith in God.

 Be mindful!

 Do not follow the errors of the apostle, do not fret about your sexuality, about the physical expression of love.

 Do this instead: engage your sexual-partners in a manner that respects the inherent dignity of their person, and your own. Be safe, and accept responsibility for the consequences of what flows from your decisions.

 Understand.

 You are saved already.

 Know this.

 The word messiah is a Hebrew word that refers to the expected savior of Israel and Judea, the one who would free its people from tyranny and the yoke of foreign occupation.

 Christ is a Greek word which refers to the anointed one, or any person who has been blessed in a ritualistic way with oil, which we call chrism.

 In the Christian church a ritual of anointing is something everyone experiences at baptism or confirmation, or upon the acceptance into the deaconate or priesthood, and many other occasions including the last rites which are known as extreme unction.

 Political leaders are often anointed upon their inauguration into office, including kings and princes.

 The Hebrew messiah was expected to be the person who would not only lift the yoke of foreign oppression, but would also re-establish the David dynasty, as such that person would have been anointed in these rather ordinary ways that we are all familiar with.

 There was also an expectation that the messiah would be a priest of the highest order, perhaps filling both offices: king and priest in one person, and as such they would be anointed in a special way.

 Know this!

 From the time of the early Church the expectation of all Christians is that they would serve as a royal priesthood, making it so that all Christians are among the anointed, with the expectation that we all follow of the way Jesus instructed us to live in, serving our sisters and brothers in a way that heals and brings wellness as a gift to God.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today.

 It is important to note that John’s Gospel, being the latest and last to be written, coming nearly one-hundred and fifty years after the death of Jesus, that this Gospel makes a radical departure from any attempt to present the life of Jesus in a historical context.

 The authors of John only followed the timeline presented in the synoptic gospels: Mark, Matthew and Luke, because that narrative structure had already been rooted in the consciousness of the early church.

 Nevertheless, John leaps away from the synoptic narrative at every opportunity that presents itself, he leaps away from what was passing as history in order to insert the “faith” constructions of the early church, “beliefs” about Jesus that had developed over the course of the first century, which constitutes an ideology and doctrine that changed the meaning of Jesus’ life and death, while reconstructing his mission in significant ways.

 By the time John’s Gospel is written, the Church is no longer concerned with courting the disciples of John the Baptist. The authors of John skip the baptism of Jesus completely. There is no passing of the torch from one to the other, there is only a statement of recognition from the Baptist, that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb of God, and with that John’s followers pick up their things to follow him, leaving the Baptist altogether.

 The authors of John are not concerned with the assimilation of John’s followers into the early Church, they are concerned with the structure and hierarchy of the established church, and therefore they transform this scene into an explicit endorsement of the Petrine supremacy. In which Jesus recognizes Peter as the future leader of the Church from the outset of his ministry, giving him his new name, Cephas, or Rock at the very.

 This narrative flourish sets the tone for the kind of propaganda John’s Gospel delivers from the outset.

 As Christians we are called to the recognition of truth, and to be in its service at all times. Therefore, we must be wary of these fabulous intrusions into the timeline. We should always question how they developed and what purpose they were intended to serve, holding them up to the standard Jesus set for us, that they be truthful and in the service of the good.

 

 First Reading - 1 Samuel 3:3-10, 19 ©

'Speak, Lord, your Servant is Listening'

Samuel was lying in the sanctuary of the Lord, where the ark of God was, when the Lord called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ He answered, ‘Here I am.’ Then he ran to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, since you called me.’ Eli said, ‘I did not call. Go back and lie down.’ So he went and lay down. Once again the Lord called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, since you called me.’ He replied, ‘I did not call you, my son; go back and lie down.’ Samuel had as yet no knowledge of the Lord and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. Once again the Lord called, the third time. He got up and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, since you called me.’ Eli then understood that it was the Lord who was calling the boy, and he said to Samuel, ‘Go and lie down, and if someone calls say, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

The Lord then came and stood by, calling as he had done before, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Samuel answered, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’

Samuel grew up and the Lord was with him and let no word of his fall to the ground.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 39(40):2, 4, 7-10 ©

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

I waited, I waited for the Lord

  and he stooped down to me;

  he heard my cry.

He put a new song into my mouth,

  praise of our God.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings,

  but an open ear.

You do not ask for holocaust and victim.

  Instead, here am I.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

In the scroll of the book it stands written

  that I should do your will.

My God, I delight in your law

  in the depth of my heart.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

Your justice I have proclaimed

  in the great assembly.

My lips I have not sealed;

  you know it, O Lord.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

 

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 6:13-15, 17-20 ©

Do Not Sin Against your Own Body

The body is not meant for fornication: it is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. God, who raised the Lord from the dead, will by his power raise us up too.

You know, surely, that your bodies are members making up the body of Christ; do you think I can take parts of Christ’s body and join them to the body of a prostitute? Never! But anyone who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

Keep away from fornication. All the other sins are committed outside the body; but to fornicate is to sin against your own body. Your body, you know, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you since you received him from God. You are not your own property; you have been bought and paid for. That is why you should use your body for the glory of God.

 

Gospel Acclamation  1 Samuel 3:9, John 6:68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Speak, Lord, your servant is listening: you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – John 1:41, 17

Alleluia, alleluia!

We have found the Messiah – which means the Christ – grace and truth have come through him.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 1:35 – 42 ©

‘We Have Found the Messiah’

As John stood with two of his disciples, Jesus passed, and John stared hard at him and said, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God.’ Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. Jesus turned round, saw them following and said, ‘What do you want?’ They answered, ‘Rabbi,’ – which means Teacher – ‘where do you live?’ ‘Come and see’ he replied; so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of that day. It was about the tenth hour.

  One of these two who became followers of Jesus after hearing what John had said was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. Early next morning, Andrew met his brother and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ – which means the Christ – and he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked hard at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas’ – meaning Rock.

 

The Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

Observation - January 9th, 2024, Tuesday

the sky is gray

 the air is dry inside the apartment

my skin is chaffing

 the fan inside my computer is making a lot of noise

like it does not want to used anymore

 my head hurts and my throat is soar

I have been coughing, but now my fever has broke

 I have Covid

 I am staying home

A Homily - The First Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Isaiah 55:1-11 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Isaiah 12 ©

Second Reading – 1 John 5:1-9 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 1:29

The Gospel According to Mark 1:7 – 11 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The grace of God, the creator of the universe, the grace of God is free, and all the good things God has in store for us come with it; God promises to deliver to everyone.

 The covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the covenant God made with Moses, Joshua and David, is the same covenant God made the prophets and with Jesus; it is meant to a blessing for all people wherever they are, no matter how near or how far. God promises to deliver the stranger and the sinner this is the grace of God, this is the way Jesus instructed us to follow, this is the way that leads to paradise.

 There is here, be patient; salvation flows from the wellspring of God, from this life into the next world.

 Be mindful.

 Everyone who is, was begotten by God…everyone.

 Out of your love for God you are called on to love all of God’s children, to love them equally and without preference as God does.

 Know this.

 To profess an ideology or to articulate a doctrine is not the same as an expression of love. Keep God’s commandment; do as Jesus said: love your neighbor as you love yourself, care for them as you care for your own.

 Do not assume that just because a person professes to love God that this person actually has love in their heart. Everyone has the capacity for love, and such a profession is a good first step, but it is not proof of anything.

Be mindful.

 Being a Christian, being a follower of Jesus, does not confer any special benefit on a person, not in this life or the next; it only confers a special responsibility on the believer: to treat all people as God would, as beloved members of the divine family.

 Consider the gospel for today:

 The Gospel of John was written more than one hundred and twenty years after the death of Jesus. None of its authors knew Jesus, or John, and none of them knew anyone who knew them.

 Like all of the other Gospels, John was not written by a single person. It was written by a community of people, and more than any of the other Gospels, it was written as propaganda. It was written with the intention of arguing for what that community believed about who Jesus was, what the meaning of his life was, and what his death meant to the early church, to the world and to the entire creation.

 Unlike the synoptic Gospels (Mark Luke and Matthew), by the time John’s Gospel was written, the early church no longer had any concern about ameliorating John the Baptist’s followers. The ethnic Jews in John’s community had either become Christians, or were considered to be enemies of the nascent Church.

 John’s Gospel is overwhelmingly concerned with depicting Jesus as the cosmic savior. Jesus as the Word of God, Jesus the divine sacrifice who takes away the sins of the World…Jesus as God.

 When John the Baptist encounters Jesus, he is merely a witness.

 When John sees Jesus he announces to his followers that he has come, a man greater than himself, one who existed before him (even though he was born in time after him), one on whom the Spirit of God rests, one who will complete the baptism of every believer, because he will baptize with the Holy Spirit, not water.

 This was the crowning achievement of early Christian propaganda. Through this vehicle the Church transformed the man, Joshua son of Joseph, into the being through whom the entire universe came into existence…it is a fine piece of mythology, but it must be understood for what it is, the expressions of faith and hope, not the recitation of history and fact.

 John’s take on this moment stands in stark contradistinction to how it was presented by Mark, who’s Gospel was written closest in time to the actual life of Jesus. Mark’s gospel illustrates a movement from the ministry of John to the ministry of Jesus. It is depicted with minimal fanfare, and only a slight suggestion that the transposition from John to Jesus was ordained by God.

 In Mark’s narrative the Baptist acknowledges the authority of Jesus, and Jesus is presented depicted as a son of God, but not necessarily as God’s own self, as John’s Gospel would later suggest.

 Mark does not claim that Jesus is God, merely that he has the favor of God, as John did before he was arrested and murdered. Jesus is depicted as accepting the mission that John handed him, and receives the sanction of the Holy Spirit at the moment he comes up out of the water, when the baptism is complete.

 It is wise to study the differences in the Gospels, not to be hung up on them because they say present different accounts of the same events, and not for the purpose of reconciling those events through some tortured logic, but to see the evolution of belief as it developed over many decades in the early church.

 

First Reading – Isaiah 55:1-11 ©

Come to Me and Your Soul Will Live, and I Will Make an Everlasting Covenant with You

Thus says the Lord:

Oh, come to the water all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come!

Buy corn without money, and eat, and, at no cost, wine and milk.

Why spend money on what is not bread, your wages on what fails to satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy.

Pay attention, come to me; listen, and your soul will live.

With you I will make an everlasting covenant out of the favours promised to David.

See, I have made of you a witness to the peoples, a leader and a master of the nations.

See, you will summon a nation you never knew, those unknown will come hurrying to you,

for the sake of the Lord your God, of the Holy One of Israel who will glorify you.

Seek the Lord while he is still to be found, call to him while he is still near.

Let the wicked man abandon his way, the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn back to the Lord who will take pity on him, to our God who is rich in forgiving; for my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways – it is the Lord who speaks.

Yes, the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.

Yes, as the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating, so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Isaiah 12 ©

The Rejoicing of a Redeemed People

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Truly, God is my salvation,

  I trust, I shall not fear.

For the Lord is my strength, my song,

  he became my saviour.

With joy you will draw water

  from the wells of salvation.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Give thanks to the Lord, give praise to his name!

  Make his mighty deeds known to the peoples!

  Declare the greatness of his name.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Sing a psalm to the Lord

  for he has done glorious deeds;

  make them known to all the earth!

People of Zion, sing and shout for joy,

  for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

 

Second Reading – 1 John 5:1-9 ©

Jesus Christ Came by Water and Blood

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten by God; and whoever loves the Father that begot him loves the child whom he begets.

We can be sure that we love God’s children if we love God himself and do what he has commanded us; this is what loving God is – keeping his commandments; and his commandments are not difficult, because anyone who has been begotten by God has already overcome the world;

this is the victory over the world – our faith.

Who can overcome the world?

Only the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God:

Jesus Christ who came by water and blood, not with water only, but with water and blood;

with the Spirit as another witness – since the Spirit is the truth – so that there are three witnesses,

the Spirit, the water and the blood, and all three of them agree.

We accept the testimony of human witnesses, but God’s testimony is much greater, and this is God’s testimony, given as evidence for his Son.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 1:29

Alleluia, alleluia!

John saw Jesus coming towards him, and said: this is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 1:7 – 11 ©

'You are My Son, the Beloved; My Favour Rests on You'

In the course of his preaching John the Baptist said:

‘Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’

It was at this time that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised in the Jordan by John. No sooner had he come up out of the water than he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit, like a dove, descending on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.’

 

The First Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

A Homily – The Epiphany, A Holy Day of Obligation (Year B)

First Reading – Isaiah 60:1-6 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 71(72):1-2, 7-8, 10-13 ©

Second Reading – Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 2:2

The Gospel According to Matthew 2:1 - 12 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

The prophet is writing in metaphor regarding the understanding that the God of the Hebrew people is the God of all people, the one and only God, the creator of the universe.

 God is the God over everyone.

 The metaphor expresses the hope that at the end of time all people will be united, not just metaphorically but in actuality, that there will be no divisions among us: no war, no enmity, no sorrow, no death. It is an expression of faith in God’s promise to bring everyone together for a common destiny.

 What Isaiah writes here is not an expectation of hope for this world. Isaiah understands that God will not effect these changes in the lives of the people today, the prophet is looking to the eschaton…to the ultimate end of all things…to God.

 Know this:

 God does not intervene in the affairs of human beings, God does not appoint rulers and kings.

 God will not rescue you from the troubles of this world, because God has made you, and everyone and the whole of creation absolutely free.

 God will not intervene; therefore do not petition God as if God were a king.

 Consider the words of the apostle who, like Isaiah, expresses faith in God’s love and mercy, even though he fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between God and humanity.

 Understand.

 God loves us according to God’s nature, not ours…we are as God created us, and God’s creation is good.

 Remember!

 God is the author of life and we were created to share in the life of God. God is grace and grace is best expressed through love…in hope…and by faith, which means trust.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today. There is a great deal to unpack in the story of the Magi.

 Before we begin let us note that in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is visited by three shepherds, not three Magi (also referred to as kings).

 Note also that in Mark’s Gospel, the 1^st to be compiled, there is no reference to these events at all, and John’s Gospel, the last to be written, makes no mention of them either. Apologists for the Gospel tradition claim that Luke and Matthew were relating separate events, and they encourage us not to conflate them.

 I think it is best that we proceed with the understanding that no such events actually took place, what we have in both Gospels is a work of narrative fiction, they are myths, as such they are packed with hidden meaning, at time the support outright prevarications, propaganda and lies.

 Matthew’s Gospel tells us that three wise men, Magi (who are priests of the Persian Zoroaster, visit the Holy family to pay Jesus homage; they present him with gifts of gold and other offerings befitting a royal person: treasures of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

 Matthew is talking about real wealth, enough to set Mary and Joseph up for life. If we accept this story as fact, we should not also hold to the notion that Jesus was the son of a humble carpenter. If Matthew was right, Jesus was fantastically wealthy

 Set aside the veracity of this depiction; the image is intended to do establish that Jesus is a royal person, the heir to David’s throne, making Herod’s fears concerning Jesus legitimate; he was a contender.

 As mentioned, the popular interpretation of this reading is to view the Magi themselves as not just wise men, but as kings in their own right, putting their encounter with Jesus on the level of a diplomatic mission, they are of the same class, and they present gifts of the type that the laws of hospitality would demand royal powers share with one another.

 The reading builds on the foundation of Jesus’ kingship, which the writers of Matthew begin in their presentation of Jesus’ genealogy. It connects Jesus to the astronomers and priestly class of the Persian Empire, to the temples of the aforementioned Zoroaster who represent the principle devotees of the Cult of Mithras, to which Pharisaic Judaism owed a significant theological debt.

 Know this.

 Pharisaic Judaism is the Judaism of the diaspora, otherwise known as Rabbinical Judaism, the sect of Judaism to which Jesus and the disciples belonged, and to which Paul of Taursus belonged.

 The myth is intended to convey these points and these points only: that Jesus is the heir to David and that he is intimately connected to mysteries of the Persian tradition. The same Persian tradition that was practiced by the emperor Cyrus when he released the Jews from their captivity in Babylon five hundred years earlier, allowing them to return to Judea and rebuild their temple.

 The Herodian intrigue in this narrative is of secondary importance. It complements the message concerning Jesus’ identity and sets up the Herodian dynasty as a group of villains that the disciples, along with John the Baptist and Jesus will have to contend throughout their lives.

 The drama with Herod at Jesus’ birth topologically connects the birth of Jesus to the birth of Moses, and while these are important cues, they are not nearly as important as the Persian theme.

 It is important to understand these matters, not because they teach us anything about Jesus, but because they teach us about the ideology of the earlier Chrisitan movement.

 

First Reading – Isaiah 60:1-6 ©

Above You the Glory of the Lord Appears

Arise, shine out, Jerusalem, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord is rising on you, though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples.

Above you the Lord now rises and above you his glory appears.

The nations come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness.

Lift up your eyes and look round: all are assembling and coming towards you, your sons from far away and your daughters being tenderly carried.

At this sight you will grow radiant, your heart throbbing and full; since the riches of the sea will flow to you, the wealth of the nations come to you; camels in throngs will cover you, and dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; everyone in Sheba will come, bringing gold and incense and singing the praise of the Lord.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 71(72):1-2,7-8,10-13 ©

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

O God, give your judgement to the king,

  to a king’s son your justice,

that he may judge your people in justice

  and your poor in right judgement.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

In his days justice shall flourish

  and peace till the moon fails.

He shall rule from sea to sea,

  from the Great River to earth’s bounds.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

The kings of Tarshish and the sea coasts

  shall pay him tribute.

The kings of Sheba and Seba

  shall bring him gifts.

Before him all kings shall fall prostrate,

  all nations shall serve him.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

For he shall save the poor when they cry

  and the needy who are helpless.

He will have pity on the weak

  and save the lives of the poor.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 3:2-3,5-6 ©

It Has Now Been Revealed that Pagans Share the Same Inheritance

You have probably heard how I have been entrusted by God with the grace he meant for you, and that it was by a revelation that I was given the knowledge of the mystery. This mystery that has now been revealed through the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets was unknown to any men in past generations; it means that pagans now share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body, and that the same promise has been made to them, in Jesus Christ, through the gospel.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 2:2

Alleluia, alleluia!

We saw his star as it rose and have come to do the Lord homage.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Matthew 2:1-12 ©

The Visit of the Magi

After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews?’ they asked. ‘We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ‘At Bethlehem in Judaea,’ they told him ‘for this is what the prophet wrote:

And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah,

for out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.’

Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared, and sent them on to Bethlehem. ‘Go and find out all about the child,’ he said ‘and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.’ Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went forward, and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way.

 

A Homily – The Epiphany, A Holy Day of Obligation (Year B)