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Objection 1: It would seem that it was unbecoming that the Magi
should come to adore Christ and pay homage to Him. For reverence is
due to a king from his subjects. But the Magi did not belong to the
kingdom of the Jews. Therefore, since they knew by seeing the star
that He that was born was the "King of the Jews," it seems
unbecoming that they should come to adore Him.
Objection 2: Further, it seems absurd during the reign of one king
to proclaim a stranger. But in Judea Herod was reigning. Therefore
it was foolish of the Magi to proclaim the birth of a king.
Objection 3: Further, a heavenly sign is more certain than a human
sign. But the Magi had come to Judea from the east, under the
guidance of a heavenly sign. Therefore it was foolish of them to seek
human guidance besides that of the star, saying: "Where is He that
is born King of the Jews?"
Objection 4: Further, the offering of gifts and the homage of
adoration are not due save to kings already reigning. But the Magi
did not find Christ resplendent with kingly grandeur. Therefore it
was unbecoming for them to offer Him gifts and homage.
On the contrary, It is written (Is. 60:3): "[The
Gentiles] shall walk in the light, and kings in the brightness of thy
rising." But those who walk in the Divine light do not err.
Therefore the Magi were right in offering homage to Christ.
I answer that, As stated above (Article 3, ad 1), the Magi
are the "first-fruits of the Gentiles" that believed in Christ;
because their faith was a presage of the faith and devotion of the
nations who were to come to Christ from afar. And therefore, as the
devotion and faith of the nations is without any error through the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost, so also we must believe that the
Magi, inspired by the Holy Ghost, did wisely in paying homage to
Christ.
Reply to Objection 1: As Augustine says in a sermon on the
Epiphany (cc.): "Though many kings of the Jews had been born and
died, none of them did the Magi seek to adore. And so they who came
from a distant foreign land to a kingdom that was entirely strange to
them, had no idea of showing such great homage to such a king as the
Jews were wont to have. But they had learnt that such a King was
born that by adoring Him they might be sure of obtaining from Him the
salvation which is of God."
Reply to Objection 2: By proclaiming [Christ King] the Magi
foreshadowed the constancy of the Gentiles in confessing Christ even
until death. Whence Chrysostom says (Hom. ii in Matth.) that,
while they thought of the King who was to come, the Magi feared not
the king who was actually present. They had not yet seen Christ, and
they were already prepared to die for Him.
Reply to Objection 3: As Augustine says in a sermon on the
Epiphany (cc.): "The star which led the Magi to the place where
the Divine Infant was with His Virgin-Mother could bring them to
the town of Bethlehem, in which Christ was born. Yet it hid itself
until the Jews also bore testimony of the city in which Christ was to
be born: so that, being encouraged by a twofold witness," as Pope
Leo says (Serm. xxxiv), "they might seek with more ardent faith
Him, whom both the brightness of the star and the authority of
prophecy revealed." Thus they "proclaim" that Christ is born, and
"inquire where; they believe and ask, as it were, betokening those
who walk by faith and desire to see," as Augustine says in a sermon
on the Epiphany (cxcix). But the Jews, by indicating to them the
place of Christ's birth, "are like the carpenters who built the Ark
of Noe, who provided others with the means of escape, and themselves
perished in the flood. Those who asked, heard and went their way:
the teachers spoke and stayed where they were; like the milestones that
point out the way but walk not" (Augustine, Serm. cclxxiii). It
was also by God's will that, when they no longer saw the star, the
Magi, by human instinct, went to Jerusalem, to seek in the royal
city the new-born King, in order that Christ's birth might be
publicly proclaimed first in Jerusalem, according to Is. 2:3:
"The Law shall come forth from Sion, and the Word of the Lord
from Jerusalem"; and also "in order that by the zeal of the Magi
who came from afar, the indolence of the Jews who lived near at hand,
might be proved worthy of condemnation" (Remig., Hom. in Matth.
ii, 1).
Reply to Objection 4: As Chrysostom says (Hom. ii in Matth.
[Opus Imperfectum]): "If the Magi had come in search of an
earthly King, they would have been disconcerted at finding that they
had taken the trouble to come such a long way for nothing.
Consequently they would have neither adored nor offered gifts. But
since they sought a heavenly King, though they found in Him no signs
of royal pre-eminence, yet, content with the testimony of the star
alone, they adored: for they saw a man, and they acknowledged a
God." Moreover, they offer gifts in keeping with Christ's
greatness: "gold, as to the great King; they offer up incense as to
God, because it is used in the Divine Sacrifice; and myrrh, which
is used in embalming the bodies of the dead, is offered as to Him who
is to die for the salvation of all" (Gregory, Hom. x in
Evang.). And hereby, as Gregory says (Hom. x in Evang.),
we are taught to offer gold, "which signifies wisdom, to the
new-born King, by the luster of our wisdom in His sight." We
offer God incense, "which signifies fervor in prayer, if our
constant prayers mount up to God with an odor of sweetness"; and we
offer myrrh, "which signifies mortification of the flesh, if we
mortify the ill-deeds of the flesh by refraining from them."
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