I love the Christmas season. It’s like one continuous celebration. Yesterday we celebrated Epiphany, honoring the wise men who brought gifts to the Holy Infant and worshipped our great God made man. This could make us ask ourselves, are we also “wise men”? What are our gifts? Sure, we all have varying talents, we’re good at certain things, but what does the Lord most desire from us? If we could give Him anything, what would He want? Our hearts. The total gift of ourselves, our whole life, lived solely for him.
Most of us know this, that’s why we go to Church on Sunday, have various devotions, and try to be “good people.” But it’s so easy (and normal, unfortunately) for even the best religious commitments to become routine, stagnant, mindless. Our ever-longing hearts get distracted and wander, even though our original intentions might be good. Why is this? Why do we give the Lord our hearts only to forget we are His, becoming indifferent? What will it take for us to remember to pause, clear out our internal clutter, and actively re-gift our hearts to the Lord?
If we take a look at the Magi, they show us what we are missing. What was their response upon encountering Jesus?
“They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.”[1]
What I have discovered is that I can’t truly bring Jesus my heart, I can’t fully give Him my heart if I have lost my sense of awe, of joy, of wonder. In other words, if I forget to keep responding to the Lord as the wise men did, my relationship with Him becomes just about certain behaviors, devotions, and rituals, rather than a consistent personal encounter with God. St. John Paul II said this beautifully:
“Without wonder, men and women would lapse into
deadening routine and little by little would become incapable of
a life which is genuinely personal.”[2]
Genuinely personal. This is what we forget. This is why our best-laid spiritual disciplines become habitual and hollow, just “deadening routine”; why our hearts are pulled in a million different directions; why we give Jesus our hearts only to take them back again through indifference. Because we forget that our God is personal! That we are in an intimate love relationship with Him. That He wants us to allow Him to love us, every day.
We can only remain in a state of joy, awe, and wonder if we remember this: our God is a personal God, and He loves us with a love deeper than any other love! And where do we receive this love? In the Eucharist, where we encounter the Lord one on one, person to person, heart to Heart. One of my favorite songs talks about this:
“We bring our hearts to Your altar, O Lord, God of Hosts,
unite them with the Heart of Your Son,
For He offered His life as a ransom for sin, by His death the victory is won,
We bring our hearts to Your altar, O Lord.”[3]
Like the Magi, we too have to bring our gifts to the Lord. Every Mass, we must rekindle our “wise men response”: our joy, our awe, and our wonder at the love God has for each of us. And out of love for Him, we must lay down our hearts — our wavering, inconstant, preoccupied hearts — on His altar. Upon the same altar that He laid down His Heart — His unchanging, resolute, faithful Heart — out of love for us.
This week, let’s try to keep it personal and return our rituals to what they were originally intended for: deepening our relationship with the Lord. As we continue in this Christmas season and start a new year, let’s begin again each day, step by step, with Jesus, remembering to meet Him personally in each Eucharist. Reflecting on the response of the wise men, let us ask Mary to help us bring the gift of our hearts to Jesus, and to cultivate a spirit of joy, awe, and wonder at the immense love of our Savior, God with us.
[1] Luke 2: 10-11
[2] John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, 4, 1998 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana
[3] We Bring Our Gifts, by Brian Flynn, from album Born Again. Listen to full song here.
Mary once I stopped crying and dried my eyes I have never read anything more touching more heartwarming and more awakening then your muse for today it was unbelievable. It was so deep and warming it is actually wakening my heart and my soul every time I go to mass now I will bring this with me in my soul. thank you Mary and may God bless for using the gift God has given you.
Love, Maureen
Wow, thank you, Maureen! I’m so glad to know the Lord touched you through my words. Many blessings on you and Bob!
Beautiful reflection and reminders Mary! I enjoyed this very much and affirmed many things that I have been pondering a lot lately! Thank you and God bless!
Thanks so much, Tracy!