“We three Kings of Orient are. Bearing gifts we traveled afar.” Well, 
they also traveled late. It’s January 6th. Christmas was the 25th. 
What took them so long? Why are they late? There are a lot of reasons 
given, a lot of traditional explanations why the Magi arrived late. 
One is they were waiting for the Day-After-Christmas sales, so they 
could do their Christmas shopping. Another very traditional reason 
that everybody, I think, has heard is because they were three men and 
not three women. If they were three women they would have asked for 
directions. They would have arrived on time. They would have helped 
deliver the baby. They would have brought practical gifts. They would 
have cleaned the stable. They would have prepared a casserole. And 
they would have insisted on world peace.

There is a more profound and more serious reason for their lateness. 
We really heard it in the second reading. The story of our salvation 
in Scripture and the promise of the prophets and the expectation and 
the aim and the message has always been, from the beginning, that 
Jesus was coming as the Messiah for Israel, for Jewish people. Even 
during his lifetime, he said, “I haven’t come for anyone else. I just 
came for the people of Israel.” And only after his Resurrection, only 
in the power of the preaching of the Gospel, only in the power of the 
Spirit of Pentecost did it become clear and mandatory that Christ is 
the light for all nations,  that Christ is for all people, that 
Christ is the Savior of the whole human family. And Christ is 
represented as a late discovery for all the rest of us by the Magi, 
people who are foreigners, undocumented aliens, strangers who arrive 
late and out of breath. And their message is, and their witness is, 
that Jesus is for everyone, just as they said in the second reading, 
“The revelation of the apostles and the prophets that we didn’t have 
in earlier generations is that God’s plan of salvation in Jesus is 
for every last one of us.”  Our Christmas imagining and our Christian 
imagination gets a lot of color from the Magi. They’re more colorful 
than the shepherds in their bright outfits. They are more exotic. 
They come from foreign lands, and we think of them as kings, as wise, 
as stargazers, as astrologers. But really they’re something else. You 
know what they are? This is what they are. This is what they stand 
for in the gospel. They are us. They are us, at the side of Christ’s 
manger. They are us. Three clear reasons: first of all, they are 
outsiders. You know, when you think about it, every Christian, I 
believe, and every Catholic Christian at some level, feels like we 
are not in the inner circle. We are in the outer circle, maybe 
because our God is so awesome. Even on our best days we feel we are 
invited in. It’s special, but we’re really on the edge. We are 
outsiders. Even Mother Teresa, in her recent writings after her 
death, revealed how she felt like an outsider, that she didn’t have 
the consolation of faith that she expected, that somehow, even though 
she was faithful, she was feeling like she was on the outside. Like 
the Magi, we are all outsiders. Like the Magi, we are all latecomers. 
Even those who were raised Christian, who are “Cradle Catholics,” 
it’s only along the way that we begin to get it! It’s only along the 
way, with a little life experience, that we begin to realize what God 
is all about. We are all like the Magi, outsiders, like the Magi, 
late-comers and most of all, like the Magi, we are seekers. There is 
something about the human heart. There is something about every one 
of us having an ache for God from our birth that makes us seekers. 
That’s why we resonate with fictional stories like Dorothy and the 
Wizard of Oz searching for the Emerald City, like Indiana Jones 
searching for the Holy Grail, like Harry Potter searching for the 
Sorcerer’s Stone, and most of all, like the Magi, searching on a 
journey for Jesus. And we are all born seekers and searchers on a 
journey. And here’s our job description. This is the job description 
we have. Are you ready? .... To grow up, just to grow up, to become 
fully human, to become people who find their true selves and who find 
God. That’s what it’s about and it’s a journey and, like the Magi, we 
have to stretch ourselves. And, at times, we have to take risks. We 
see it all the time. There are big steps in our lives where we have 
to do that. Some ways, we have to do it every day, but there are big 
steps, like every year in September we see our kindergarten children 
arrive for the first time. They are outside the school. They are 
taking that big step of going to school for the first time. Their 
mothers and parents are there. There  are a lot of tears. Some of the 
children are crying. All of the mothers are crying. But it’s a big 
step. As we get to the end of our teenage years, we have to begin 
thinking about the big step of leaving home, of going to college, or 
getting a real job. As we move on, we have to take the big step of 
committing to another person or to a life-long career, of committing 
to a family, and, eventually we have to take the big step of growing 
old.

All along the way, we have to journey, and we learn things from 
today’s gospel. Herod is along the way. Herod is there to sweet-talk 
the Magi, to say, “I want to find Jesus. I want to find the Messiah. 
I want to adore him.... I really want to kill him.” We’ve got sweet-
talkers too. For me, the danger is in commercials. Commercials have 
lots of sweet-talk of where we can find peace, where we can find 
happiness, where we can get it. And that’s not it. The journey is 
bigger than that. But also, the Magi had help along the way, a dream, 
a star, an angel. We have help along the way too. But we expect it to 
be extraordinary. We expect thunder and lightning and stars in the 
sky. And I help God helps us through one another, in very simple 
ordinary ways.

I am going to give you a quiz. I like trying this with you. Think 
about this. See if you can name the five wealthiest people in the 
world. OK. Keep moving on. We know these. These are easy. Can you 
name, if you are into football, the last five winners of the Heisman 
Trophy? Can you name ten people who have won the Nobel Prize? Can you 
name the last five winners of Best Actor or Best Actress of Academy 
Awards? OK. Let me give you something else. Can you think of three 
teachers who aided your journey through school. I bet we can. Can you 
think of three friends who have helped you through a difficult time? 
Can you think of four or five people who have taught you something 
worthwhile? Can you think of one or two people who make you feel 
appreciated? Can you think of four or five people you enjoy spending 
time with? It’s as ordinary as that, but we have help along the way.

And there are things we have to do, with a little help from our 
friends. First, we have to find God. Every day, we have to go inside 
and find God. I love the quote from Meister Eckhart, the medieval 
mystic. He says, “God is at home. We are in the far away places.” 
Every day, we have to find God. We have to find our best selves. We 
have to find who we really are, at our best, not when we are grumpy, 
not when we are upset, not when we are negative. We have to find our 
best selves.

We have to find a concrete community that helps us. Hopefully, that 
sometimes is Church. But we need  a community that comforts us, that 
challenges us, that reminds us when we forget and that multiplies the 
good things we try to do, because we are not alone.

And, finally, we have to make a difference. We are all called to make 
a difference, not to change the world, but just to make a difference, 
with a little compassion, a little forgiveness, a concern for the 
needy and a passion for justice. We are all called to be wise. We are 
all called to be Magi. We are all called to be seekers. .... O star 
of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward 
leading, still proceeding, guide us please to that perfect light. Amen.