Whether It Was Becoming That the Magi Should Come to Adore Christ and
Pay Homage to Him?
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.
Obj. 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.
Obj. 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?"
Obj. 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 (Isa. 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 (A. 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 Obj. 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 Obj. 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 Obj. 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 Isa. 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 Obj. 4: As Chrysostom says (Hom. ii in Matth. [*From the
supposititious 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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