FOLLOWING THE STAR
We’re all too accustomed to the story of the Magi. On the other hand, today we hardly have time to stop to contemplate the stars at leisure. Probably it isn’t just a matter of time. We belong to an age in which it’s easier to see the darkness of the night than the luminous points that shine in the midst of any darkness.
However, it doesn’t stop us from being moved when we think of that Christian writer who, when he developed the story of the Magi, imagined them in the middle of the night, following the small light of a star. The narration breathes forth the profound conviction of the first believers after the resurrection. In Jesus we find fulfilled the words of the prophet Isaiah: «The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. They lived in a land of shadows, and a light has shone before their eyes» (Isaiah 9,1).
It would be naïve to think that we are living an especially obscure hour, tragic and distressing. Isn’t it precisely this obscurity, frustration and powerlessness that we grasp in these moments, that is one of the characteristics that almost always accompany the human journey throughout the centuries?
It’s enough to open the pages of history. Undoubtedly, we find moments of light in which are announced great liberations, you catch sight of new worlds, more human horizons are opened. And later, what happens? Revolutions that create new slavery, successes that provoke new problems, ideals that end in «half-baked solutions», noble struggles that end up in «mediocre agreements». Once again the darkness.
It’s not strange that it’s said to us that «to be human is often an experience of frustration». But that isn’t the whole truth. In spite of all the failures and frustrations, we return to be repaired, we return to hope, we return to get going in some direction. There’s something in the human reality that calls us over and over to life and hope. There’s always a star that returns to light up.
For believers, that star always leads to Jesus. The Christian doesn’t believe in just any Messiah. And that’s also why we don’t fall into just any discouragement. The world isn’t a «desperate case». It’s not completely darkness. The world is directed toward salvation. God will one day be the end of exile and darkness. Total light. Today we only see it in a humble star that guides us to Bethlehem.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
