As I drive through the neighborhoods, I see that some to the Christmas trees are already on the sidewalks for the garbage collectors to collect them. I can imagine that the stores are already putting out their Valentine’s Day decorations and sales. We have returned to our normal routines.

The Church is still celebrating Christmas. We are holding on to see if there is something else that we can capture from this marvelous reality that God has become one with us in all things except sin.

Three wise men from the East followed a star to find God. Where is our star that helps us find God? Our star is our Baptism. It points and leads us to where we are now.

The star led the three wise men to Bethlehem. The word "Bethlehem" means house of bread.

The star of our Baptism leads us to this house of bread that is the house of the Eucharist.

What did the wise men find when they entered into the stable? They found Jesus surrounded by people of every class. We find Jesus here surrounded by people of every background and experience. All the people are here to meet Jesus as they were in the stable.

The wise men help us to understand the presence of Jesus by their gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh.

The gift of God’s Word to us and that Word which becomes food for us in the Eucharist is gold to us. It is a precious gift. Nothing can take the place of this gift. We hear God. We see God. We taste God. We are in union with God in a holy communion.

As frankincense is smoke which rises up to God, Jesus lifts us to the Father. All that we are going through; all of what we would like to say; all the people that are part of who we are; all of the world and all that is happening in it; and everything and everyone else is lifted up to God. We symbolize this when we hold the plate upon which is the host which is Jesus and the chalice which is Jesus and we say: Though him, with him and in him is all honor and glory to you, Almighty Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit". We sing Amen.

Myrrh was an oil that is used to anoint the body of someone who died. Jesus was born in a wooden stable to that he would die upon the wood of the cross. The death and resurrection of Christ is made present at this Mass. We are once more touched by this eternal event which saves us.

When the wise men finished their worship of the new king, they went to their country by another route. It was because they did not want to see King Herod. They didn’t want to tell Herod where Jesus was because they feared that he would kill them. However, it also meant that they were changed people because of their meeting the child Jesus and they would live new lives with new roads.