The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home

January 5, 2025 – The Epiphany of the Lord

Matthew 2:1-12

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The event creating the feast of the Epiphany was a visit to the Holy Family in Bethlehem by three significant figures in ancient times. Once referred to as kings, we now know that was incorrect. Matthew called them magi who today would be referred to as learned men or scientists. Like many ancients they studied the night sky to find clues about the nature of reality. Today they would be called cosmologists or astronomers.

What guided them to Jesus was a star. A very bright star. Many years ago, I attended a presentation created by the Adler Planetarium in Chicago about a possible explanation of that guiding star. It was suggested that it might have been a confluence of planets (perhaps Mars, Jupiter or Venus) or a planet with the brightest star in our sky, Sirius. All are viewable in January to this day.

This was all described as a possible explanation, not scientifically probable. But an interesting hypothesis. I was about twelve years old when I viewed that presentations. I also bought the first book I ever purchased with my own money. It was called “The Stars.” Thus began my lifelong fascination with the universe which we currently inhabit.

I have spent many wonderful moments gazing into the night sky. Through telescopes I have viewed the Andromeda Galaxy (a close neighbouring galaxy slightly larger than our galaxy, the Milky Way) the planet Jupiter with four of its moons, Saturn and its remarkable rings, sunspots on our own sun (with safety filters) and various nebula and star clusters, all remarkable. I have tracked comets and meteors and passing satellites. And perhaps my most overwhelming moment of observation was the time when I viewed the great solar eclipse in 2017. Nothing excites my imagination and sense of wonder more than those almost timeless moments of wonder, even ecstasy. For me the stars lead us to imagine God the creator more than anything.

We are so blessed these days to learn so much about our Universe through the observations of the new James Webb Space Telescope. Its pictures are not only informational but to me very spiritual. I wonder about that moment when our universe was created, 13.8 billion years ago. I can spend hours meditating about its development from an unimaginable packet of energy and matter into stars and galaxies (billions of them!) and planets and you and me! And all this was done by the one who lay quietly in a crib that the three wise men visited who were led by a star.

David M. Thomas, PhD