[The] Magi prefigure all those Gentiles who would later believe in Jesus. What does this mean for us today? Well, all of us would obviously agree that the message of Jesus is for everyone. There’s probably no one in this church today who, if someone asked them sincerely about Jesus, would say, “Well, Jesus is not for you!”
By the same token, we are also invited ask ourselves whether we unconsciously believe that Jesus is more for some people than for others. Is Jesus mainly for people like us? Which people are we subtly privileging in our faith community? Who is more welcome at the Table of the Lord? Or who is less welcome at the Table?
To put it another way, who is not as readily, or willingly, or joyfully welcomed? The poor? The person on the other side of the political aisle? The person against whom you’ve held a grudge? The divorced and remarried? The LGBT person? The person you feel is not a “good Catholic”?
In Luke’s Gospel, the first people who receive the news of Jesus’s birth are the shepherds. They were certainly at the time considered as among the lowest esteemed people. On the literal outskirts of the city. In Matthew’s Gospel, the first to receive the news are the Gentiles, the non-Jews. So from the beginning, the Good News is proclaimed to the most unlikely people. What unlikely people are we barring from our community?
Image source: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2022/12/20/christmas-reflections-from-the-theos-team-2022
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