Star of Bethlehem (Epiphany)

34.3 I notice that the night light is increasing, it descends from a sky crowded with stars, which are so beautiful in the eastern sky: they are so bright and large and seemingly so near that it is possible to reach them and touch those flowers sparkling in the velvet of the vault of Heaven. I raise my eyes to see the source of the increasing light. A star, of such an unusual size that the moon seems small in comparison, is moving forward in the sky of Bethlehem. And all the others seem to vanish and make room for it, as maidservants do when their queen passes by: its brightness is such that it outshines them all. From the sphere, which looks like a huge pale sapphire lit up internally by a sun, a trail departs in which blond topazes, green emeralds, opalescent opals, blood-red flashes of rubies and gentle sparklings of amethysts mingle with the prevailing pale sapphire. All the precious stones on earth are in the trail that sweeps the sky with a fast and undulating movement as if it were alive. But the prevailing colour is the one emanating from the globe of the star: the heavenly pale sapphire hue which comes down and makes the houses, the streets, the ground of Bethlehem, the Saviour’s cradle, look like blue silver. It is no longer the poor town, which by our standards is smaller than a country village. It is a fantastic town of a fairy tale, all in silver. And the water of the fountains and of the vessels is liquid diamond.

And with a brighter radiation of light the star stops over the little house on the narrowest side of the square. Neither the people dwelling in it, nor the people in Bethlehem see it, because they are all asleep in their closed houses, but the star accelerates its shining pulsations and the trail vibrates and wavers faster and faster drawing a kind of semicircle in the sky. And the sky lights up because of the net of stars drawn by the trail, a net full of precious jewels which shine and colour all the other stars with the most graceful hues, as if they were communicating their own joy to them.

The little house is transfigured by the liquid fire of gems. The roof of the small terrace, the dark stone steps, the little door, are like a block of pure silver sprayed with diamond and pearl dust. No royal palace on earth has ever had or ever will have a staircase like this one, built to be used by angels and by a Mother Who is the Mother of God. The little feet of the Immaculate Virgin can alight on that white splendour, the little feet which are destined to rest on the steps of God’s throne. But the Virgin does not know. She is awake near her Son’s cradle and is praying. There are splendours in Her soul which outdo the splendour with which the star is decorating material things.

34.4 From the main road a cavalcade is approaching. Harnessed horses are led by hand, dromedaries and camels bear riders or are carrying loads. Their hooves make the sound of water that rustles and breaks against the stones of a torrent. When they reach the square, they all stop. The cavalcade, lit up by the star, is a fantasy of splendour. The harnesses of the most rich mounts, the clothes of the riders, their faces, their baggage, everything shines and the light of the star increases the splendour of metals, leathers, silks, gems, coats. Eyes are radiant and mouths smiling because another splendour shines in their hearts: the splendour of a supernatural joy.

• Star of Bethlehem (Epiphany)

34.7 The oldest of the Magi speaks on behalf of them all. He explains to Mary that one night the previous December, they saw a new star of an unusual brightness appear in the sky. The maps of the sky had never shown or mentioned such a star. Its name was unknown because it had no name. Born out of the bosom of God, it had flourished to tell men a blessed truth, a secret of God. But men had not paid any attention to it, because their souls were steeped in mud. They did not lift their eyes to God neither could they read the words that He writes with stars of fire in the vault of Heaven. May He be blessed forever.

They had seen it and had striven to understand its meaning. They were happy to give up the little sleep they usually granted themselves and forgetting even their food, they devoted themselves entirely to studying the zodiac. And the conjunctions of the stars, the time, the season, the calculation of the hours passed and of the astronomic combinations had told them the name and the secret of the star. Its name: «Messiah». Its secret: «The Messiah had come to our world». And they had set out to worship Him. Each of them unknown to the others. Over mountains, across deserts, along valleys and rivers, travelling by night they had come towards Palestine, because the star was moving in that direction. For each of them, from three different points on the earth, it was going in that direction. And then they met beyond the Dead Sea. God’s will had gathered them there, and they then proceeded together, understanding one another, despite the fact that each spoke his own language: by a miracle of the Eternal Father they were able to understand and speak the language of each country.

They had gone together to Jerusalem, because the Messiah was to be the King of Jerusalem, the King of the Jews. But over the sky of that city, the star had concealed itself and they felt their hearts breaking with pain and had examined themselves to understand whether they had failed to deserve God. But when their consciences reassured them, they had turned to king Herod and had asked him in which royal palace the King of the Jews was born because they had come to adore Him. And the king had gathered the chief priests and the scribes and had asked them where the Messiah might be born. And they had replied: «In Bethlehem, in Judah.»

And they had come towards Bethlehem and as soon as they left the Holy City, the star had reappeared to them, and the night before their arrival in Bethlehem its brightness had increased; the whole sky was ablaze. Then the star had stopped above this house engulfing all the light of the other stars in its ray. And they had understood that the Divine New-Born Baby was there. And now they were worshipping Him, offering their gifts, and above all, their hearts, which never cease thanking God for the grace granted to them; neither would they ever stop loving His Son Whose holy human body they had now seen. Later they intended to go back to king Herod, because he also wanted to adore Him.

• Star of Bethlehem (Epiphany)

Jesus says:

« (...) Those Wise Men from the East had nothing to assure them of the truth. Nothing supernatural. All they had was an astronomic calculation and their own considerations made perfect by a strictly honest life. And yet they had faith. Faith in everything: in science, in their own conscience, in God’s goodness.

Science made them believe in the sign of the new star, which could only be ‘the one’ expected by mankind for centuries: the Messiah. Because of their consciences they had faith in the voices of their consciences, which heard heavenly ‘voices’ saying to them: ‘That is the star announcing the advent of the Messiah’. Because of God’s goodness they believed that God would not deceive them, and since their intention was good, He would help them in every way to reach their aim.

And they were successful. Among so many people fond of studying signs, they were the only ones who understood that sign, because only their souls were anxious to know the words of God for an honest purpose, the main care of which was to praise and honour God immediately.

• Faith
• Praise to God
• Star of Bethlehem (Epiphany)

They set out from the far away Indies. From the Mongolian chains of mountains which are the dominion of eagles and vultures, where God speaks with roars of winds and torrents and writes words of mystery on the immense pages of glaciers. From the land where the Nile rises and then flows with its green blue waters to the azure heart of the Mediterranean, neither mountains, nor woods, nor sands, dry oceans more dangerous than the seas, can stop them from proceeding. And the star shines upon them at night, preventing them from sleeping. When one seeks God, natural habits must yield to superhuman considerations and necessities.

The star guides them from the north, the east and the south, and by a miracle of God, it proceeds for the three of them towards one point. And by another miracle of God, after many miles it gathers them at that point and by a further miracle, it anticipates the Pentecost Wisdom, bestowing on them the gift of understanding and making themselves understood, as it happens in Paradise, where only one language is spoken: God’s.

• Star of Bethlehem (Epiphany)

«(...) Could it not be true that the shepherds and the sorcerers spoke the truth, revealed to them by God? Why do you carry on believing they were liars?»

«Because the years of the prophecy were not complete. We thought about it afterwards… after our eyes had been opened by the blood that reddened basins and rivulets.»

«And could the Most High not have advanced the coming of the Saviour, out of an excess of love for His people? On what did the sorcerers found their statement? You told Me they came from the East…»

«On their calculations concerning a new star.»

«Is it not written: “A star from Jacob takes the leadership, a sceptre arises from Israel”? Is Jacob not the great Patriarch and did he not stop in the land of Bethlehem as dear to him as his eyes, because his beloved Rachel died there? And did the mouth of a Prophet not say: “A shoot springs from the stock of Jesse, a scion thrusts from his roots”? Jesse, David’s father, was born here. Is the shoot on the stock, cut at its roots by tyrannical usurpation, is it not the “Virgin” Who will give birth to Her Son, conceived not by deed of man, otherwise She would not be a virgin, but by divine will, whereby He will be the “Emmanuel” because: Son of God, He will be God and bring God among the people of God, as His name proclaims? And will He not be announced, as the prophecy says, to the people walking in darkness, that is to the pagans, “by a great light”? And the star the Magi saw, could it not be the star of Jacob, the great light of the two prophecies of Balaam and Isaiah? And the very massacre ordered by Herod, does it not come within the prophecies? “A voice is heard in Ramah… It is Rachel weeping for her children”. It was written that tears should ooze from Rachel’s bones in her sepulchre at Ephrathah when, through the Saviour, the reward would come to the holy people. Tears which were to turn into celestial laughter, just as the rainbow is formed by the last drops of the storm, but it says: “Here, the sky is clear again”»

«You are a learned man. Are You a rabbi?»

«Yes, I am.»

«And I perceived it. There is light and truth in Your words. But… Oh! too many wounds are still bleeding in this land of Bethlehem because of the true or false Messiah… I would never advise Him to come here. The land would reject Him as it rejects a stepson who caused the death of the true children. In any case… if it was Him… He died with the other slaughtered children.»

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