The Magi also add to our Advent bewilderment.
How can an infant born in a manger (Luke 2:1-20) ransom captive Israel (O Come, O Come, Emmanuel)? What can a frail human baby accomplish? Where is the powerful God who smote the Egyptians? Our God sends us a frail infant to be our savior. What was God thinking (Isaiah 55:8-9) ?
Evil had been driven out of heaven and precipitously cast down into the Valley of Tears (Revelation 12:7-12) (Luke 10:18) (Isaiah 14:12-16). Evil was evicted but not defeated. The war against evil was incomplete. Only the venue had changed from up there to down here.
God dispatched his dearly beloved Son, Jesus, to pursue evil from heaven to earth (Luke 2:1-20) . God could have dispatched a subordinate. He could have sent a flunky. But He did not. The job was so important that God did the job Himself (Matthew 21:33-40) .
The divine plan was to dispatch the Son of God from heaven to earth to bring into the the Valley of Tears opposition to evil. Jesus would strike the first blow. He was the tip of the spear.
BUT, WHAT DID JESUS DO TO PREPARE FOR THE WAR? What would a human general do? Wouldn't a human general during the advent of battle equip his army to the teeth with powerful weapons? To do battle with evil here in the Valley of Tears (Revelation 12:7-12) (Luke 10:18) (Isaiah 14:12-16), the Son of God did something that no human general would do - JESUS DISARMED. He made himself weak. He enfeebled himself. He clipped his own wings. The lion became the lamb. THE SON OF GOD DOFFED HIS INVINCIBLE ARMOR OF DIVINITY, DONNED OUR FRAIL UNIFORM OF FLESH AND BLOOD AND, DRESSED LIKE US, PITCHED HIS TENT WITH US IN THE VALLEY OF TEARS. THE SON OF GOD BECOME ONE OF US - AN EQUAL TO US IN OUR HUMANITY - A PARTNER WITH US IN OUR SUFFERING. The defortification of the Son of God, also known as the Incarnation, was a most unusual tactic. Unexpected. Surprising. Unorthodox. Counterintuitive (Isaiah 55:8-9) . Disarmament on the brink of his battle with evil gobsmacks us. It knocks us off our horse (Acts 9:4) .
The Magi saw the potential of a frail human infant. Do we? The potential was realized on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection.
At the Last Supper, Jesus equalized his flesh and blood and our food and drink (Luke 22:19) (Luke 22:20) (John 6:31-59) . He put the equal sign between them. Out of love for us, he made the equation. In making the equation, Jesus shifted the paradigm. Jesus transformed that which was bad into that which is good - a sacrifice into a banquet - murderers into dinner companions - an ignoble defeat into a glorious victory - very bad news for Jesus and humanity into the Good News of Great Joy. The equalization of his flesh and blood and our food and drink unequivocally demonstrated that the our God is head over heels in love with us (1 John 4:8) .
And for the first time under the new paradigm, a lopsided transaction took place on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection.
We took from Jesus his flesh and blood even though his flesh and blood did not belong to us, and Jesus served the bread and wine of forgiveness to the hostile creatures who took from him his flesh and blood even though they did not deserve forgiveness.
The signal of the paradigm shift repeats itself whenever a Mass takes place. It echoes from then and there, across space and time, to us here and now. The vehicle that carries the echo is the Mass.
Worship the frail human baby as the Magi worshiped him. He has done marvelous things for us that we do not deserve! Give thanks and rejoice!