Sunday, 06 January 2013
The Epiphany of the Lord - Solemnity
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| MASSYS_Quentin_Adoration_of_the_Magi |
... And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.
Jesus of
Nazareth, Benedict xvi
Chapter IV The
Wise Men from the East ... pp. 98-102
... various stages of human life finds its true meaning and
its inner unity in companionship with Jesus.
The key point is this: the wise men from the east are a new
beginning. They represent the journeying of humanity toward Christ. They initiate
a procession that continues throughout history. Not only do they represent the
people who have found the way to Christ: they represent the inner aspiration of
the human spirit, the dynamism of religions and human reason toward him.
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THE STAR
Now we must come back to the star which showed the wise men
their path, as we read in Saint Matthew's account. What kind of star was it? Was
there a star at all?
Distinguished exegetes like Rudolf Pesch take the view that
this is not a sensible question to ask. \Ne are dealing with a theological narrative
that should not be confused with astronomy. A similar position was put forward in
the early Church by Saint John Chrysostom: "That
this star was not of the common sort. or rather not a star at all, as it seems
at least to me, but some invisible power transformed into this appearance, is in
the first place evident from its very course. For there is ... nor any star that
moves by this way" (In Matthaeum Homiliae,
VI,
2: PG 57, 64). Much of the Church's tradition has underlined the miraculous nature of the star,
as in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch (c. 100 A.D.), who saw the sun and the
moon dancing around the star, and likewise in the ancient Epiphany hymn from
the Roman Breviary, which states that the star outshone the sun in beauty and brilliance.
Nevertheless, the question whether or not this was an astronomically
identifiable and classifiable celestial apparition was not going to go away. It
would be wrong to dismiss it a priori on account of the
theological character of the story. With the emergence of modern astronomy, developed
by believing Christians, the question of this star has been revisited.
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| The Babe of the Magi |
Johannes Kepler (+ 1630) proposed a solution that in its
key elements has been put forward again by astronomers today. Kepler calculated
that in the year 7-6b.c., which as we have seen is now thought likely to have been
when Jesus was born, there was a conjunction of the planets Jupiter, Saturn and
Mars. He himself had experienced a similar conjunction in the year 1604. with
the further addition of a supernova. This is a weak or very distant star in which
a colossal explosion takes place, so that for weeks and months an intensive radiance
streams from it. Kepler regarded the supernova as a new star. He took the view that
the planetary conjunction at the time of Jesus' birth must also have been accompanied
by a supernova, and this was how he attempted.
Nevertheless, the question whether or not this was an astronomically
identifiable and classifiable celestial apparition was not going to go away. It
would be wrong to dismiss it a priori on account of the
theological character of the story. With the emergence of modern astronomy, developed
by believing Christians, the question of this star has been revisited.
Johannes Kepler (+ 1630) proposed a solution that in its
key elements has been put forward again by astronomers today. Kepler calculated
that in the year 7-6 b.c., which as we have seen is now thought
likely to have been when Jesus was born, there was a conjunction of the planets
Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. He himself had experienced a similar conjunction in the
year 1604. with the further addition of a supernova. This is a weak or very
distant star in which a colossal explosion takes place, so that for weeks and
months an intensive radiance streams from it. Kepler regarded the supernova as a
new star. He took the view that the planetary conjunction at the time of Jesus'
birth must to explain the phenomenon
of the bright star of Bethlehem in astronomical terms. It is interesting,
moreover, that the Gottingen scholar Friedrich Wieseler seems to have discovered
a reference in Chinese chronological tables to the fact that in 4 B.e. "a bright
star appeared and was visible for quite a long time" (Gnilka, Das Matthausevangelium1,
p: 44).
The aforementioned astronomer Ferrari d'Occhieppo has dismissed
the theory of the supernova. For him a sufficient explanation of the star of Bethlehem
is provided by the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation
Pisces, which he believed he could determine with chronological precision. It
is important here to note that the planet Jupiter stood for the principal Babylonian
god Marduk. Ferrari d'Occhieppo concludes as follows: "Jupiter, the star
of the highest Babylonian deity, entered its brightest phase when it rose in the
evening alongside Saturn, the cosmic representative of the Jewish people"
(Der Stem von Bethlehem, p. 52). We need not go into the details. From this
planetary encounter, according to Ferrari d'Occhieppo, Babylonian astronomers were
able to conclude that there had been a universally significant event: the birth
in the land of the Jews of a ruler who would bring salvation.
What are we to make of all this? The great conjunction of
Jupiter and Saturn in the sign of Pisces in 7-6 b.c.
seems to be an established fact. It could well have pointed astronomers from the
Babylonian-Persian region toward the land of the Jews, toward a "king of
the Jews." Exactly how those men came to the conviction that prompted them
to set off and led them eventually to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, must remain
an open question. The constellation could have set them thinking, it could have
been the first signal for their outward and inward departure. But it would not
have been able to speak to them, had they not already been moved in some other
way, inwardly moved by the hope of the star that was to rise over Jacob (cf Num
24:J7).
If these wise men, led by the star to search for the king
of the Jews, represent the movement of the Gentiles toward Christ, this implies
that the cosmos speaks of Christ, even though its language is not yet fully intelligible
to man in his present state. The language of creation provides a great many pointers.
It gives man an intuition of the Creator. Moreover, it arouses the expectation,
indeed the hope, that this God will one day reveal himself. And at the same time
it elicits an awareness that man can and should approach him. But the knowledge
that emerges from creation, and acquires concrete form in the religions, can also
become disoriented, so that it no longer prompts man to transcend himself, but
induces him to lock himself into systems with which he believes he can, in some
way, oppose the hidden powers of the world.
In our story both elements can be seen: in the first instance,
the star leads the wise men as far as Judea. It is quite natural that their search
for the newborn king of the Jews should take them to Israel's royal city
and to the king's palace. That, surely, is where the future king must have been
born. Then they need the direction provided by Israel's sacred Scriptures–the words
of the living God-–n order to find the way once and for all to David's true heir.
The Fathers have emphasized a further aspect. Gregory Nazianzen
says that at the very moment when the Magi adored Jesus, astrology came to an
end, as the stars from then on traced the orbit determined by Christ Ccf. Poem.
Dog11l. V 55-64: PG 37, 428-429). In the ancient world, the heavenly bodies
were regarded as divine powers, determining men's fate. The planets bear the names
of deities. According to the concept prevailing at the time, they somehow ruled
over the world, and man had to try to appease these powers. Biblical monotheism
soon brought about a clear dernythologization: with marvelous sobriety, the
creation account describes the sun and the moon-the great divinities of the pagan
world-as lights that God placed in the sky alongside the entire firmament of stars
(cf Gen 1.16f.).
On entering the Gentile world, the Christian faith had to
grapple once again with the question of the astral divinities. Hence in the letters
he wrote from prison to the Ephesians and the Colossians, Paul emphasizes that the
risen Christ has conquered all the powers and forces in the heavens, and that he
reigns over the entire universe. The story of the wise men's star makes Cl similar
point: it is not the star that determines the child's destiny, it is the child
that directs the star.
If we wish, we may speak here of a kind of anthropological revolution:
human nature assumes by God—as revealed in God’s only-begotten Son—a greater
than all the powers of the material world, greater than the entire universe.
.........
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The horizon at midnight tonight
http://www.schoolsobservatory.org.uk/astro/esm/hz24
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