Epiphany 2020

(To be read fast)

Are you tired of the same old thing and looking for a new direction?  No longer want to be a slave to tests or pushing pencils or the drudgery of your current employment? Would you be interested in a job that allowed for exciting travel, new adventures and meeting interesting people? Then have you ever thought of becoming a magi?

You might be thinking, Fr. Bob, I could never be a magi. Well, just read the next 600 words or so and follow these four easy steps and you too could become a part of the fast paced and ancient magi industry.  So why not say yes to this life changing opportunity?  So let’s go!

Step one, is keep your head up and look to the sky.  Magi have their eyes gazing up, seeking something new.  You cannot be a magi if your eyes are always down, simply trudging through the day.  If you are only concerned about “surviving what’s next,” oh what you will miss.  When you look up, you find new things and discover what God is creating.  You might even catch a glimpse of a destiny that is waiting for you.  So crane that neck up and keep searching for the star that carries the promise that God has in store for you.

Second step is to follow the advice of that old secret magi Kasey Kasem who told us “Keep reaching for the stars and keep your feet on the ground.”  Magi keep their feet on the ground. They don’t just stare at stars – they get on their feet, they hop on their camels, they take risks and go follow them.  Your star is not something you know intellectually; your star is something that beckons and you are to pursue it with full out determination.   And we know that our stars are not all in the sky.  Our destinies are found in relationships that need healing, families that need wholeness and faults that need forgiveness.  It is where Christ is calling us and we are bound to follow.

Step three is to gather all your treasures.  Get your gold, your frankincense, find out what myrrh is get some of that as well.  (I am pretty sure it is oil.)  For when you reach your star, you will not want to hold anything back.   You will give it everything you have.  Many people ask me, Fr. Bob, if I all I do in this job is to gather treasure and then give it away, how do I make any money?…………Anyway, at your star you will know there is no choice to give your very best and the only regret you could have is that when God gave you the chance, you did not give your all.

And finally, return another way.  Don’t listen to the Man and report back to your previous life.  Allow yourself to be changed by the Christ led encounter.  Magi change for the good because they follow the path God leads them on.  You will not be the same person so you cannot take the same path.  Instead, take the road of the healed, the forgiven, the just and the merciful.  And invite others to share your new way.

And there you have it:  four simple steps to become a magi and you can start as soon as today.  I think you should.  Earlier I admitted that I don’t know how magi make money.  But if you can say yes to Christ’s destiny for you and have the courage to follow it.  If you then give all you have to the moment God has given you and become better for it, more generous and more loving for it, could you imagine being richer?  So take up the offer and say yes to being a magi today.  God knows we need more of them!