Today, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, representatives of the Gentile humanity have come searching for the Saviour of the world. They did not come empty-handed for they brought with them fitting gifts for the new-born King of the universe—gold, frankincense and myrrh. These seemingly random treasures disclose the true identity and destiny of this Child. As suggested by the Prophets from of old, gold is fit for a King while incense is dedicated to the worship of God. Myrrh is in preparation for His coming death.
These gifts revealing His true identity and purpose direct our attention to His name. Jesus is not only the King of the universe. The name Joshua, Yeshua or Jesus is God who saves. Through His death (and resurrection), eternal life has been purchased for us. For Matthew, the gifts emphasise the innate and intrinsic recognition that even the Gentiles have of this Child as the Saviour. Underlying the Magi’s momentous expedition is the question of the universality of salvation. Did the Magi come looking for a mere Saviour of the Jews or were they looking for the ONLY Saviour of the world?
Acts 4:12 supplies the answer, “Of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved”. The context of this audacious or daring assertion was the arrest of Peter and John. Both were at the Temple preaching the Resurrection where they also cured a man who was crippled from birth. The subsequent interrogation by the Jewish authorities drew forth this bold statement by Peter.
This has remained the consistent teaching of the Church that Jesus Christ is the ONLY Saviour of the world. Otherwise, it makes no sense that He should claim, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one can come to the Father except through me”. And for Him, before the Ascension, to command the Apostles: “Go and baptise all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.
Ever since the first Pentecost, the Church has carried on the task of evangelisation. Christianity spread through Europe into the new world. But beyond Europe and the New World, Christianity’s fortune has been mixed. Now that we inhabit a global village, one of the effects of globalisation should have been the universalisation of salvation offered by Jesus. But the reality is different.
Why?
The failure of Christianity to take root may stem from our proclamation being stymied or stunted by our practice. Christianity’s history is littered by the shameful witnessing of violence and greed. Remember the Africans saying this: “When the White Men came, they had the Bible and we had the land. Now we have the Bible and they have the land”. This is not “White-bashing” or “Black-praising”. The point is not out there but rather here. It is as simple as “Do we drive differently from others or do we drive the same as everybody else?”.
More than that, while we may proclaim Him to be the Saviour of humanity, in effect, we seem to have settled comfortably into accepting Jesus as the Saviour only of Christians. Thus, the Epiphany—the coming of 3 Magi, these Gentiles, searching for salvation—challenges both our relativism and indifference. We are relativistic because some have accepted that Jesus is one means of salvation amongst others. In fact for some, the fullest means of salvation or the privileged way to God implies that there may be other “ways” to be saved. We become indifferent when we no longer see the need to proclaim the Good News of Christ’s salvation to all. We tend to excuse ourselves by referring to the possibility of salvation for those who are ignorant through no fault of theirs.
God wills to save all through Jesus Christ His Son. This salvation is mediated through the instrument or the agency of the Church for where the Head is, there the Body is too. However, the truth is while “God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel… still the Church has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelise all men”. (CCC #848). The Church is missionary in nature; her mission is evangelisation. God’s universal will to save does not abrogate our duty to proclaim to all the salvation brought about by Christ.
“To evangelise” does bring to mind the idea of “proselytisation” but the task of evangelisation is really a two-fold duty for every Christian. Firstly, can our personal and faith life stand up to scrutiny? Do we stand out as Christians? If not, our job is cut out for us. We must continually resolve to meet the standard of morality and the normal strategy is to avail ourselves of the Sacraments—Penance and Eucharist. Self-conquest remains to be our daily exercise. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me”. Second, the strength of our proselytisation is to be found in being attractive. We convert through attraction—like a lit-lamp on a stand, we draw people to Christ through the consistency of our conviction and conduct, through the beauty of our belief and behaviour.
The pagan world, through the Magi, came searching for the true God to worship. Today the same “unbelieving” world—be it Christian or otherwise—is still curious, seeking to know God, desiring to love God and yearning to be saved by God. To these inquirers, the words of Peter must resound through our belief and behaviour. What we profess with our mouth, we perform through our action that “there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved”. The name that saves is Jesus. So let us come and adore Him, Christ the King, Christ the Lord, Christ the Saviour.
