Every child is born for someone: for a family that awaits him, for a community that welcomes him, that will see him grow, that will grow with him and because of him.
Jesus was also born for someone: but not just for someone in particular, because Jesus was born for everyone.
The Gospel passages recounting his birth tell us just this: this child does not belong only to his family, nor only to his clan, but everyone, near and far, is called to participate in the event of his birth, in the joy and grace of his coming into the world.
Jesus came for everyone, and those who allow themselves to be reached by the gift of his presence are called, as we saw just last Sunday, to set out, to make a journey.
A leitmotiv found in all the stories of women and men of faith is precisely this: getting on the road, because faith itself is a journey, it is a constant search, an ever-new departure.
This was also the case with the Magi.
We began Advent with an invitation to keep watch so as not to let the kairós, the favorable moment, the time of grace, pass in vain (Mk 13:33-37).
We could say that the Magi are first and foremost people who accepted this invitation, who did not let the opportunity of a lifetime pass them by: they saw a sign, they understood that this sign was for them, that it was calling them to go, and they set out.
The star that the Magi saw, like all stars, does not stand still in the sky, but travels a path: Matthew says that the star preceded the Magi, until it came to the place where the child stood, and there it stopped (Mt 2:9).
This means that if the star moves, if you want to continue to see it, you have to move along with it, you have to follow it, set out on a journey. If you stand still, the star disappears, because the star cannot stop.
The magi saw a star in the sky, and they only wished not to lose that light, to continue to let it shine on them. And that is why they left their land and became pilgrims, not knowing from the beginning where they would arrive.
To set out on the journey you have to trust.
But how did this opportunity present itself for them?
The opportunity, the kairós, reached them through, precisely, a star, which means that the Magi are people who have looked upward, who have opened themselves to an infinite horizon.
Watching also means looking up, and scanning the sky.
Their gaze did not remain captive to their boundaries, their world; they did not settle, they did not stop.
Every journey comes from a gaze, from a vision that leads beyond.
Then they come to Jerusalem, and they arrive there as humble seekers.
Many times Jerusalem has been reached by foreign people, who came to fight, to plunder, to take possession of its beauty and treasures.
The Magi come to seek, to share a restlessness in a place and with people who have seeking and waiting as a vocation, as the meaning of life.
In their hearts, they have a question, and this is their real wealth: "Where is the newborn king of the Jews?" (Mt. 2:2). They are wise, but they are also in search of greater wisdom; they know they do not know everything.
It is this lack that allows them to set out, to ask questions, to trust.
The Magi know that a King is born, but they do not know where, because the star has not yet set on any place.
Where the King and Lord is born, where to find him, this is the great question of every man, the great desire.
And the desire of the Magi is fulfilled when their path meets with Revelation, when their steps stop to listen to the Word, because the Word is the epiphany of God. It is the Word that will lead them to Bethlehem, where they find the star waiting for them, because everything is recapitulated there.
Finally, the journey has one last necessary step, and that is the one that leads the Magi to prostrate themselves before that child: considering the whole journey, this is perhaps the most difficult step.
For it asks them to recognize that he is the King, not us. He is the Lord of history, and not us.
This is the step that Herod cannot take, because it would require him to have the courage and humility to remove the crown from his own head, and place it on the head of that humble newborn child.
Yet, Jesus, born for all, was born for this: to free us from the illusion of power, of violence, of everything that is not life-giving.
True life is all about recognizing the greatness of the sign of a baby boy, who came into the world to say that God's desire is to walk with us.
+Pierbattista
