Feast of the Epiphany

[Stone]

Saint Gregory the Great on the Epiphany
From Homily X delivered in St. Peter's Basilica on January 6 in the year of our Lord 591
Taken from here (computer translated)

(...) But whether we consider the signs surrounding the Lord's birth or death, one particular thing is astonishing, that is, the hardness of heart of the Jews, who did not believe in him in spite of prophecies and miracles. All creation bore witness that its Creator was coming. Let us consider them in a human way. The heavens knew He was God and the star sent shone over the place where He rested. The sea knew and carried Him as He walked on it. The earth knew and trembled when He died. The sun knew and darkened. The stones and walls knew, and they crumbled to pieces at the hour of His death. Hell knew and gave up the dead who were in it. And yet, until now, the hearts of unbelieving Jews do not recognize that He, to whom all nature has testified, is their God, and, hardened more than the rocks, they reject repentance.

But what adds to their guilt and punishment is the fact that they despise this God whose birth they had been foretold hundreds of years before by the prophets and whom they had seen born in a stable. They even knew the place of His birth, for they spoke of it to the inquiring Herod and told him that, according to the testimony of Scripture, Bethlehem was to be made famous as the place of the birth of the Messiah. For these reasons they strengthen our faith, while their own knowledge condemns them. The Jews are like Isaac, whose eyes were blinded by the darkness of death when he blessed, not seeing that it was his son Jacob who stood before him. And so this unfortunate people were stricken with blindness, and, knowing what the prophets had said about the Redeemer, were not to recognize Him, though He stood among them.

When Herod heard of the birth of our King he resorted to his cunning wiles, and in order that he might not be deprived of his earthly kingdom, he desired the wise men to search diligently for the Child and when they found him to bring him the news. He said that he too might come and worship Him, but in fact, if he found Him he might put Him to death. Now consider how little weight man's wickedness has when tested against the counsel of the Almighty. It is written: Thou hast no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord [Proverbs 21:30]. And the star that the wise men saw in the East continued to guide them. They found the newborn King and offered him gifts, and then were warned in a dream not to return to Herod. And it so happened that when Herod looked for Jesus, he could not find Him. It is the same with hypocrites, who, though they pretend to seek the Lord to honor him, do not find him.

It is well to know that one of the errors of the Priscillian heretics is the belief that every man is born under the influence of a star. To confirm this they give the example of the Star of Bethlehem, which appeared when the Lord was born and which they call His star, that is, the star governing His destiny and His destiny. But consider the words of the Gospel concerning this star: it went before them until they came and stood where the Child was. Thus we see that it was not the Child that followed the star, but the star that followed the Child to show that it was the Child who ruled over the star and not vice versa. Let the hearts of believers, therefore, be free from the thought that any thing governs their destiny. There is only One in this world who governs man's destiny - the One who created him. Man was not created for the stars, but the stars were created for man, and if we say that they govern his destiny, we place them above the one for whose service they were created. (...)

The wise men brought gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold is a fitting gift for a king, frankincense is offered to God in sacrifice, and myrrh is used to embalm the bodies of the dead. So, by these gifts they offered to him, the wise men represented three things about him to whom they offered them. The gold signifies that He was a king, the frankincense that He was God, and the myrrh that He was a mortal. There are some heretics who believe that He is God, but do not recognize His kingship over all things. These offer Him incense, but refuse to give Him gold.

There are others who acknowledge that He is King, but deny that He is God. These offer gold, but do not give incense. Again, there are other heretics who confess that Christ is both God and King, but deny that He took on human nature. These offer him gold and frankincense, but not myrrh from the burial associated with his mortality. But we, let us offer to the born Lord gold, acknowledging his universal kingship; let us offer frankincense, confessing that he who revealed himself in time was still the eternal God; let us offer him myrrh, believing that he who could not suffer as God became capable of death, taking on our human, mortal nature (...)