Dear Friends,
This year, the Magi and the crew of the starship Intrepid
travel together. Early in the history of Star Trek, advertising proclaimed that
the story was about a group of adventurers that “goes boldly where no one has
gone before.” For both confessed Trekkies
and closet Trekkies, this declaration has great appeal. So many of us go exactly where others have gone before. We follow other
people’s patterns. Sure, we make some adjustments, but to go where no one
has gone before takes imagination and courage, and all too often, we deny we
have these qualities.
God works through the human imagination. What we cannot
imagine, we cannot expect. What we cannot imagine, we cannot do. If we can
imagine a brave new world by following a star, then we can travel on in hope to
a new geographic, meteorological, psychological, intellectual , faith- inspired
place.
The Magi hold out to us the
gift of imagination – to pursue wellness, commitment in our relationships, the
promotion of peace, and the implosion of the cycle of violence and hatred.
A second gift is the
courage the Magi had to leave
their citadels of learning, to risk travel into the unknown and to trust their
instincts that following the star would lead them to the king. After their
unsatisfying meeting with Herod, the Magi were forced to ask: “Where do we go
from here?” In the end, they went to
Christ, the seemingly obscure child in even more obscure Bethlehem. They had
the eyes to recognize Him, and offered Him gifts fit for royalty Then they dared to go home by another route.
As we encounter God here and now or wherever we go, dare we to
ask: “Where do we go from here after
we’ve met our God?”
Just as Star Trek is not about one person’s remarkable
story, the Magi sought
Christ together. The feast of the Epiphany, which we just celebrated tells us unequivocally that God has plenty to
give and it’s available to all. All are coheirs and sharers in the promise.
To our neighbor and to the stranger, let us be bearers of
help, nourishment and affection. Let us embrace the refugee and the people from
whom we are estranged – people who are at first glance different from us. All people belong to God, and find God
however they can. We are in this spaceship together.
This New Year, the Toys
Are Us store at Times Square is dark. Gone. History. Too expensive
to stay in this noticeable place. To borrow their name, the Magi Are Us. And we are not gone, although we might have some sense
of the cost. Waiting to be released in
us this year are the imagination and courage to not abandon the star, and to
embrace the Holy Child waiting in every person we meet. In faith, this year, let
us go boldly where no one has gone before.
~Sister Joan Sobala
~Sister Joan Sobala
