Magi videntes stellam, dixerunt ad invicem:
Hoc signum magni Regis est:
eamus et inquiramus eum,
et offeramus ei munera,
aurum, thus, et myrrham, alleluja.

Ant. ad Magn. in I Vesp. Epiph.

Epiphany is a Greek term – ἐπιϕάνεια – that means manifestation, just as the term Apocalypse means unveiling. Both the Epiphany and the Apocalypse are in a certain way united by this manifestation of the Divinity of Jesus Christ: the former in the tribute of the Magi to the Infant King; the latter in the glorious affirmation of the Divine Kingship of the Righteous Judge at the end of time. The first as a voluntary act of submission to the Supreme Lordship of Our Lord; the second as a restoration of that Universal Lordship to which the world – rebellious and apostate – will necessarily have to submit. In the Epiphany, the Holy Church celebrates the Royal Anointing of the Incarnate Word, showing the power of Grace that illuminates the path of the Magi towards the Truth of Christ, and at the same time the terror of Herod, who sees his illegitimate and tyrannical power threatened.

The gold, frankincense, and myrrh offered as tribute by the wise men from the East constitute a Christological Creed. These gifts simultaneously honor the Divinity, the Messianic Kingship, and the True Humanity of the One who was born in Bethlehem, while professing the dual nature of Christ, True God and True Man, in view of the Redemption. And it is fitting that earthly kings should render this homage to the Messiah: with this act of adoration, they acknowledge that their own authority is subject to the Supreme Authority of Our Lord, the only True Sovereign by nature, by lineage, and by right of conquest, and the sole source of all earthly, temporal, and spiritual authority.

The religion of the world, secularism – that is, the usurpation of the rightful worship of God, replacing it with the worship of man – refuses to bend the knee to the Holy Child, because in that act the powerful of the earth would have to contradict themselves and recognize themselves as subject to a transcendent authority that would oblige them to seek, not power and money, but rather the common good of their subjects in obedience to God. It is for this reason that the Revolution hates the Catholic Monarchy, the only form of government that perfectly reflects the order of the Cosmos and that recognizes itself as both subject to and vicar of the One Divine King, and therefore cannot degenerate into tyranny without losing its legitimacy. Only in the Christian social order – pax Christi in regno Christi – does the earthly prince have the right to be obeyed, because he is himself a subject of Christ.

The terrible crisis that is devastating nations and the Catholic Church herself has no other origin than the attempt to desacralize earthly authority. And wherever the divine κόσμος is rejected, there necessarily reigns infernal χάος, the Babel of a dystopian society that anticipates already here on earth the deaf despair of eternal damnation. Democracy and synodality are the two chimeras to which the enemies of Christ resort in the civil and religious spheres, respectively. Liberal democracy, rebellious against God because it takes the place of God, claims temporal sovereignty for the people, when in reality the people are manipulated by powerful elites who shape and guide them. Synodality transforms the monarchical Papacy and the hierarchical structure of the Church into a parliamentary parody that is repugnant to the will of the Supreme Legislator.

Presidents of republics, Prime Ministers, rulers of nations, and Prelates of the conciliar and synodal church do not want to follow the Magi to go and kneel before the manger; and they have no desire to offer gifts to the King of kings: neither the gold of Kingship (Mt 2:2), nor the incense of Divinity (Ps 141:2), nor even less the myrrh of the redeeming Sacrifice of the Incarnate Word (Jn 19:39).

Those gifts, brought from the East by the Magi, also have another meaning, which applies more to the giver than to the One who receives the gift. Gold represents the offering of ourselves, in recognition of God’s Lordship over us; incense, our adoration and our prayer rising before the Divine Majesty; myrrh, mortification and penance in atonement for our sins. Even in this case, the powerful of the earth do not want to submit to God, they do not want to adore Him, and they do not want to acknowledge themselves as sinners in need of forgiveness. It is Lucifer’s “Non serviam” that echoes arrogantly and proudly, and which does not hesitate to recognize and practice the most aberrant forms of idolatry, rather than bow before the Holy of Holies, a Child wrapped in swaddling clothes like a king, in whose honor the angels descend from heaven to sing their song. Yet, as Saint Paul warns us, there is no other Name in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, to which every knee shall bow (Ph 2:10).

Saint Augustine writes: We too, recognizing and praising Christ our King and Priest who died for us, have honored Him as if we had offered gold, frankincense, and myrrh; all that remains is for us to bear witness to Him by taking a different path from the one by which we came [1]. And this path begins with the restoration of His kingdom in our lives, in our families, and in society: Adveniat regnum tuum; fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cœlo et in terra. The kingdom that is to come – and which is ever closer in these eschatological times – will mend the rift between our will and God’s will, torn apart by sin. Let us therefore acknowledge ourselves as His servants and restore to Christ the Crown and Scepter that we have snatched from Him: because to serve God is to reign, and it is to this that, as heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, we have been destined through the anointing of Holy Baptism and Sanctifying Grace. Upon seeing the star, the Magi said to one another: This is the sign of the Great King: let us go and seek Him, and offer Him as gifts gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And so may it be.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

Januuary 6, MMXXVI
In Epiphania Domini

Footnotes

1 – Sermo CCII in Epiphania Domini, PL 38, 1033-1035 – Etiam nos, recognoscentes et laudantes Christum regem et sacerdotem nostrum, mortuum pro nobis, honoravimus eum quasi aurum, thus et myrrham offerentes; nobis tantum deest ut testificemur eum, viam aliam redeundo, qua venimus.