Jan 5, 2014

We Three Kings Are Buried In Symbolism

This Christmas season, I have learned so many new things. Such as, it's been six months since I last posted (oops). And that there is meaning tied to the three gifts of the wise men. Here all this time, I just thought they were just expensive gifts. Guess I should have sung more than just the first couple verses of "We Three Kings" all these years. 

In formation, I'm reading "The Story of A Soul". I've read this book before (multiple translations), seen the movie, and listened to the audio version. Each time, something new pops out at me. Someday I hope to be able to live so at peace with giving over all control of my life to God as she did.

I was listening to the last part of the audiobook while I was researching Myrrh and something jumped out at me. Therese was describing the blood she was coughing up as a good thing. It wasn't a sad affair where she was afflicted by her illness. To her it was a blessing, a sign from God that he was calling her to him. If she lived today, her illness would be treated and she would have lived for many more years. I wonder how much we may have lost if she had not felt called to God's side.

In our modern world, we see illness as something horrible. Something that needs to be cured at all cost. We don't embrace death, but rather curse it and try everything possible to keep it at bay. How weak of faith we are to hold on so tight to things of this world. We should not forego finding cures for illnesses, but we should neither be afraid to leave this world, for what awaits us is so much better if we align ourselves with God.

If we had been there in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago, would we have accepted all of the gifts that the wise men brought? Or would we have pushed away the myrrh because it was a symbol of death? I'll admit I'd be a little freaked out if some magi predicted the death of my son, but I think I would accept it. We all die after all. I just don't think I would be quite so excited about death as Therese, though. But, then she is a saint and I am a long...long...long ways from where she was when she wrote "The Story of A Soul".