Today, in modern 21 st century America , traveling is relatively easy. Most of the time, we take travel for granted. And we like to travel. Oh sure, we read about the craziness of last week: the thousands of lost bags, the delayed and cancelled flights, even those poor people that had to spend 28 hours on board a jet, before the FAA would let them get off at their final destination. But for the most part, traveling today, whether it’s by plane, or car, or train, or bus, is now easier than it has ever been before. And it’s safer too! Even after the tragedy of 9/11, or maybe because of the tragedy of 9/11, our travel has never been safer. Most of us, when we travel, fully expect to make it back home safely. That has not always been the case.

Two thousand years ago, when the Three Wise Men, or the Three Kings, or the Three Astrologers, or whatever we want to call them, when they left home to follow a star, travel was very different. It was a much more dangerous world. And leaving home for a journey like the one that they were about to undertake, was a risky thing to do. There was a greater likelihood that they wouldn’t make it back to their Kingdoms, than there was that they would. There were many dangers. There was disease. There were thieves and robbers. There was the weather. There was the not-knowing where the star was leading them. So when the Three Wise Men started preparing for their journeys, there must have been many who objected. Certainly their wives, their families, their friends, even their loyal subjects must have wondered why these three intelligent, powerful, and wealthy men would want to risk it all, to follow a star? There must have been many who laughed at them. Sometimes, being wise can make you the ridicule of all who do not understand. And let’s be clear here, when it came to the Three Wise Men, they would have had many in their lives that did not understand. Why would they risk it all? Why did they want so badly to follow a star? Why did they leave their families, their friends, their comfortable lives? I gotta tell you, I think that they were compelled. I think that they had to go. God called them to follow that star. How could they spend the rest of their lives wondering, what God wanted to show them, if they didn’t go and find out? They had to follow that star.

It was a matter of Faith. And back then, just like today, if you don’t have Faith, you can’t understand the sacrifices that people are willing to make, who do have Faith. To have God in your life, to keep God in your life, people of Faith will do anything. Once you realize God’s great love and power, once you experience His glory, you are going to do whatever you have to, to stay rooted in that grace. For the Three Wise Men, that meant leaving home and following a star. It meant trusting in God’s love and grace enough to know that God was not going to lead them some place where they were not supposed to be. By Faith, the Three Wise Men knew that God was going to take care of them, no matter what. And that what God was going to reveal to them when the star came to a stop, was going to be worth it. The star led the Three Wise Men to Jesus. Did the Three Wise Men realize just how much this Jesus was going to come to mean to them and to our world? They probably did not. But they still had Faith. And were they disappointed in what the star was leading them to? No way! God was at work. And they were some of the first witnesses.

I mention all of this to you today, especially as we begin a new year, because today we need to have the same, powerful, risk-it-all Faith that the Three Wise Men had. Anybody can say they have Faith. Anybody can through the motions. But what about when Faith comes down to reality? Would you leave home and travel far if God asked you to? Would you follow a star to a foreign country? Would you risk it all to get to experience God in a deeper way in your life? What would it take for you to get on your camel?

We must have Faith too. We too must be compelled to do whatever God asks us to do. Most of the time, it is not nearly as dramatic as getting on a camel and following a star. But our God is asking us to do many things. We too must have Faith. And it’s got to be real, and it’s got to be active, and it’s got to be put into effect in our lives.

As we travel on this road of life, our God is taking us places. This God knows about journeys. God is the ultimate travel agent. He wants to get all of us safely home to Heaven. In 2005, that’s going to have a whole lot less to do with the dangers on the journey, than it is going to have to do with our own responses to His Love. Let us have real Faith. And in this New Year, let us put that Faith into effect in our lives.

May God bless us on this great Feast of the Epiphany, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us !!!