Soul Food: Week of December 31, 2023

“Soul Food” is a regularly updated calendar of meditations sometimes questioning conventional wisdom & often suggesting eternal values …

Sunday-Saturday: Having studied the ancient scripture & astrological predictions the Magi [Balthasar, Gaspar & Melchior] waited until the star [again] came up east of Jerusalem … [and it] … seemed to move before them, as stars do when people travel. But when they came to Bethlehem the blue-white gem appeared to be directly overhead …

[Upon inquiring whether any babies had recently been born in town, they were told only one who could be found with parents in a stable manger below the one & only inn … Balthasar pointed out that there was much evidence that the One God acts in ways mysterious to man & there must be a reason … for having the All Highest born of unknown people in a stall for animals.]

Having announced themselves to Joseph, then, Mary, the three wise men threw themselves onto the grain-sanded floor, the folds of their brocaded garments spilling into the chaff. They touched their foreheads to the floor & announced that they had come to pay homage to the new king. Mary glanced at them tenderly & held her baby so that they could see his face. Mary smiled. And the little one smiled. The wise men … studied the infant’s face as though they were trying to etch it in their memories. Their knees remained on the floor, and when Gaspar felt that it was time to go, he nodded to Melchior who made a formal address about bringing gifts suitable to one who would be referred to as the All Highest.

Excerpted from Jim Bishop's "The Day Christ Was Born"

Davd Soul