In Christian tradition, the gifts of the Magi have a spiritual meaning. In the mid third century, the scholar Origen explained that the gold was for a king, the frankincense for one who is God, and the myrrh for one who is to die. The popular carol We Three Kings retains this tradition, reflecting on the person of Christ.

The gifts of the Magi help us to understand who Christ is. Born of the Virgin Mary, He is truly man. He grew in a human family with a mother and foster father. Although free from sin, He knew joy and sorrow: the happiness of family and friends and the sorrow of betrayal and misunderstanding.

He knew feasting and fasting: He enjoyed food and wine at the wedding feast of Cana and on the occasions when he ate with tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners, and he fasted for forty days in the desert and at other times on his travels.

He experienced the love of others: we think especially of the loyal friendship of St John the beloved disciple and the care of Martha and Mary at Bethany. He experienced the hatred of others, especially the superficially smart critics who tried to trip him up with what might nowadays be called passive-aggressive enquiries. Finally He suffered physical, psychological and spiritual torture, and died in agony for us on the Cross.

At the same time, in the unity of one person, He remained and will remain for ever truly God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity. He, God made man, is, and was when he walked in Galilee, almighty, all-knowing, infinitely loving, supreme in every perfection. By being united to His body through Baptism and the Holy Eucharist, we are united to His divinity. St Peter even dares to say that we are “co-sharers of the divine nature.”

The actions of the Magi teach us how we should respond to Christ. They gave up everything and risked their lives to find Him. Today there are Christians who risk their lives to follow our Lord, as in the moving story of the elderly people of Karamless who were left behind by the young who fled the advance of ISIS. When threatened with execution if they did not convert to Islam, they said “we prefer to be killed rather than convert.”

Then, when the Magi came into His presence, “falling down, they adored Him.” (Matt 2.11) Their physical act of kneeling (or prostrating) indicated their recognition of the holiness of the child before them.

With our Christian and Catholic faith, we know with certainty that the baby Jesus is truly God and is our Saviour. Our adoration of Christ, symbolised by our physical attitude in prayer, must come from the heart as an act of loving faith in the one who alone can claim our total loyalty and allegiance.

Sermon preached by Fr Finigan at St Austin and St Gregory, Margate, and St Anne, Cliftonville. Feast of the Epiphany, 4 January 2015.