Epiphany 31 December 2023
In praise of an empty cup.
It took quite a time for the three kings to get to the Holy Family, so the image that you may have seen on your christmass cards with them visiting a squawking infant in the manger, is not entirely accurate, although it is rather cute. We are blessed to have a window in our Lady Chapel of this encounter.
Heaps is going on in the window and it’s well worth a look and a contemplate. We are fortunate to be able to leave Christchurch open for reflection and private prayer from 8 am to 4 pm and anyone and everyone is welcome to pop in. Plenty we know about and there are plenty that we will never know about.
In the window, the Magi who has the gold looks straight out at us. The gold is in the shape of an orb which is a spherical symbol given to a new monarch. It usually has a cross on the top.
The second king has the frankincense. It is in a nifty looking container. He is looking to the right of the window presumably to Mary, Jesus and Joseph although they are not visible. Our imaginations are left to run amuck as to where these kings actually are and who they are with. Both the king with the gold and the king with the sweet incense are standing.
That just leaves the guy with the myrrh which was a substance that was used to anoint corpses. Now just as the gold tells us that Jesus is a king and the frankincense tells us that Jesus is God, so too the myrrh foreshadows an early and grizzly death. The magi with the myrrh is also looking to the right of the window, again we presume he is gazing at the Holy Family.
There are many things that make each of these gentlemen unique. Where each is looking, whether they have a beard, the way that they are dressed. There are a few things that sets the guy with the myrrh apart from his buddies and I hope that a picture of him may appear in the pew sheet today.
For one thing, he is the only one that is kneeling. He has adopted the posture of humility and respect. Perhaps he’s aware of who it is before him. He might be aware of his own inadequacy, maybe even some of his own naughtiness.
Our friend is holding a cup and it looks a lot like a chalice. My money is on the theory that the artist understood that at the eucharist the blessed wine in the chalice becomes Our Lords blood in some special lovely way that we can never understand but do need; hence the symbolism of the chalice /myrrh foreshadowing a rather mucky death.
At one level, each of these gentlemen are a bit like us.
There are days when we worship the King all glorious above and we realise who it is that exercises the most potent authority of authentic and undying love over us.
There are days when we worship God and it is marvellous and exuberant. We glimpse or rather sense ‘That other dimension’. The heavenly perspective. These moments are usually unplanned and very fleeting, but sometimes just sometimes, the God of surprises allows us a fleeting peek.
But there are times too when we are like the man who brings the myrrh. We come on our knees, physical or metaphorical. Our hearts are gashed, our lives have unravelled and the thing that that is front and centre of our hearts is very confronting and difficult.
And I want to say in the most reassuring, pastoral, Fr. David way that I can, if this is you today, then it is OK. Those that argue that you have to be exuberant and joyful 110% of the time and to be down cast is a sin, have it quite wrong. Our Lord wept and bled just as much as he laughed and danced and ate and drank.
All He asks is that we be authentic in what we offer. It’s not that hard.
Like the gent in the window, sometimes we hold up the chalice of our heart and all we have is some swishy dregs that to us seem mightily unworthy and inappropriate. And if for you today there is just some skanky residue… then offer it with much gusto and know that God accepts it, treasures it, sanctifies and makes it holy. You wouldn’t be the first and you won’t be the last.
One more thing. With the other two kings it is easy to see the gold and the frankincense. However, with the gentleman on his knees we assume that the guy on his knees actually has something in the chalice he is holding. But… we cannot see into the cup. What if … what if… his cup is actually empty and no-one else knows this is the case? Not his 2 buddies and certainly not us who are looking in on this scene. Yep, maybe there is nothing at all in his cup and he is really on his knees because he is asking for his cup to be filled. Wouldn’t that speak so very reassuringly to those times when we come empty and no-one else knows? And who are those around us today that have empty cups?