Isaiah 60:1-6/ Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6/ Matthew 2:1-12
Most of us may still remember some of the stories and fairy tales that we heard during our childhood and primary school days.
But as we grow up and face the real world, we also leave the idealistic fairy tales behind.
But say what we like, fairy tales may teach us a thing or two about the real world.
One fairy tale that we would have heard before is “Cinderella”. We would vaguely remember the story.
The story begins with this beautiful young girl who had a proud and haughty step-mother, who had two daughters of her own who were equally vain and selfish.
The step-mother and her two daughters forced the young girl to be their maid and ill-treated her day and night.
When her chores were done for the day, she would go back to her cold and barren room and curl up before the fireplace in order to stay warm.
She would often be covered by cinders from the fire place and the step-mother and step-sisters would mock her by calling her “Cinderella”. (That’s how she got her name.)
One day, the Prince invited all the young ladies to a ball and he planned to choose a wife from amongst them.
The two step-sisters planned to go for the ball but Cinderella would have to stay behind to do the household chores.
After they left for the ball, and as Cinderella was working at the miserable chores, her fairy godmother appeared and transformed Cinderella into the beautiful young girl that she was, so that she could go to the ball.
Cinderella’s rags were turned into a beautiful gown and she even had a delicate pair of glass slippers.
The fairy godmother told her to enjoy the ball but she must return by midnight when everything will go back to normal.
At the ball, Cinderella entranced everyone especially the Prince but she remembered to get back home before midnight.
Another ball was held the next evening and Cinderella again attended with the fairy godmother’s help.
But she got so absorbed dancing with the Prince that she lost track of time and only rushed out at the stroke of midnight, leaving behind one of her glass slippers.
The Prince kept that glass slipper and was determined to look for her because he wanted to marry her.
He ordered all the young ladies to come and try out the slipper but of course none of them could fit into it.
Finally, Cinderella appeared and slipped her foot into it and had the other slipper to prove that she was that beautiful girl at the ball.
And of course in the end, the Prince and Cinderella got married and lived happily ever after.
There can be a moral to the fairy tale - goodness will prevail and it will overcome all obstacles with some divine intervention.
Today as we celebrate the feast of Epiphany, we see the appearance of the wise men, or the Magis, or the three kings, at the Nativity Crib.
These three kings are like some exotic figures from some fairy tale.
Their clothes were rich and elegant and their gifts are by no means ordinary.
As we have heard from the gospel, they came from the east and they were led by the star in search of the new born king of the Jews.
So their journey began even before Christmas and they had to cross the desert sands with all its challenges and difficulties.
So we can imagine that they were sun-scorched, dusty, smelly and sounding a bit crazy as they came to Jerusalem asking where was the new born king of the Jews.
And that’s where the drama began. King Herod was perturbed and so was the whole of Jerusalem.
The chief priests and the scribes were called in and after some checking, they said that it was not here in Jerusalem but there in Bethlehem.
And then Herod thought of an evil plot to use the wise men as his unsuspecting agents to search out the new born king.
So off they went to Bethlehem and again led by the star, they found the child and paid homage to Him.
And then warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another way.
Yes, we are all familiar with the story of the wise men.
Sounds like a fairy tale, and we can even end it off by saying that the wise men lived happily ever after.
Well, the wise men were wise in the ways of God, but they may not be that wise when it comes to the ways of the world.
They were used for evil intentions, but that also stirred up the divine interventions. Yes, in the end, goodness will prevail.
Does that sound like some fairy tale or should we believe that it is for real?
The feast of the Epiphany means that the birth of Christ was revealed to all the nations and the wise men who were non-Jews are the representatives.
But another underlying aspect is that the revelation of Christ will also be met with evil resistance and evil intentions.
And here is another revelation: in the face of evil intentions, there will be divine intervention. Goodness will prevail over evil; God will prevail over evil.
During World War II, when the Jews were rounded up and sent to the gas chambers, there is this true story of one remarkable man who outwitted the Nazis to save about 1200 Jews from certain death.
That story was made into a movie “Schindler’s List” (1993). That man was Oscar Schindler, a German industrialist, who used his flair for presentation, bribery, and grand gestures to risk his life in order to save the Jews who were working for him.
For the 1200 Jews, Oscar Schindler was all that stood between them and certain death.
Oscar Schindler was a man full of flaws like the rest of us, an ordinary man who in the worst of circumstances did extraordinary things.
In the shadow of Auschwitz, he kept the Nazis out and those 1200 Jews alive.
He was the instrument of divine intervention in the midst of evil intentions and actions.
He may not be a wise man but he certainly was a good and courageous man.
We live in a world where the ways of the world are often at odds with the ways of God.
We want to do the good and right thing, but there will be the “Herods” who will want to sabotage us and make us trip and fall.
They may even want to use us to carry out their evil intentions, just like how Herod used the wise men.
Today’s feast of the Epiphany reveals Christ to the world and it also reveals another truth: God’s intervention in the face of evil intentions.
So like the wise men that followed the star and found Jesus despite all the dangers and snares, may we continue to follow the ways of God.
He will show us His help and intervention. That is not a fairy tale, that is God’s revelation.