This morning in Chapter I reminded my brother monks that among the most precious gifts we can offer God, is the gift of ourselves. However, until we actually know who we truly are, and by a thoroughgoing conversion, come into full possession of who God created us to be, then the gift of ourselves remains incomplete and imperfect. In pondering the significance of the Magi’s gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, I was struck by how they can be understood to represent those three stages of conversion that culminate in that holiness and wholeness by which we finally become who and what God intended us to be—creatures who, once again, are radiant images of God and made like unto him.
Now, whereas the gospel lists gold first and myrrh third, our spiritual journey usually begins with that long process of dying to self and all that is not like God within us. Thus, myrrh that precious spice with which the dead are lovingly anointed, can be thought of as symbolizing this necessary dying with and in Christ—both by virtue of baptism and by subsequent ongoing conversion. Our willingness to endure this slow and painful dying of our unredeemed selves thus becomes a precious gift to God, and myrrh its apt symbol. Thus the psalmist exclaims: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.
This lengthy process of dying—or what Jesus termed losing oneself in order gain oneself—is one that our Christian mystical tradition associates with purifying fire—the purifying fire, that is, of God’s all-consuming Love. For, it is in the fiery crucible of his purifying love that all that is alien to what God created us to be is consumed and we become like that incense—that frankincense—by which the sweet fragrance of a life conformed to Christ ascends to the Father.
Finally, after the long process of dying and steadfastly enduring the purifying fire of God’s love, we begin at last to experience who we truly are through the restoration of the image God first breathed into us. Purified of all accumulated dross and everything alien to God, we have become that precious gold ready to be laid before Christ as the noblest gift we can offer our Creator.
And so, as we come to the altar this morning, let us not hold back the one gift God most desires—the gift of our very selves. Let us place before Christ our myrrh, our frankincense, and our gold: that is, our willingness to die to all that is not of him; our longing to become a fragrant offering in his sight; and our hope of being restored to the radiant image he first breathed into us. May we, like the Magi, rise and go forth from this encounter changed—more transparent to his light, more conformed to his love, and more ready to become the gift God created us to be.