To Give God Gifts

And on entering the house [the magi] saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

-Matthew 2:11

Today was our first day of classes here during our pilgrimage. For the beginning part of the pilgrimage, most of our classes will be about ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue. This is a fitting class for the environment in which we’re staying for these nine weeks. We learn about the many people from many different faiths and religious traditions who live in close proximity to each other. For many of these people, regardless of what religion they follow, they simply want to give God gifts.

A Christmas Tree stands in contrast with a Muslim Mosque
in Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity

The overwhelming and consistent feeling I’ve had since arriving here in the Holy Land has been gratitude. Gratitude for the sites, for sure, but also for the people here. To a large extent, the Holy Land can feel very “other-worldly,” very different from my own. However, at the same time there are many similarities, just like the one mentioned above about the people simply wanting to give God gifts in response to the many blessings He has bestowed upon them.

One such encounter was getting the chance to visit a local parish to pray the Mass. At this parish, Mass was celebrated similarly to how I was used to back home, but it was entirely in a different language. However, not only were the gestures the same, with similar places for the responses, and the same Jesus in the Eucharist, but the people were in some way the same. It turns out kids cry and play a lot during Mass, here too. Some people sing and some don’t. There are struggles within family environments. People coming to thank God for the many blessings of their lives. Etcetera, etcetera.

I’m grateful for this experience, because it grounds me in the beauty on earth that I would normally miss focusing on the grand things of our faith – especially here in the Holy Land. When the magi came to give the Christ child gifts, He wasn’t the only one who received that Epiphany day: they did too. But they found it in the ordinariness of a Child and His mother, because, as St. John Paul II said: “Heroism must become daily and daily must become heroic.” I think there exists such a gratefulness here, because the ordinary and extraordinary have been made manifest in such an interconnected way, and from that gratitude comes a desire to give back to God, eventually with one’s entire life.