SOME QUESTIONS

...Will you hold on to it and let it harden you and poison and finally kill you? Or will you give it--your gift, perhaps your greatest gift, to the Christ child?

That which we think keeps us from worship, keeps us from joy, keeps us from love...will we bring it all?--resentment, bitterness, sorrow--an cry out, "Here, for you--my gift! Even when my excellence is destroyed and my longing is gone, I have a gift for you. And I give it to you. For it is mine... Receive it as my gift!"

And it is received. It is received.

Gold is our excellence. Frankincense, our longing. And myrrh, that strange perfume blended of our bitterness, our resentment, our sorrow.

We must give or die. We die if we hold on to our gifts. Giving ourself and worship are intimately related; they are finally one.

Then from the story come questions to us:

What is the star which, really, you follow?
Herod or the Child? To whom will you finally be loyal?

To what, to whom are you bringing the gifts of your life?

There is a wisdom which allows those held by it to rejoice exceedingly with great joy... They have come-- to the beginning, the beginning of new life, the beginning of true life. With them we may enter in and see, and fall down and worship;

Free at last to bring our excellence, our longing, our resentment, our bitterness and our sorrow--to bring ourselves--to God, new-born in us; and begin to love our neighbor as ourself...and to love You, O God, and to enjoy You here and now--and forever.

So be it.  
CBB