“And they departed for their country by a different way.”
When COVID first broke and we were ordered
into our first shelter-in-place,
one of the requirements was to stay home and
to not hike in any park that was more than
five minutes away from your house.
Up until that point, I had been hiking regularly in a park
called “Sierra Azul,” a twelve minute drive from my house.
So I had to find another place to hike.
My brother, Paul, who also lives in Almaden,
found this lovely place called Calero Lake County Park Reserve.
I had been living for 16 ½ years in Almaden
and I had never hiked in that park.
It was beautiful and it was only five minutes from my house.
It was amazing.
That became my secret place of refuge.
Just for five minutes each morning go out there,
hike in the beautiful wilderness.
It is thousands of acres of untouched reserve
and hundreds of miles of nature trails.
My brother recently invited me to come down and to hike.
Over Christmas I went down for a hike.
And he had found a new trail while I was down there.
It opened up into the back country of the open reserve.
It was stunning. Absolutely stunning. Breathtaking views.
And not a soul to be seen for miles in every direction.
In fact, one could fool oneself and
think one was in the middle of the open country
not living with millions of other people here in Silicon Valley.
This idea of finding another trail is fascinating
and how we can often live in the same place
and not know some places right around us.
When I arrived here first 6 months ago,
I walked different roads all in the neighborhood;
went this way,went that way, went this way and that way.
Now just 6 months later, I have found a routine and
when I walk in the neighborhood;
down Morton, back up Morton.
Down Morton, back up Morton. That’s it.
When I go hiking, I go out to a trail in Stevens Creek County Reserve.
It is a beautiful park and I hiked different trails.
But now I just hike straight up the hill and straight down the hill.
I do not venture off into new trails anymore.
I don’t know what it is about the human self
that we gravitate towards habit and then lock in.
And then we repeat the same thing over and over and over again.
We very rarely venture onto a different path.
In Matthew’s gospel this curious phrase at the end of it,
that the Magi went back a different way,
it is Matthew’s way of saying they had a moment of conversion.
That is his code word for conversion here.
Bear in mind what has happened to the magi.
They saw a star at its rising and they were following it.
They thought it was leading to something good
and they consulted with the leader of that place, King Herod.
But he was so desperate to hold onto his own power
and he was not willing to give up power at any cost.
So he secretly pulled them aside to find out
not so that he would worship him
although that is what he said.
Herod consults the religious leaders at the time
and unwittingly they helped King Herod by interpreting the scriptures
and ironically telling him where this child was to be born.
He lied and was planning to kill the child
and later we hear that he slaughtered every male child
in the whole of Bethlehem in the area,
any child under two years, just to hold onto to power.
Desperate to hold onto power at any cost.
But these Magi are enlightened and they go back a different way;
they allowed what they had experienced, the baby Jesus,
to transform them and went back a different way;
a point of conversion.
These last few days in celebrating Christmas,
we celebrate the birth of Christ.
We celebrate the wonderful news that God loves us so much
that he became one of us in Christ Jesus in a vulnerable baby child,
a vulnerable baby child.
And that is the wonder of God’s creation.
The Magi experienced that.
And they could not but help be converted;
couldn’t but help to go back a different way.
They went back different and changed.
We are called to experience Christ
and that is why we celebrate this Christmas every year;
to re-experience the wonder and miracle of Christmas;
that God loves us and that when we experience
the vulnerable baby Jesus and his powerful love
then we are called to conversion.
We are called to go back a different way;
to enter into the New Year not the same way;
to be different; to find if you would a new trail in our life.
In all the gospels, Jesus’ first word in public ministry is the word “repent”
but it is particularly highlighted in Matthew’s gospel.
We often think when we hear repent “repent from your sins”
and of course that is the message that John the Baptist gives
but Jesus comes along and says repent in a different way.
The word he uses is the Greek word “metanoia”
which actually better translates into English meaning
“change your mind” or “change your hearts”.
Jesus says, “Change the way you look at things;
change the way you are.
Come follow me. And change.
Come. Experience the love of God and be changed by that.”
Now this change of mind requires a second look,
another way to do it.
The only way I know how to do this
and I know you get tired of me saying this
but the only way I know we can do this is
to become men and women, boys and girls of prayer;
of a deeper listening; of listening to what is it that God wants me to change.
So what we can do is we can look but then look again.
The first look, the first gaze is one of judgment;
of calculation to assess what the situation is.
The second gaze is one of contemplation and reflection;
one of allowing the presence of God
and the love of God to touch our heart.
To be then made new.
To be changed by that and go back a different way.
I know that habits are good things
because they allow us to automate things in our life.
We can do other things as we have habits of other things.
Habits are powerful and good as long as they are good habits.
But there are sometimes a call,
especially when we begin a new year like this,
to allow ourselves to go back a different way, to change.
And I invite you to ask the Lord in your prayers,
“What is it that the Lord is asking you to change?”
What way is it to go back differently, if you would?
And to do that in prayer and find out where is the Lord calling you.
Pope Francis has asked us not to let this COVID moment leave us the same.
He is asking us that we as a world of nations
seize this moment and to, if you would, take a second gaze
at how our economy,
how our society,
how our community,
how are family is set up.
And can we go, if you would, a different way;
to evaluate and to look;
to take a second gaze.
In so doing, Pope Francis is challenging us to look again;
to allow the revelation of God in the baby Jesus,
the vulnerable child, to be a true star, a true light
that guides us to a new way of being;
a new way of being the people of God.
Today, maybe as you learn;
maybe when you drive, you go a different way.
Maybe you find a new trail, a symbolism,
a new place to walk,
a new routine in your family
to express the same love that you have always had
but to do it a different way.
Maybe to find some new way inside your own family;
to find some new way as a community;
to find some new way as a society.
Today, we celebrate the revelation of God a light to all nations.
We come to take a look, first gaze,
but then to pause and to look again; to take a second gaze
so that we can go through a moment of conversion
and we can go back a different way.
