“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem…wise men from the East came to Jerusalem saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him’” (Matthew 2:1-2)
The historian Herodotus claimed that the Magi were Medes, a tribe that tried to conquer the Persians, failed and became priests but more than religious leaders. They were instructors to the royal house of Persia, learned in philosophy, science and medicine. Besides, they were astrologers who looked into the skies to learn God’s ways for the earth. Notice the positive attitude they had regarding whatever the star they were following portended. Note as well the clever way they outfoxed that wicked, paranoid old fox, Herod the Great. No nerds were they.
Fast forward to other stargazers, Galileo Galilei, the 16-17th century champion of Copernicus, the astronomer who taught the controversial observation from his telescope that the earth revolves around the sun, not vice versa. Galileo was commanded by the papacy to renounce what he saw with his own eyes. Only in recent times was Galileo vindicated by the Roman Catholic Church. It does happen when either religion or science sets laws that leave no openings for wonder and further research. Humility is a paramount virtue essential to both.
Consider the plight of poor Job. His whole world had been turned topsy turvy. When his friends came to sympathize with him, all three tried convincing him that he should search in his soul and repent for whatever sin he had committed to warrant such punishment by the Almighty. He would not. He held his ground and refused, much like Galileo, except his focus was internal; he did nothing to anger the Lord. When a fourth appeared with much the same advice, the patient Job finally appealed his case to God, pleading for an answer. The Almighty challenged Job with questions far beyond his intellectual capacity: “Can you bring forth the constellations….Do you know the laws of the heavens?” (Job 38:32-33)
In recent years, thanks to the astronomical scientific explosions brought by the Hubble telescope, we human beings witness the awesome glories of the cosmos in the photographs sent back to earth. How far mankind has advanced from the telescope of Galileo. Yet many of the very scientists who made the photos possible find the wonders too much to attribute to the Lord God Almighty. “Who is so great a god as our God!” chants the Church. “No god,” respond the scientists. In a rationale of distorted humility, they cannot attribute to our Creator the depth and grandeur of His marvels. Rather than to give God the glory and celebrate His wonders, they feel somehow it “just happened.” The renowned and much-respected scientist Stephen Hawking of Cambridge, who named Galileo the father of modern science, came to the conclusion that it is not necessary to attribute creation to a personal deity. His theory: Somehow the universe may have come about by gravity alone.
St. Isaac of Nineveh wrote:
“Our souls possesses two eyes, as all the Fathers tell us….Yet the sight which is proper to each ‘eye’ is not for the same use; with one eye we behold the secrets of physical nature, that is to say the power of God, His wisdom and providence towards us, things comprehensible by virtue of the greatness of His governance. With the other eye, we contemplate the glory of His holy nature, since it pleases God to introduce us to the spiritual mysteries.”
By that reckoning, it would appear that we have another, a spiritual reason for exalting the astronomers from the east in search of the “King of the Jews,” as wise men whose souls possessed the “two eyes” which our Fathers declare is within all souls.