A pessimist with a gold watch, sadder and more bitter than ever. "Oh! A gold watch, a gold watch, Mom, Dad. And just imagine if someone steals it from me, what a worry I’ll have now, just what I needed. If someone steals it, never mind about repairs, those would cost me a fortune, a gold watch, of course. My goodness, and now the care I’ll have to take with my hand, with any bump to my hand. My goodness, look what’s happened to me." The man was there, about to shoot himself.

The parents say, "No, this has no solution." Well, let's check the other one, the other one will be, at least the other one will be upset. But no, he was jumping for joy! "Mom, dad! Fantastic, wonderful, the Wise Men have given me a great present!" "My son, what did the Wise Men bring you?" "Hush now. Even I couldn't have imagined it, and I thought, how could I possibly leave with a stand-in? What did they give me? A horse, but a real horse, a living one, it's just that right now it has gone out for a walk."

So, it’s all about how you look at things, right, Tino? And how true that is. Hey, in that sense, the example, Miguelito, the example of the half bottle of wine is fantastic, isn't it? The pessimist says, “We only have half a bottle of wine left.” The realist says, “We have half a bottle of wine left.” And the optimist says, “Wow, we still have half a bottle of wine left!” And in the end, it’s the same, but it depends on how you look at it, right? That’s how everything in life is. How true that is. If we were able to get to the heart of that, we would be happy.

Oh! Feast of the Wise King. The Wise King without giving us anything. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, kindle in them the fire of your love, send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. Oh God, who instructed the hearts of your faithful. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among all women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea during the time of King Herod. Some wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is the king of the Jews who has been born? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him." When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. He gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people and tried to find out from them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the principal cities of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel."

Then Herod, secretly calling the wise men, learned from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, let me know so that I too may go and worship him." After hearing the king, they set out, and the star which they had seen in the East went before them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with great joy. Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling to their knees they worshipped him. They opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their country by another way.

This is the account that Saint Matthew brings us, I believe it is exclusively Saint Matthew and not the other synoptics, about the adoration of the Magi, which is also celebrated today, so endearing and affectionate that, even though it is being lost, it remains a beautiful and lovely feast. In past years I have commented to you many things regarding this evangelical pericope. I do not think I can do so today, because I am not in a position to give you a talk this morning. The nerve in my head, my nervous system, my post-cold, post-flu, and so many things.

But in the end, in any case, it is a very beautiful feast. Much could be said; in fact, I have commented to you on many things concerning this passage, as I just mentioned to you in previous years. Here we see, for example, the Magi coming from the East. They arrived in Jerusalem asking, "Where is the King of the Jews who has been born? For we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him." Ordinarily, it is people from outside who most sense the nearness and closeness of the Lord, and they come to ask, naturally, the establishment, the system. This system, this establishment, although the Messiah was born in their midst, did not realize it.

Regarding this, we could remember what we have recalled so many times. Let’s see if those outside, those who are not as closely in touch with the Lord as we are, end up being closer to God. We have seen this happen quite often in today’s world. How many people who are not as officially involved in the Church as we are, including Protestants—this is very noticeable in North America, and also in Spain—are seen living a more Christian life and a life of greater faith than that of the properly Catholic group, the officially Catholic ones. It is common that those who are not as close to the Lord as we are, not touching Him as much, not being as officially Catholic or officially good as we are, always, often show more interest in seeking God and live a life of faith that is more intense, less routine, and less mediocre than ours. This, my children, can happen to us.

In fact, this is happening to many people today. How many of those outside are more Christian than those who are inside. The publicans and prostitutes will come from afar and will be admitted to the kingdom of heaven before you, who are the ones inside, the ones who are near, said the Lord, on some occasions when he complained with laments about this lack of faith, this lack of interest, this lack of enthusiasm and love from his people, from those who surrounded him.

This thing about Jormión fills me with a deep nostalgia and a deep sorrow. It is a painful nostalgia. This morning in my prayer, I was moved to tears thinking about the years when I was able, when I was more capable of preaching to you than I am now. I worry about this a little more each time, because as the years go by, as I say, sometimes it’s because you have a cold, other times because your nerves are shot, sometimes because you’re half limping or whatever it may be, and sometimes for any other reason. With time, you have less and less strength to preach, to work, to move around. And it’s not only physical strength, but also less spiritual and psychological strength. The years go by, we should be better and closer to God, but instead it seems the opposite is true.

But anyway... The point is that they asked the authority where the king of the Jews who had been born was. Because we have seen his star in the East and we have come to worship him. I remember that years ago... on a certain occasion regarding this, I pointed out to you how those who truly seek God—pagans, people coming from outside or wherever they may come from, wherever all those of good will who seek God come from—have to go in the end, they have to consult the authority because the Church, whatever it may be, is the one that has the keys of the Kingdom. "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, whatever you bind, whatever you loose," and it is the official Church, assisted by the Holy Spirit, which has the guarantee of the magisterium and of the truth.

That the official Church is made up of men like us, who leave much to be desired, is a reality. We are sinners, and quite serious sinners. This official Church is made up of us; however, as true as that is, and it is true, the official Church still holds the guarantee of truth and of the magisterium. Without the official Church, whether sinful or not, we could not be saved. And we have to go to the institution, consult the institution to have it tell us where the Messiah is, how the Scriptures should be interpreted, where he had to be born, where we must go, without making a mistake, in order to truly find him. And this is the Church. The Church is truly magistra vitae; that is true. And it is the one that holds the key to the interpretation of truth. And it is the one that holds the key to the sacraments, and the key to grace, and therefore, the key to entering the kingdom, as the Lord said to Saint Peter when we did so.

As head of his Church, no matter how sinful this Church may be, and it is, and we are part of it, we must remember that it remains the Church. Therefore, we owe it docility and obedience, and we must turn to it to seek guidance and to have the guarantee of the truth: the magisterium. Revelation, whether it is scripture or tradition, is interpreted with certainty and only by the magisterium, and nothing but the authentic magisterium of the Church. We could also learn that.

We could also consider that, upon hearing this, that is, upon hearing the question of the magi, King Herod was troubled, says the Gospel, and all Jerusalem with him. The system and the establishment are troubled, they worry and become... and they are confused, they feel completely disturbed. The Messiah near us, what an establishment and what a system. And the curious thing is that not only... Why would the Gospel say this? Not only was King Herod disturbed and frightened, but also, according to the Gospel, all Jerusalem with him.

And this is a curious observation, but ultimately it is an observation that is part of political philosophy, of the philosophy of history. Peoples are what their kings are, what their rulers are. And rulers are what their peoples are. Saint Thomas Aquinas used to say, speaking about these things, engaging in political philosophy, that each people has the rulers they deserve. You cannot imagine, and every ruler has the people they deserve as well, you cannot imagine to what extent the conduct of kings, and when I say kings I mean rulers, whoever they may be, to what extent they influence the people.

The behavior of prominent men, of those who lead the people, whether it is good or bad, is able to change an entire society for better or worse. I, and some of you, the older ones, were able to see this in our own countries during the time of Franco. It is not that during Franco’s time there were no faults, no bad things, no sins, but society in general was good, it was healthy, it had faith, there was a sense of sin, there was a sense of repentance, there was cordiality, there was mutual love, there was camaraderie, there was enthusiasm for work, one could go out at night, at any hour, completely at ease, one could go happily to Madrid. It was a different kind of society, some of you have portrayed it naively in the films of the time, very naively and very poorly, but nonetheless, now the society we live in is very different, and the leaders we have, everyone knows it and there is no doubt about it... if someone says that they are complete scoundrels, because they themselves would be the first to sign that, that epithet, and would say in fact, we are complete scoundrels and we take great pride in being so, because in fact they do take pride in being complete scoundrels and remarkable cynics.

In this sense, Saint Thomas Aquinas said that rulers are a reward or a punishment for the people. People get what they deserve, said the saint. The saint said there is no reward or punishment in eternity for peoples. The rewards and punishments of eternity, heaven or hell, are not for peoples or nations. They are for the men who make up the nations, for individuals. Therefore, peoples are rewarded or punished here in this world with the rulers they deserve. If the people are bad, bad rulers. If the people are good, good rulers. And if the rulers are good, the people are also good. And vice versa, if the rulers are bad, the people are bad. Rulers and those ruled usually go together.

There is nothing strange, then, in this observation made by the Gospel. It is, therefore, as you see, an observation of political philosophy. Jerusalem was troubled, and all of Jerusalem was troubled, Herod and all Jerusalem with him. This is logical. The king was, in any case, no matter how shameless he was—which he was—as he knew that the only way to find out where the Messiah was, was to turn to the religious establishment. This is what we said before, about the need to turn to the religious establishment, even if that establishment is what it is. He turned to it, and they told him where the Messiah was.

You already know what happened, you already know about the star, and we have also spoken many times that when following the star, that hope which illuminates and guides our lives, we must travel in a caravan. How many times have I spoken to you about that? In a caravan, side by side, together, we should not walk the path, we cannot walk it separately. The journey, the pilgrimage in search of the star, we do side by side, like the wise men, in a caravan, together, together with our brothers and helping each other, one another and each to all, because we all need that help.

So we walk along the path in search of the star, until the star stops directly above the place where the Lord is, as happened on that occasion. We have also commented many times that, just as happened to the Magi, throughout our pilgrimage, the star sometimes hides itself, as it did on that occasion. And the star that was guiding the Magi is lost from view. This was precisely the need that made the Magi go to the authorities to ask where the King of the Jews, the Messiah who had been born, was. This will happen to us throughout our lives, and not just once, but many times. When the star is lost to us, when we no longer have that light and that hope and that enthusiasm, or it seems that we do not have it, which sets our hearts on fire, which guides our steps, that is the moment to turn to faith.

To consult the Scriptures, prayer, and those who can interpret those Scriptures with authority, as we have said before, the authentic magisterium, and then it is the moment, as Saint John of the Cross would say, to close our eyes tightly, to hold firmly to the hand of faith, and to let ourselves be guided by faith. At that moment, we are not guided by illusion, enthusiasm, fervor, or joy. We are guided, as the holy Saint John of the Cross would say, by naked faith, by pure faith, by dark faith, in the darkest night of faith, but, as the saint also said, through which and by taking those steps, we have the absolute certainty that we are on the right path.

We do not have as much of it when we are guided by our own feelings, by our own enthusiasm, by our own fervor. Not that this is bad, but we have more certainty when we are led by bare faith, by pure faith, the darkest night of faith, we have even more certainty that we will not go astray. Never forget this, my children, when those moments come in your life.

This is what happened to the Wise Men, and it will also happen to you quite often. Then you must do the same as they did. And finally, just to remind you, this is a celebration of gifts. I was also thinking this morning during my prayer, what does it mean to have a feast of the Wise Men without gifts, for then there is no feast. And so, as I remembered yesterday, when that time I thought of saying to the Lord: "Wow, how wonderful it would be if the Wise Men’s gift this year were that I gave my own present," because as the Lord said, it is better to give than to receive.

What better gift could we give the Lord than those things about which we are always bargaining and never have enough courage to give up, because we are so afraid of poverty. Even though we saw it yesterday, that "whoever does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple," as the Lord said. So, it would be so beautiful if, instead of receiving the gift, we were the ones who gave that gift.

I have always dreamed, and with each passing year, my children, I dream it even more, that this would be the most beautiful gift I could receive from God on the Feast of the Magi. That I might say to the Lord, well, what do I have, and what is it that I have? My miseries, my weaknesses, my attachments. So it would be very beautiful to make real what is said, nothing more and nothing less, which is the meditation on the poor widow. What can I give to the Lord? Only what I have left, the very last thing I have. So that last thing I have and that only thing left, to give it to the Lord. What the poor widow did, what she had to live on, was the last thing she had to be able to live. It was her life.

And so, to give it, to also give it, to offer it in the temple, to give it to the Lord. But what happens? Because of course, there can come a moment in life... As it is already happening to me, at my age, as it might happen to you someday, when one feels so poor, so poor, so little, so little, that not even that is permitted to him.

Because how many times do I sincerely feel the desire to say to the Lord: "Well, Lord, my weaknesses, my mistakes, my foolishness, my attachments, my miseries, I want to give them to you and I can offer them to you. And what better gift can I give you than that? And what better gift can I receive on the feast of the Magi than to make that offering and that prayer?" To make real the meditation on the poor widow, who gave what was her life, what they had to live on.

But it turns out that our misery and our poverty can reach such a degree that, even though someone may want to give up those weaknesses and that misery, he finds that he cannot even do that. He wants to give it up, but he is not allowed to, he cannot give it up either. And he has to remain burdened with that weight of weakness and misery. What, then, is left to us? Our poverty reaches that point: we are not able to detach ourselves from our poverty.

To come to the Lord like those unfortunate people who came to Him, and the Lord would ask them, "And you, what do you want me to do for you?" "Well Lord, that I may see." And the Lord would restore their sight. "And you, what do you want me to do for you now?" "Well Lord, that I may be cleansed of leprosy." And the Lord would heal them and they would be cleansed of leprosy. And we come and say to the Lord, "Well Lord, I would like to give you this that I have, which you already know what it is, it is nothing more than... my poverty, my misery" and the Lord does not give us back our sight or does not cure us of leprosy or does not accept that gift or that offering of our misery, of our weakness, of our poverty and we have to remain with it.

Well, I don't know, but maybe there remains something, there remains one last possibility that might be the most beautiful of all: that of accepting it, that too. The possibility of accepting it with hope, with joy, with the love of God. What would have happened to any of those unfortunate people the Gospel talks about, when after telling the Lord, upon hearing his question, "And what do you want me to do for you?" "Well, that I may see." And if the Lord had not given them back their sight, or had not cleansed them of leprosy, or had not cured their lameness, or had not raised them from the mat where they had spent so many years, curing their paralysis, and what would have happened if those men had protested, or taken it the wrong way, had complained because the Lord had not answered their request? Well, I don't know, maybe it would have been much more beautiful to accept that refusal from the Lord, with patience, with generosity, with hope, with joy, and thinking, "Well Lord, look, if today not..."

You have not healed me, since maybe you will heal me this afternoon, or you will heal me tomorrow, or the day after, and ultimately, if You want me to remain so miserable and so poor, if I am to continue with my burden of poverty and misery, then we will continue with it, and we will keep struggling for as long as You want and for our whole life. I think something like this, and forgive the comparison, must have happened to Saint Paul when he said to the Lord: "Lord, this thorn, this thorn in the flesh that embarrasses me, take it away." And the Lord said to him: "My grace is enough for you, it is better that you struggle and spend your life struggling until the end."

How beautiful it would be, and how happy we would feel if the Lord gave us the gift of healing us completely, of accepting our miseries, and of beginning to be saints, luminous and shining saints. And instead, we have to see that we go on being poor men and unhappy until the end of our lives. But look, we can handle this with joy, with patience, with hope, with love, and accept our poverty. Because of course, if the Lord took away that misery and that poverty, then look, we would stop being poor and we would stop being miserable.

And so all the beatitudes that are addressed to the poor and the wretched of the world could no longer be applied to us. Of course, this is very important. Those beatitudes addressed to the poor and the wretched of the world will continue to affect us always, as long as we continue to be truly poor and wretched. And look at what I am telling you: we would stop being poor and wretched, truly, at the moment when we stop fighting and when we throw in the towel in our efforts to give everything to the Lord.

When we throw in the towel and stop fighting, and stop dreaming and longing for the idea of giving everything to Jesus, at that moment we will no longer be miserable, nor poor, nor unhappy, nor anahuines, nor pitiful wretches, the poor, the miserable of this world, those with whom the Lord delighted, the sinners of all kinds, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the unhappy, the lame, the mute, the blind, the lepers, the beggars of the world, those with whom the Lord had his joy and preference. This was not merely a verbal or demagogic option for the poor, but real. "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents or wants to repent than over ninety-nine righteous who do not need to repent of anything, and when the well-thought-of, when the official class...

He was scandalized because the Lord mingled with sinners, with tax collectors, with prostitutes, ate with them, and even allowed himself to be caressed by those prostitutes who poured their perfumes on the head or feet of the Lord, and wiped them with their tears and dried them with their hair, while the upright people said to themselves, “Look at this one, if he knew who was touching him. Well, he cannot be much of a prophet.” There is no doubt that the Lord did not act demagogically, nor did he use empty phrases. There is no doubt at all that, in fact, his preferences are with the poor and with the wretched.

That is why we should not be too saddened. Perhaps when we realize we are unable to escape our poverty and misery and that we remain the same, always so poor, so miserable, so unfortunate, so unhappy. "Thank you, Father, because you have revealed these things to the little and the unhappy of the world and have hidden them from the wise and learned." There is no doubt that when we continue to see that we remain poor and unhappy and unfortunate, the Lord is close to us, more than ever.

And perhaps He does it precisely for that reason, to be closer to us and now more than ever near us, because if truly, and it is so, His preference is for the poor and the unfortunate of the world, and if we were to become saints overnight, perhaps He would have to leave His assistance to us and His company, His closeness, and He would have to go in search of other miserable people and others more unfortunate than us. We are certain that since we are the foremost in this regard, the Lord is closer to us and more present with us than we can perhaps imagine.

Well, this could be our good gift for the Epiphany, my children: to realize this and to rejoice that we are anahuines, little ones, unhappy, miserable people, together, with the hope—because we cannot let go of that hope during our whole lives—that one day we will give the Lord our true Epiphany gift and we will give Him everything. When will that moment be? We do not know. But surely it will be at some point, at some moment that perhaps will immediately precede our definitive encounter with Him.

But of course, our gift to the Lord on Epiphany will take place, in which we will give Him not gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but our very selves, our entire being, which is how people truly give themselves. And in this gift, He will also give us exactly the same, His very self, His whole self as well. We are all for Him, and He is all for us. "Whoever eats my flesh, whoever drinks my blood, will live because of me, will live in me, and I in him. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears me and opens the door, I will enter him, and then I will eat with him, and he with me. I am in your midst, not as one who is served, but as one who serves." And the master will set himself to serve his servants.

And he will have his servants sit down, and He will serve them at the table, the master, the Lord, at the table of the banquet of the kingdom. All these are, as you know very well, words from the Gospel, they are there. And they are very beautiful; they speak to us of reciprocity, of equality, of being at the same level, He at the same level as us, since we cannot be at His level. And ultimately, they speak to us of love, which is the only thing the Gospel knows how to speak about.

So, my children, let this be for us our wonderful Epiphany gift on this beautiful day. May we rejoice in the Lord’s gift infinitely more than we rejoiced as children with those simple toys our poor parents gave us because they could not give us anything else.

We thank you, Lord, and you as well, our Mother, for the good thoughts and feelings. What have you expected from us in this little moment of prayer? And we ask for your help to put them into practice. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, now and at the hour.

Padre Alfonso Gálvez