Sunday Gospel Warm-Up

Hope in the Darkness

Jan. 8 Mt 2:1-12

We celebrate the three wise men’s visit this Sunday. We tend to paint a very warm and fuzzy picture of this event, but really the setting is a bleak one. Herod was a cruel and vicious ruler very much in the mode of the horrible tyrants we’re used to. The times were very hard on poor people. Yet, the star was a sign that something tremendous was happening confirmed by these three wise men. In the midst of all the darkness, hope was stirring. The same could be said for our times. The challenge is can we see similar signs of hope.