Today is the Memorial of Bl. Andre Bessette, who was largely responsible for the construction of St. Joesph’s Oratory in Montreal, and who, in concert with St. Joseph, obtained many cures for the sick during his earthly life. One of the things I find most interesting about Bl. Andre Bessette is that he is responsible for the common practice of praying to St. Joseph for help with real estate transactions, especially the need to sell a home. The story behind this practice comes from Bl. Andre’s lifelong desire to see a church dedicated to St. Joseph built on Mount Royal. The Holy Cross Brothers, the order to which he belonged, had also long wanted to build a chapel on Mount Royal, however the owners of the land refused to sell. Bl. Andre and some holy accomplices climbed the mountain and planted is with medals of St. Joseph. Shortly afterward, the owners yielded. Bl. Andre had to continue to depend on St. Joseph to provide both the funds and laborers to complete the oratory, which is now the largest church dedicated to St. Joseph in the world.

Since I am currently trying to sell a house, I’d like to ask for the prayers of both Bl. Andre and St. Joseph that it sell quickly and at a good price.

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In most of the rest of the world today is the Solemnity of the Epiphany, which we will celebrate on Sunday in the United States. The Epiphany takes on a special luster this year with our new Pope having so recently made a pilgrimage with hundreds of thousands of young people to the relics of the Magi in Cologne. The Epiphany celebrates the manifestation of Christ to the Nations. It is fitting therefore to recall that at Vespers on December 22nd the Church prayed:

O King of the Gentiles and their desired One, the Cornerstone that makes both one; Come, and deliver man, whom You formed out of the dust of the earth.

O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum, lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum: veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.

This is the penultimate “O” antiphon, prayed on the evening before we pray O Emmanuel, O Lord with us. In this prayer, looking forward to the birth of the Lord at Christmas, we contemplate the Love God shows by sending His Son to rule over all of us and bring His salvation to all of the Nations. The prayer for the Rex Gentium, the King of Nations to come and deliver us is celebrated with special majesty on the Epiphany. It is an important part of the Christmas Season. In a special way the Epiphany invites us to welcome the Savior in life by submitting ourselves to Him and subordinating ourselves to His Rule. Like the Solemnity of Christ the King it is an occasion to meditate on the Lordship of God and the nature of His Kingdom. Such thought brings us immediately to the call to Holy Poverty once again:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

The citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom, the Subjects of Christ the King are the poor. For only the truly poor, the spiritually poor, are capable of acknowledging the Lordship of Christ appropriately. For to truly acknowledge Him as Rex Gentium means simultaneously acknowledging that we are lords of nothing whatsoever; the power and the glory are all His.

The Roman Rite retains the gesture of prostration only for ordinands during the Sacrament of Orders; however, it is retained for the people in several special liturgies in the Byzantine Rite. I had the privilege of experiencing one of these liturgies several years ago on the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross (September 14). I found prostration before the Cross of Christ to be an extraordinarily powerful experience.

To truly prostrate oneself before the King of Kings, a gesture of humility through which one shows his assent to the Lordship of Christ, is a sign of the total giving of the self to the Other as a gift. This is because it is a giving ones own lordship over oneself and all of one’s own personal power over to the good of the Other. It is an act of total self-abandonment to God.

The Magi, prostrate before and gift-giving to the Christ Child show us the mark of discipleship. They show us how to follow, how to be men before God, and point towards the Christian life of self-sacrifice on the Cross.

So let us pray to the good Saints Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchoir, that we might follow their example of spiritual poverty and attain the Kingdom of Heaven.

And let also us pray to our Seraphic Father Francis that we might join with him and become heralds of the Great King.