[This is a story I wrote for our kids' Mass this morning here at St. Mary's. It is total fiction.]
The Angel Gabriel’s Church in Rio Flaco, New Mexico, came
up with a neat way of celebrating the feast of the Epiphany.
As you know Latino kids get their Christmas gifts not
just on Christmas Day, but many more gifts
on the Feast of the Epiphany.
It goes way back to the time of the birth of Jesus - when
the Magi - or wise men - or the 3 Kings -
showed up in Bethlehem - each with a gift for the newborn Savior, Jesus Christ
the Lord.
Jesus received as gifts, some gold, some frankincense and some myrrh -
from these three visitors.
And kids - as well as adults - we have been hearing from way
back when - that Jesus received these 3 gifts - and we've also been told what these 3 gifts
symbolized.
Gold symbolized that Jesus was to become a King - but not
the kind of king people were used to. The Magi didn’t know however, what kind
of king this Jesus was to be. They didn't know he was to be a poor king - a servant king - a
king who washed feet and fed the poor.
Frankincense was
used to leave a sweet smell - a sweet scent - a sweet aroma in a cloud of
smoke. A barn or stable, an inn or a tavern, could smell pretty bad. People
would take incense - put it into a fire
- and it would send a sweet aroma into a room.
Myrrh …. Now myrrh was a strange gift. It was part of the
embalming process - which symbolized
that people were going to try to kill Jesus at some point. Maybe the Magi giver
of this gift - figured this out from the way King Herod talked about this baby
they were searching for - and who would be king some day.
So down through the years some parents in some places
would give their children special gifts on the feast of the Epiphany. In other
places this happened more on Christmas.
Well in the Angel Gabriel church in Rio Flaco, New
Mexico, kids would bring a gift for Jesus that he would like if he were their
age.
They would bring it to Mass on the feast of Epiphany and
place it up front - on the floor and some gifts in the stable as well.
Other churches - like our church of St. Mary's here in Annapolis - families would
take a gift suggestion from a Christmas tree in the vestibule and that gift would go
to a poor kid.
In the Angel Gabriel church in Rio Flaco, New Mexico, all
this was done a bit differently.
All the kids in Rio Flaco were poor.
Rio Flaco - in Spanish - it means Skinny River - so most
of the year even the River that ran through their town was poor - thin - and
skinny.
One kid brought his old bicycle and put it up at the
stable as a gift for Jesus.
Another kid loves Reese’s Peanut Butter patties, so she
bought and brought a whole box - 24 inside - of Reese’s Peanut Butter patties.
Another kid brought a blue and red kite - and kites do
well in New Mexico - with the high winds on certain days - days when the poor
of Rio Flaco could see expensive hot air balloons in the sky.
The gifts, the Epiphany presents, were all surprises. You
never knew what kids would bring to church for this celebration of the Feast of
the Epiphany.
Dolls, fishing poles, basketballs, baseball gloves, Rubric
Cubes, chocolate chip cookies, 2 hula hoops, a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle with
one piece missing. It was a big picture of a famous mountain in New Mexico -
that’s in all lots of western movies, t-shirts, baseball caps, a cap pistol,
number’s paintings, a guitar, a pretty good looking saxophone, and on and on
and on. They were all lined up - up front - at the stable - all before Mass.
Well, the kids didn’t hear the sermon that Epiphany Mass.
Their minds and their eyes were on the gifts up front at the stable. They checked everything out - especially
when they went up for communion.
After Mass - that day - everyone stayed. The
kids all had to put their names on a small index card. Then the collection
basket was passed around the church.
Each kid put their card with their name on it - in the
basket.
Then Mamma Rosacitta, the oldest person in Rio Flaco, 102
years of age, was brought up front. They would sit her in the priest’s chair.
The church became all silent - with the excitement in the
big room.
Then one by one
she pulled out a kid’s name. It was handed to an 7th grader - who
then read that kid’s name out loud - so
the whole church could hear it.
To the kids with the first, second and third call, it was
if he or she won lottery.
The kid would come up and pick any gift he or she wanted
- and everyone would clap.
The poor kids near the end didn’t have the best of
choices obviously.
A very thin girl
got the box of the Reese’s Peanut Putter Pieces - 24 of them. Good thing she
was generous, because her 3 siblings, 2 cousins, and then her friends got a
patty, and that box was empty in 1 minutes after the drawing took place.
And oops - when it was a kid’s turn to pick - whatever
gift he or she wanted - from what was still there - the kid would wink at
Jesus.
Of course it was just a tiny statue of Jesus - but now
and then a kid would say, “I think Jesus winked back at me.”
And kids and the people of the town of poor little Rio Flaco would say, “As far as we know, this
is the only town on earth - where such a thing happens every year on the Feast
of the Epiphany.
