The Diocese of Allentown celebrated the feast day of the Epiphany of the Lord, which is celebrated on the first Sunday of the New Year when the church remembers the first manifestation of Jesus Christ to the wise men. 

The wise men were also known as Magi, and traveled from far away to pay homage to the Christ child, after tradition holds that they tracked a star which led them to where the messiah was. 

“Our parishes celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany yesterday with the Three Kings sharing their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh and paying homage to the newborn King!” the Diocese of Allentown shared on their Facebook page Jan. 3.

This year, the feast of the Epiphany was celebrated on Jan. 2. 

According to Learn Religions, “Around the time of Jesus’s birth, Herod heard that a ‘king of the Jews’ had been born. Wise Men from the East were traveling to Jesus to honor him, and Herod called the Wise Men before him and instructed them to come back and tell him Jesus’s location. Herod told the Wise Men he wanted to visit Jesus so that he, too, could honor him, but the Wise Men were warned in a dream to not to trust him. They took a different route home. An angel visited Joseph in a dream and warned him to take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt. King Herod learned that the Wise Men had tricked him and ordered all of the boys in Bethlehem and nearby who were two years old or younger to be slaughtered. The Holy Family returned to Israel after Herod’s death.”

The church often relates the Magi’s search for Christ to our own journeys, as we seek to find Jesus, whether that is to find him and the redemption that he secured for our souls or seek out his will for our own lives.