Our Guiding Star

We often pray, ‘Heart of Jesus, make our hearts like yours.’ We pray to be as large-hearted as Jesus in compassion and care for all creation.
The god of Herod in the story of the Magi is tiny, created in Herod’s image and likeness. His god is as small as his influence, which did not last, and as small as the precious stone in his crown. He has made God as tiny as the outreach of his heart, which looked to others only for what he could get, not what he could give. His zest for power is so strong that he kills even tiny children who might threaten him. A bit of him wanted to see and hear Jesus later in life, but only to condemn him.
The God of the Magi was a big god! Big enough to bring the wise men on the long road to Bethlehem. They followed the star of love, goodness, faith, courage, endurance and justice, guided by a star whose light, the light of God, never fails. Their God was big enough to be recognised in a small baby. They searched and found what they were searching for, even though they may not have been sure what they would find.
The star that guides us is the star of the loves and questions, joys and sorrows of our life’s journey. It lives in the hearts of all we meet. Like St Francis of Assisi, we see in a crowd of people not a mob, but the love and image of God multiplied in all. His God was wide, and, like Jesus, his care for God’s world went to every person God created, every blade of grass and everything that has life.

Excerpted from The Sacred Heart Messenger, January 2023