The Magi return by another way
MASS Ecce, advénit
LESSON Isaias 60: 1-6
GOSPEL Matthew 2: 1-2
HOMILIST Mt Revd Jerome Lloyd OSJV
Homily for the Seventh Day in the Octave of the Epiphany
“They Returned by Another Way”: Conversion as Reorientation
Beloved in Christ,
By the seventh day of the Epiphany Octave, the Church brings us to the final, easily overlooked sentence of the Gospel—one that gathers up everything that has gone before and presses it home with quiet force: “And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country.”
This is no travel detail. It is the moral centre of the Epiphany.
The Magi have seen the star.
They have found the Child.
They have fallen down and adored.
They have opened their treasures and offered gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Now comes the decisive proof that the Epiphany has truly taken hold: they change direction.
Conversion is not an idea. It is a reorientation.
To return to Herod would have been efficient. It would have been logical. It would have preserved appearances and avoided inconvenience. But it would also have betrayed the truth they had encountered. Having adored the true King, they can no longer cooperate—however indirectly—with the false one.
This is the point at which Epiphany ceases to be contemplation and becomes obedience.
Herod represents more than a historical tyrant. He embodies the world’s order—power jealous of rivals, authority detached from truth, control masquerading as security. To go back to Herod is to return to old loyalties, old compromises, old ways of navigating life that keep Christ at a safe distance.
The Magi refuse. They go home by another way.
This is the seventh-day lesson of the Octave: an encounter with Christ that does not change direction is not yet complete.
The Epiphany exposes one of the most common illusions of the spiritual life—the belief that admiration is enough. We admire Christ. We study Him. We speak about Him. We even offer Him gifts. But when it comes to altering our course—our habits, our priorities, our alliances—we hesitate.
Yet Scripture is relentless. When God reveals Himself, neutrality becomes impossible. One must either move closer or retreat more cleverly. There is no standing still.
The Magi show us what true prudence looks like. They listen to God’s warning. They discern. And they act. Conversion here is not dramatic; it is deliberate. Not emotional; it is obedient. Not loud; it is costly.
To go home by another way means that something in their former path is no longer compatible with the truth they now know.
So it must be with us.
Epiphany does not merely ask whether we believe correctly. It asks whether our lives are actually ordered by that belief. Are there paths we still insist on taking—patterns of sin we excuse, compromises we justify, relationships or habits that quietly lead us back to Herod?
We are often tempted to imagine that conversion consists in adding Christ to our existing route. The Gospel says otherwise. Christ does not become a companion on the old road. He redirects the road itself.
This is why the Church places this meditation here, near the end of the Octave. After kingship has been confessed, after worship has been rendered, after sacrifice has been acknowledged, one final question remains: will you obey?
Gold without obedience becomes sentiment.
Frankincense without obedience becomes aesthetic.
Myrrh without obedience becomes theory.
The Magi do not make this mistake. Their gifts are sealed by action. Their adoration is ratified by change. They do not merely kneel before Christ; they reorder their lives around Him.
Beloved in Christ, the seventh day of the Epiphany Octave asks us plainly: what “other way” must we take? What path, once tolerated, can no longer be walked? What allegiance, once assumed, must now be broken?
Grace does not always ask for spectacle. Often it asks for direction.
Let us not be content to have seen the star, found the Child, and offered gifts—only to return unchanged to the same old roads.
Let us go home by another way.
For the true sign that Christ has been manifested to us
is not that we have seen Him,
but that we no longer live as we did before.
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