Parish Bulletin Article: "The Child of Jesus Christ": 1-8-17

            This weekend reminds us about the epiphany—the manifestation of Jesus Christ.  We will also listen about the magi who traveled to see the new king and gave him gold, frankincense and myrrh. 

            On Monday—through our usual daily Mass—we move to the Baptism of Jesus Christ.  This is the last day of our Christmas season.

            And the next day is back to Ordinary Time.

Here is a “test” question for you to consider for our last weekend for Christmas season.  This question comes from our readings from the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) both in Advent and Christmas seasons.  The question is: how many of these four Gospels wrote about Jesus’ birth?

            (Pause here if you want to guess the answer.  You parents could use this to test your kids, or you, kids, could test your parents.  I actually wrote this so the answer didn’t pop up right away in this article.  I also tried to paste this upside down but it took too long…)

            The answer is Matthew and Luke. 

            I share this because we actually have little information about Jesus Christ as a child.  While we heard several pieces of Jesus’ birth (ex. the angel Gabriel, Mary, Joseph, manger, magi, star, etc.), there are only a few snippets of the child Jesus.

            If you are curious about the beginning of Jesus’ life, I encourage you to read it through both Matthew 1-2 (chapters) and Luke 1-2.  This could show more clearly what we do know about Jesus Christ.

            They can also serve you to grow deeper in our scriptures and your relationship with Jesus Christ.

            God Bless!