In T.S. Eliot's extraordinary but exhilarating poem, Journey of the Magi, the speaker concludes -

" ...were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

(T.S. Eliot, The Complete Poems and Plays, Faber & Faber, 1969, pages 103-104.)

Eliot concentrates in the poem on the Gentile Magi's experience of the hard journey and their impressions of the birth of the child and in so doing highlights the absolute importance of that birth - no longer at ease here in the old dispensation, with an alien people clutching their gods. In the New Testament there are only two places where epiphany is mentioned - in 2 Thessalonians of the parousia of the Lord and in 2 Timothy, '... the grace which [God] gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago, and now has manifested through the appearing (Greek: epiphaneias) of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.' (2 Timothy1:9-10) While we use the word epiphany quite glibly it was not politic to do so in the second century. The problem in the first two centuries for Christians was that various cults appeared to demonstrate that their gods appeared to them in epiphanies.

So in Matthew's story of the Magi, the word epiphaneia is not mentioned. But the word as applied to Jesus' birth is a wonderful expression of what we cannot easily express - the divine with us. And it is curious to think, at this distance from the birth of Jesus, there appears to be no mention of these events in the calendars of the worship of the church in East or West until the late fourth century. Christmas and the Magi are not fully celebrated until the fifth century in Rome or Constantinople.

Perhaps one reason for this was because the Christians of the first three hundred years and more had plenty of opposition on their hands from both the cults of the Empire and of the gnostics coming in from the East. There was also the fact that by the fifth century, when the church had support from the government, there developed discussions within the church about the status of Jesus in relation to God and when these doctrines were defined then worship celebrations of the doctrines came in to seal the arguments!

Eliot was a member of the well known anglo-catholic church, Saint Stephen's, Gloucester Road, London, and would have celebrated all the feasts such as the Epiphany. So it is all the more interesting that the Journey of the Magi concentrates more on the human-ness of this Birth rather than on the divine manifestation. (The poem is dated in 1927 which might have been before his association with St Stephen's.) However that may be, the story of a journey of Gentiles being led along - from the Christian point of view, being inspired to make this journey - is always very exciting. It is full of a conscious purpose to be rid of the 'old gods' and to accept what we know as the Christian Way despite all appearances in the world around us to the contrary. It also leads us to look at this Man, the Lord, and to ponder who he is, in depth, in relation to ourselves. The enigmatic last line of Eliot's poem, I should be glad of another death, reflects perhaps our need also for a continuing return to the 'source', to that moment when we also came to experience the greatness and stature of this Man born to be king.