After the wise men gave homage to Jesus and to the Holy Family, after offering them their gifts, they departed to their homes. However, we read that “having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.” For a long time, I understood that they simply chose another route home, just to avoid Herod. It might have been a longer way, maybe more challenging, but certainly to avoid Herod. But today I understand this warning in a different way. I believe that the experience of the Lord in their lives made them different people, better people. Jesus changed their lives forever, and this is why they couldn’t go back the same way. From now on, they were changed, and their way of life was changed, and it will never be the same as before meeting the Christ. In a similar way, when we come to church, to the Eucharist, to meet Christ, after all this we must return ‘by another way’, we can’t be the same people. We must be changed, holier, our lives must change, because now we have met and received God.
