Yves and the wisemen

1In this Epiphany feast, an enlightening parallel might easily be established between the wise men and Saint Yves. Actually, they are more alike than one might think. It would be a mistake to go stop at the large cultural gap that exists between them because of a four thousands kilometers distance and twelve centuries that separates them. Indeed, the latter and the former show the constants of Humankind.

2An important difference between the wise men and saint Yves.

To be honest, very few things are known about the wise men. In that matter, there is one considerable difference between them and Yves Hélory de Kermartin. As a matter of fact, the major aspects of Saint Yves’ life is well-documented since at his death, the poor and the priests of Brittany, as well as by the Bishop of Tréguier himself considered him a saint. For that reason, everything that was known about him was quickly inscribed and preserved.

3Very different is the situation about the wise men. The Gospels showed a great restraint about them, and the traditions completed them a lot: the Great One and, most of all, the little one added many details. Indeed, out of the four Evangelists, only Matthew mentions them and he does not even give them the title of king. That was only lately granted to them, on the one hand, because of the prophecies that announced the coming of the kings from all nations towards the light of Jerusalem, and on the other hand because of the royal munificence of their presents and of the easy access they had to King Herod. The apocryphal Gospels fixed the number to three wise men, because of the logical conclusion derived from the three gifts, as well as their names: Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar. As to their geographical origins – Iran, Iraqi, or India – were invented in order to stress the enlargement of the Salvation to pagans.

 

5The first point in common between Yves and the wise men: the welcoming of the Salvation in the darkness of sin.

The first parallel between Yves’ life and the wise men quest consists of their common openness to the gift of the Salvation. The enlargement of the Revelation to the polytheist contrasts with the closing of the Jewish world, although chosen to bring it to them. Saint John expressed it very well in the Prologue of his Gospel by writing: “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not seize (…). He came to his own, but his own did not accept him. »

6The wise men attest to the identity of this poor and fragile Newborn. Their gold talks of His kingship, for only Kings use gold to issue coins. Their incense speaks of His divinity, for incense is only offered to gods. Their myrrh talks about the mystery of His death and resurrection, for at the time it was used to embalm bodies. Most of all, the wise men prostrate themselves before Him. And this must be the fundamental attitude for Christians.  To be genuine Christian, loving Jesus or even following His teaching does not go far enough: it is necessary to worship Him.

7Facing the wise men, Herod and the Jewish leaders close themselves. Herod, a non-Jewish king, imposed by the Roman occupier, knows full well, nevertheless, the Jewish people’s history and hope since he inquires about the location where the Messiah is supposed to be born. He immediately identified the king of the Jews that the wise men are looking for. Indeed, historical researches have shown that, for years, the Jewish people messianic hopes had intensified. Herod is very upset. All of Jerusalem can be agitated with him, for the Prophets had announced that the Messiah, the Good Shepherd, will hold the bad shepherds to account because they should have taken care of His ewes. Herod’s concern about the precise moment for the apparition of the star in reality only aims at organizing the slaughter of the Innocents’.

8The Jewish leaders here have a very symbolic place. Obviously, Matthew is using, quite on purpose, the same words that he will use in the story of the Passion. Thirty years later, by Herod Antipas’s side, the son of Herod the Great who is presently king, find themselves again “the chief priests and the scribes”, themselves the sons of the counselors who were suddenly summoned to answer the wise men. It is their turn to raise the question about the place of Jesus’ birth: the Messiah could not come for Nazareth for, according to prophet Micah, he must have been born in Bethlehem. It is them who will obtain His condemnation from Pilate on the pretext that He questions Cesar’s authority claiming to be the “King of Jews”, which is the exact reason for the Holy family’s flight into Egypt in order to escape Herod.

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In both cases, the light of God had to shine in very thick darkness! Happily, at each period men and women appeared with good will and an honest quest for Justice and Truth. But they had to face the malice and the jealousy of some privileged people that wealth has perverted.

 

10The second likeliness: the social position of the wise men and of Yves Helory de Kermartin.

Through the wise men, wealth, science and power are paying tribute to the Creator. The wise men possessed knowledge and probably the most sacred one of the age: knowledge of the stars. It inspired most of the great oriental religions and interested even the Jews. The wise men were rich too: their presents and their expensive travel witnessed to that. Finally, they were powerful: at least because of their science and wealth, maybe also because they were kings. Knowledge, wealth and power are kneeling before the Savior of the world, before the Creator of every good.

Although belonging to the low aristocracy, Yves Hélory enjoyed privileges due to his social rank, including access to the powerful. After more than ten years of extensive studies, he was chosen as a well-trained and expert judge to judge in the name of the Catholic Church, which did and undid European sovereigns. The great multitude of clerics, male and female members of religious orders, the agitated students in universities, the widow, orphan and poor depend on his decisions. For all the trials about the Church’s tremendous properties, matrimonial affairs, or about every case in which a transaction had been sworn by oath, which was common at that time when illiteracy forced people to form contract orally, were meet by his competence. Like the wise men, Yves is scientist, rich, and powerful.

But, like them, he chose to go through the darkness of sin, which generate injustice, violence and rancor, in order to find and follow the Redeemer of Humankind. He gave up the goods of this world that collusion with wealth and power could have provided him with; doing so, he dissociated himself from many of his fellow priests, and converted many others too!

What an example for our time!

11Actually, science must remember that it cannot solve all the problems of mankind without referring to the Revelation. The second Council of Vatican remembers that every human being should seek for Truth with the best of his/her abilities; however only an attitude of worshipping, respect, and confidence towards God permits man to penetrate into the knowledge of Truth because the light of Revelation is needed. In the same way, wealth, knowledge culture and power must stay at the service of all men and women. For they were all created by God for the good of men and the glory of God.

Of course, this is true for each and every one of us, for we all have a bit of knowledge, wealth and power to offer to the Lord.


12Third likeliness: men of God who sought Him and found Joy!

Another similarity between Yves and the wise men can be easily observed: they showed an amazing ability to discern God’s presence through the most humble. The wise men knelt on the likely stinking straw of the crib. They prostrated themselves in front of a humble family, which belonged to a humiliated and crushed people. They discerned in this baby God’s mysterious presence and spent a fortune to honor Him.

Yves, too, spent the whole of his fortune personally welcoming, feeding, hosting, defending, curing and sometimes burying the poorest among the poor because he saw Christ through them.

The former as well as the latter teach us that any person of good will who seeks God can find Him. For God keeps making signs that man has to but recognize and accept. For that, he should consider himself poor, small and unable to save himself. Stars can only shine at night. In fact, to find the light, we must suffer in obscurity.

Many witnesses attest that Yves wept a lot because of his own sin and indignity. God manifests His presence only to those who long for Him. We should let God to dig in ourselves the desire of meeting Him, confessing our fragility and sin, sympathizing with our suffering brothers and sisters.

The first proof that a sign comes from God is joy and exultation. The Gospel of the Epiphany Greek version clearly insists heavily on that: “They strongly felt a great joy at the sight of the star”. This is the joy of the Virgin Mary meeting with Elizabeth, of John the Baptist in his mother’s womb, of the elderly Simeon… And it is always the result of the Holy Spirit’s action!

In the same way, many witnesses insisted during Saint Yves’ trial of canonization on his constant joyful and lighthearted mind. Only disloyalty was able to irritate him. He was saddened only by a vivid conscience of sin, his own or the sin of others that he denounced and absolved with the same fervor.  


4Fourth parallel: confidence in ways chosen by God.

Yves knew that his power to absolve sins came from the Church, even when it was ill, corrupted and unfaithful. It is the last common point between the wise men and what Saint Yves’ life reveals.

The reapirition of the star is a very spiritual symbol. For, once arrived in Jerusalem after so long a journey, the wise men would have probably been able to find Bethlehem without difficulties since it is not far from Jerusalem: that being only a few kilometers. But they accepted to go to Jerusalem, which is the capital of the unique monotheist people, the sign of God’s transcendence of the time. They accepted to receive information from the legitimate authorities, though corrupted, since they were in charge of the Alliance between God and His people. Because they accepted the mediations that God had established for them, God Himself returned to guide them: the star reappeared again! Yves never denied the Church himself, nor his belonging to priesthood, although fully aware of the non-compliance by many of his fellow priests of their duties. He even very fiercely defended the rights and freedom of the Church against the abuses of the King, saying: “I will fight during my entire life for the freedom of the Church.” (Witness 47). 

This attitude, which the wise men and Yves have in common, is made of humble confidence that is necessary to approach God: it opens them a new road. Warned in a dream, the wise men were invited to come back home by another road, without going through Jerusalem. They are invited to change route, to give up the ways of the world and to choose the way of God.

In a word, this is a call to radical conversion. In the same way Yves, was deeply touched by the misery of his time and inflamed by the desire to serve justice. He followed the way of conversion until the most extreme renouncement in order to show the poor God’s love and compassion.

14It is interesting to note that, in all these paintings, the wise men and their escorts are dressed in clothes of the time of the artist: from the High or Low Middle-Ages or from the Renaissance. This is true also for the granite statues of the Breton “Calvaires”, which illustrated the former articles. The event obviously occurred in Europe and not in the Holy Land.

According to this spirit, nowadays, it could be very possible to represent three luxury vehicles, parked in a poor neighborhood of a middle-size city. The CEO of a big multinational, who would represent wealth, a chief of State, who would represent power, and a famous scientist, who would represent knowledge, might step out of them to adore a newborn, sheltered under the stairs of a HLM. It would not be too bold to replace the shepherds by some precarious workers. Actually, at the time, shepherds were despised by the Jewish, though Jew themselves, the former preferred seeing the latter in the surrounding hills than in the streets of the city.

Once more, saint Yves’ merit was to recognize in the most unpleasant beggars he welcomed or in the jugglers and acrobats that kept traveling to survive as members of the elected people, were beloved children of the Lord… like himself.