"Those who first beheld the Christ went back to what they were doing [that is, back to their routine]. The shepherds went back to their sheep. And of the wisemen we read, 'They returned home another way."
"That was, you remember, because they were warned in a dream to avoid Herod.
"There is an important contrast to be made between the authority of Christ and the power of Herod, or perhaps we should say, the authoritarianism of Herod. Spiritual authority has the power of conviction. Authoritarianism has the power of coercion. Whenever the church tries to coerce, it robs itself of spiritual authority.
"Each Christian, within the institutions of our society, must...become an institution embodying at all times and in all places the humanity we see in the face of Christ. It is Christ who defines us, not Herod. To redeem the routine, we must return home another way.
"Christ redeems the routine first and foremost by telling us not what to do but how to be--full of wonder, peace and care, and concern for one another, eager even as God is eager to make humanity more human.
"There are really endless possibilites for those who, like the wisemen we recall today, follow a star. The wisemen were wise because they had a cat-like ability to see in the dark, to see in the night a bright light of hope. 'They returned home another way.' God grant us that we too after Christmas may return home another way. To business as usual? No, to business as never before!"
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