I think that all of us have wondered at times what the Holy Family did with the gifts of the Magi. It is the more common opinion of the fathers that each of the wise men gave the same three gifts of gold, frankencense, and myrrh. All three believed that the “Expected One” would be the Son of God as well as the “King of the Jews.” That is why they adored Him and gave Him gifts: of frankencense for His divinity, gold for His royalty, and myrrh for His Humanity They had received the true Faith in the Savior to come from the Jews who had not returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity in the sixth century BC. That holy Faith in the Messiah and the tradition of “His Star” that would announce His Advent from the heavens was communicated by the Judaeans to the Gentiles of Persia, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and even as far as India. Some fathers believed that Melchior was a king from Persia, Gaspar, a king from India, and Balthasar, a king from Arabia. Saint Matthew tells us only that they came from “the East.”
I wish only to pose the question as to what Our Lady and Saint Joseph may have done with these gifts which the Gospel refers to as “treasures.”
Not having spent too much time in doing research on the web and in a few books, I came up empty. I could not find any speculation from any of the fathers ( or doctors) on this question. No doubt there must be some such patristic commentary. Perhaps someone reading this column can help?
I think I know why there is this apparent silence. Surely, it was because Our Lady and Saint Joseph wanted to keep their charity to themselves and so we are left with no clue in the Gospels as to what they did with such exquisite gifts. We can only conjecture.
The opinion I always have had, although I did not give too much thought to it, was that they divided their treasures among the poor after giving a good portion of it to the temple treasury. We know that they did not have enough money to offer more than two turtle-doves, the lowest requirement of the law for the poor mothers who came to the temple to be purified after giving birth. Now that holy event took place only twenty-eight days after the coming of the Magi and forty days after Christ’s Nativity.
I read other opinions (not from saints) that Saint Joseph used part of the money from the sale of the treasures to support the Holy Family in Egypt. That may seem reasonable, but, I think, unlikely, when we consider the burning charity that inflamed the hearts of Mary and Joseph. Others have speculated that perhaps the myrrh was kept for its medicinal value and for annointing the dead. Yet we know from Saint John’s Gospel that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes with them when they buried Our Lord. Might they have received the myrrh from Our Lady? The myrrh she had received from the Magi? Perhaps. The Mother of God knew from SImeon at her Baby’s Presentation in the Temple that her heart would be pierced by a sword. She knew that she would one day offer her Son to His Father as the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God for the sins of the world.
Father Edward Healy Thompson, M.A., in his wonderful book,The Life and Glories of Saint Joseph writes: “It might have been imagined that the gifts of the Magi would have enabled Joseph and Mary to present the offering of the rich [at Our Lady’s Purification], but they were not minded to apply them to this purpose. They made the offering of the poor, the two turtle-doves, and it is supposed that they divided what the Kings had brought between their indigent neighbours and the Temple of God at Jerusalem.”
