Mass this morning told the story of the three wise men bringing the gifts to baby Christ in the manger. It’s one of those stories that brings warmth to the Christmas season for me, albeit it’s also the end of the season. Frank(incense)ly, I’ve been in a bit of a funk the last couple of days. Somehow, after mass I’m feeling more energized. It’s as though I got something I needed.

I’ve been feeling separated and isolated. I slept way too much yesterday and unfortunately engaged in some chatting. I think a big chunk of it is my own indignance at being seemingly passed over for a promotion at work. I wanted to escape. The trouble is, my go-to escape I feel doing more spiritual harm. Obviously, it’s not the right path.

My head knew/knows that even when we seemingly fail the right thing to do is to get up and try and realize that my Higher Power is saying “not this way, there’s a better path for you”. My ego did bruise though, potentially causing the emotional funk. My ego is an ego that would vote for itself for homecoming king, all conference and president of the world in an election. It’s only through putting in the spiritual work that I can offset its arrogance. When I’m not working on myself spiritually, the ego gets the best of me.

I needed mass today. It plugged me into something “more” something deeper. I’m now feeling some purpose restored and an urge to keep trudging on. A part of the Homily today was that the wise men were asked to tell King Herod of Christ’s location so that he may “pay him homage” (a lie). The wise men ended up taking a different path home. What I took from it is after having a spiritual moment, awakening, realization our path is forever shifted. We get better at avoiding pitfalls and trust that even if the new path is unknown we will be okay.

I’ve been listening to Sepultura’s “Dante XXI” album lately. It is a metal opera of Dante’s epic “Inferno” this morning put the lyrics of the song “Crown and Miter” in my head.

It’s a good thing.