In the Christmas story, the wise men bring gifts to the Lord: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The gold is listed first, because it is the inmost - signifying good, e.g. the good that we do when we love the Lord and the neighbor.

The frankincense is next. It signifies rational truth, which is the set of true ideas that we know, not about external things like cars or cooking, but about what is really good, and what is really true.

These rational truths are built on earlier knowledges that we learn, before we have really made them our own. Those early knowledges about spiritual things - often learned in childhood - are represented by the myrrh.

In a way, these gifts are really a reciprocation. We can't actually give them to the Lord until the Lord has given them to us. We necessarily start out by learning and doing the Lord's law (myrrh). The Lord can then call up those memories to become rational truths (frankincense). Then, over time, and with effort, those truths can be transformed into good (gold). The wise men from the East had gone through this process of learning and becoming vessels that could receive truths and goods. They were able to perceive the Lord's birth, and find him, and bring gifts to him.

277. And a golden bowl full of incense. This symbolizes a confession of the Lord's Divine humanity springing from spiritual goods.

Incense symbolizes worship springing from spiritual goods - although here a confession springing from those goods - because worship in the Jewish and Israelite churches consisted principally in sacrifices and the burning of incense. Consequently they had two altars, one for sacrifices and one for the burning of incense. The first stood outside the Tabernacle and was called the altar of burnt offering, while the second was inside the Tabernacle and was called the golden altar. ¹ The reason for the two was that all worship springs from two kinds of goods - celestial good and spiritual good. Celestial good is the good of love toward the Lord, while spiritual good is the good of love for the neighbor. Worship by means of sacrifices was worship springing from celestial good, whereas worship by means of the burning of incense was worship springing from spiritual good.

It makes no difference whether you say worship or confession, as all worship is a confession.

The symbolic meaning of incense is also the symbolic meaning of the bowls that contained the incense, since a container and its contents, like an instrumental and principal cause, form a single unit.

[2] Worship springing from spiritual good is symbolized by incense in the following passages:

...from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the nations, and in every place incense shall be offered to My name... (Malachi 1:11)

They shall teach Jacob Your judgments... They shall present the smell of incense to Your nose, and a whole burnt offering on Your altar. (Deuteronomy 33:10)

I will offer to You burnt offerings of fatlings, with the incense... (Psalms 66:15)

They shall come from (round about) Judah... bringing a burnt offering..., a grain offering and frankincense... (Jeremiah 17:26)

...from Sheba they shall come; they shall bring gold and frankincense, and they shall proclaim the praises of Jehovah. (Isaiah 60:6)

Frankincense has the same symbolic meaning as incense, because frankincense was the principal aromatic substance from which incense was made.

So likewise in Matthew:

(Wise men from the east) opened their treasures, (and) they presented (to the newborn Lord) gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11)

They presented these three gifts, because gold symbolized celestial good, frankincense spiritual good, and myrrh natural good, and it is from these three goods that all worship springs.

Notas de rodapé: