wikipaintings.org The Three Wise Men bring gifts to the Baby Jesus in this 1640 painting called “Adoration of the Magi” by Francisco Zurbaran. Matthew MacLennan writes that the chemistry of their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh has a deeper meaning for Christians.By Matthew MacLennan
The B.C. Catholic

The image of learned Persian astronomers kneeling down in homage before the infant Jesus, offering Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, captures our imaginations every year. The various Christian meanings of gold, frankincense, and myrrh can be further described by the fascinating chemistry of these three substances.

St. Gregory the Great highlights how gold, frankincense, and myrrh are symbols of Christian morality and life in Christ. Gold represents Christ’s wisdom shining in us. Frankincense represents our prayers and other offerings, showing our dependence on Christ. Myrrh represents our daily self-sacrifices, our “dying to self,” which unites us to the cross of Christ.

All matter contains particles called electrons. However, in metals like gold, the electrons can move freely throughout the metal. You might think that metals shine because they “reflect” light, as a hockey puck reflects off the boards, but, in fact, that is not what happens when light shines on metals.

When sunlight shines on a piece of gold, most of the light is actually absorbed or “caught” by the free-flowing electrons in the gold. Only after being caught is the light released again, and you see a “shiny metal.”

Christ’s wisdom shines in us the way gold shines. Like photons of light on gold, we don’t simply reflect Christ: we must absorb Christ first before we can have Him shine in us! You cannot give what you do not have.

Frankincense, the resin from Boswellia sacra trees, contains many volatile aromatic compounds. When frankincense is burned, it undergoes a chemical reaction called “incomplete combustion” and releases white smoke.

There are hundreds of different kinds of fragrant molecules released in the incomplete combustion of frankincense. These molecules are called terpenes. Each terpene has a characteristic odour like pine, lemon, cumin, thyme, savoury, and pepper. All of them together give us the wonderful smell of burning frankincense.

The prayers of the universal Church emanate like smoke from the burning hearts of humanity, but they all have slightly different intentions, desires, experiences, and circumstances, just like the slightly different molecular structures of the terpenes released in incense.

Nevertheless, all these prayers are taken up in the heart of the Church and offered to God as from her heart alone. Incense is truly a beautiful image of this.
Oil of myrrh, from the Commiphora myrrha tree, contains, like frankincense, hundreds of pleasant-smelling compounds, each with varying structures. Myrrh is not usually burned, but is oil that is used for anointing Levitical priests (Ex 30:23-33) and preparing the dead (Jn 19:39-40). It is a faint, but sweet smell.

Our daily self-sacrifices are may be unnoticed by others, but they are so sweet in the eyes of Christ. We could say that Christ’s 30 years of manual labour in carpentry were a sweet myrrh of sacrifice: unnoticed, normal, repetitive, but human and (don’t forget!) divine. Such is the heart of Christ. Such is our calling.

Myrrh derives its characteristic odour from molecules called furanoterpenes. These molecules are terpenes, but with something extra attached: a pentagon-shaped ring of carbon and oxygen atoms. When we sacrifice our selfish desires for love of someone else, it is a prayer with something extra-action.

Our spiritual death and selflessness make Christ alive in us. We must do everything with prayer and a sense of offering for others and for God, otherwise, what are our sacrifices for? To be seen? We all know what Christ thought of that kind of sacrifice.

The Magi presented gold, frankincense, and myrrh to Christ. The Magi might not have lived to see the days of the passion, death, and resurrection of Our Lord, but they came away with a sense of fulfillment that night. They tried to give the best gifts they had to this new king.

Little did they know that these gifts would not only represent the manifold mission of the Son of God as priest, prophet, and king, but that they would also be powerful images of the Christian life which we have been graced to receive through baptism; graced down to the last atom.

Matthew MacLennan is a science and Christian education teacher at Notre Dame Regional Secondary School in Vancouver.