The Advent star
There are many stories told by stars. There are few that are told about them. Or shouldn’t it be the other way around? Aren’t stars supposed to be inanimate objects that softly light up the night sky?
Okay, perhaps I could be mistaken. In any case, I will simply share with you, young reader at heart, a story about a star. I will then leave it to you to judge whether there are more stories told us by stars than those that are said about them.
* * *
Men are always born, because God truly loves each of His children, with a guardian angel. It is a pity that sometimes children are born without even realizing this wonderful and helpful treasure of a guide and friend from God.
Parents ought to help their children acquaint themselves with these spiritual companions. Angels have no other mission than to see that the souls entrusted to them—if such souls freely choose to do so—go to Heaven.
What about angels? Ancient stories say that when God created them, He gave each angel a star to look after. Obviously not as some sort of pet but something that has a part in God’s mysterious plan for creation. Of course, some angels with very important jobs were somehow “exempted” from caring for a star. But most of them had one.
Now angels took care of their stars in two basic ways: by singing to them to help them grow brighter each time and by telling them stories that made them “twinkle-laugh” and this made them grow bigger.
One can imagine at the beginning of time how many stars filled the evening sky. It was said that there were so many stars that one could not find a single dark spot in the night sky. But the light they gave was soft and pleasant and lighted the paths of men on earthly nights.
* * *
There was once an angel named Gaudior. His name meant a cheerful and playful angel. He was happy when God gave him his star. But he immediately realized that his star was different.
It did not glow and shine like the rest. Gaudior did his best to sing for the young star. It glimmered a little and sometimes it shined, but it didn’t radiate the same bright light like other young stars. He told wonderful and colorful stories, but the most the star could do was give a soft giggle and a smile.
“Perhaps, this star is sick,” Gaudior told himself. He consulted the “star-shepherd,” an old angel who knew almost everything about them.
“I believe my star is sick,” Gaudior said.
“Oh, my young one,” the shepherd replied, “there are no sick stars, just special ones.”
“So can you tell me what makes my star special?”
The shepherd cupped the star in his hands. He lifted it a little, blew into its heart and tried examining its rays. “Hmmm…,” the shepherd said. “It seems you have got here not a star, but a ‘star-comet.’ These are very rare and they announce special events both for Heaven and earth, for angels and for men.”
“A star-comet? What is that supposed to mean?” Gaudior trembled with concern for his star.
“The reason your star does not shine and grow like the rest is because he is destined to die by consuming himself with his own energy and light.”
“Die?” Gaudior said terrified. “But stars don’t die, or do they?”
The shepherd carefully cradled the comet-star. “Oh yes, stars do die. And they die because they are no longer fed with love.”
“But all angels love their stars,” Gaudior tried correcting the shepherd.
“It seems, as God wanted, stars also hold some relationship with men. When men no longer look up to the Heavens because of his love for the things of the world, the star he was destined with also fades away.”
“That is so sad.”
“But what you have here is no ordinary star. It is a star-comet. And I have once heard, though not fully understood, that these indeed die only to be reborn.”
* * *
Satan, in his wisdom, knew that God had a plan. He was aware that there was nothing he could do to stop this plan to send someone to save mankind. But at least he could slow him down or make men ignore this messenger from Heaven.
He also knew, like the star-shepherd, that God made use of stars to announce to men some good news or impending omen. He plotted to distract the angels and somehow gathered as many of the younger stars and hid them in the depths of the earth where no one would ever find them. There would be no star left to announce the arrival of God’s messenger.
Satan told some devils distract the good angels to lay siege on the gates of Heaven. Meanwhile, he and some other bad angels would steal as many young stars they could from the night sky.
They quickly moved to carry out this devious plan. All of Heaven’s angels rushed to defend Heaven’s gates. At the same time, Satan started stealing the young stars and stashing them in his bag.
The newly born stars could not do anything. As soon as he touched them, their light faded and they shrunk in size. When Satan saw Gaudior’s small and fading light, he smirked, “Why bother with this, it seems it’s dying anyway.” He then left it and continued stealing away the other small stars.
The good angels realized the plot and returned to help the stars. But it was too late. Satan and his helpers managed to carry with them a third of the constellations from Heaven. And from that time onwards the sky was marred with dark and wide spaces that we see up to this day.
When the devils were finally driven away from Heaven, the good angels cared for the remaining stars. These were trembling with fright and many had lost their former radiance after the devils had touched them.
Then suddenly a loud voice echoed in Heaven, “It is time!”
St. Michael fluttered towards the remaining stars and asked, “Which one of you will be ready to announce the Savior’s birth?”
Many of the stars who had not yet recovered fully remained silent. Some flickered in fear while others shuddered and could not even smile. St. Michael realized that none of them would be able to announce the news of Great Joy!”
“Look!” the star-shepherd pointed at the star-comet. Gaudior saw how his star slowly became brighter and more radiant. And for the first time it formed a perfect smile on its face. The star-comet approached St. Michael and it nodded saying yes.
Michael kissed the star on the forehead, saying, “Go, little one! You know where you must shine, not only in the sky, but also eternally in the hearts of all men of goodwill.”
Gaudior cupped his star for one last time, kissed it goodbye and let it go. The star-comet hovered a little, and everyone saw how it grew a long tail of light like wings, and it gave some spiral twists and turns before it flew to earth announce the birth of God’s Son.
* * *
“Look, brother Balthazaar! The sign we have been waiting for,” Gaspar told the black magi.
“That is truly a strange star. It has a radiance I have never seen in my life, my brothers,” Melchor said.
“Let us be off! It will be our guide to the savior,” Gaspar said.
