By the time Daniélou published his book "The Early Christian Symbols" (1951: at Spanish, eds. Ega, Bilbao 1993), there was already enough research about the star of the Magi (Mt 2:2) on the framework of biblical culture.

The star has a long history that precedes it in the texts of the Old Testament (cf. the "star of Jacob" of Num 24:17), of primitive Christianity and in relation to the surrounding cultures. This star is the herald of the salvation that the Messiah brings and that reaches all peoples.

St. Justin (2nd century) says that the star is one of the names of Christ, and he relates it to the star that the Magi saw in the East. For us it is also a star of hope.

Indeed, Revelation mentions the "morning star" (2:28) or the morning star, which God will give to those who are faithful to Christ (perhaps in connection with the mark on their foreheads, cf. 14:1). Christ himself is the radiant morning star (22:16), as the second letter of St. Peter also calls him (II Pet. 1:19).

In one of the readings prior to the feast of the Epiphany, the Catholic liturgy of the Hours includes this text from St. Augustine:

"He who was equal to the Father in the form of God, became like unto us in the form of a servant, that He might reform us into the likeness of God; and, becoming the son of man - He who was the only Son of God - He made many sons of men into sons of God: and, having fed those servants with His visible form of a servant, He made them free to behold the form of God.

For now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is' [1 Jn 3:2]. (...)

But until that happens, (...) while we hunger and thirst for justice and yearn with ineffable ardor for the beauty of the form of God, let us celebrate with devout obsequiousness the birth of the form of a servant" (Sermon 194, our underlining, 2nd reading of January 5).

The birth of Jesus, the Son of God made flesh for our salvation, makes us, in effect, "free to contemplate God," which will happen in Heaven, when we will see him "face to face" (1 Cor 13:12), and enjoy the divine life in the company of the saints.

In the meantime, the star that guide led the Magi to the Child brings us, too, freedom.

What freedom is this? The freedom of love, which is the perfection of freedom. How do you explain all this?

This is a very dear and recurrent topic in the thought of Joseph Ratzinger. In one of his general audiences (1-II-2012), Benedict XVI developed it with reference letter to the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and the interpretation of St. Maximus the Confessor. Here are the words of the German Pope:

"Adam and Eve thought that the no to God would be the summit of freedom, to be fully oneself. (...) Jesus tells us that the human being only reaches his true height, only becomes divine by conforming his own will to the divine will; only by going out of himself, only in the yes to God, is the desire of Adam, of all of us, the desire to be completely free, fulfilled."

 All this has to do with the development of Christian thought about Christ. The first councils defined that Christ is the Son of God (Council of Nicaea in 325) and that he has one Person and two natures between which there is no confusion, no change, no division, no separation (Council of Chalcedon in 451).

On the occasion of the Third Council of Constantinople (680), St. Maximus the Confessor explained that in Christ, his human will (which logically resisted the passion and death) was united to the divine will, which desired our salvation (cf. Mt 26:39; Mk 14:36; Lk 22:42; Jn 12:27f) by his loving obedience to the divine salvific plan, traced out by the Trinity.

In this way it was made clear that the unity of the two wills did not occur at the level of nature but in his Person (the space staff is the space of freedom; the free unity is the unity created by love). Therefore, his human nature was not annulled by the divine nature. In his prayer, which led him to die on the Cross, Christ exercised his freedom to the utmost. This is why Christian prayer, which shares in Christ's prayer, can be characterized as a "laboratory of freedom" (cf. on all this, J. Ratzinger, Miremos al traspasado, Santa Fe, Argentina, 2007, pp. 45-51).

Christ with his human will is completely free. Christ," says St. Maximus, "died, if one can say so, divinely, because he died freely" (Ambigua, 91, 1056). This implied the mediation of the Holy Spirit, which is the mutual love between the Father and the Son.

Therefore, charity or Christian love, which gives us a participation in the love of Christ, makes us sharers in his freedom. The Christian is truly free, with the freedom of love. And fully free, when he seeks to do everything out of love for God and for others.

Thus the star of the Magi brings us the freedom that Christ has won for us, the freedom of the children of God. This freedom makes us, in effect, capable of contemplating God: incoherently here, fully in Heaven. This means, at the same time, filling ourselves with his love and collaborating so that true freedom may grow in the world.