Anecdote about the Three Wise Men

Luis Cernuda, the great Spanish poet who died in Mexico last November, told me he had blind faith as a child. He wanted to do well not because he expected a reward or was afraid of punishment, but because of an instinct to follow a beautiful order established by God.

"Christmas and New Year had gone by”- I still hear him saying- , “and I was looking forward, with the natural expectation in a six- year- boy, to the arrival of the great characters that I believed in without the slightest shadow of doubt.”

“Dad ... Have you seen the Three Wise Men? “

“Yes, son," he replied, sitting the little boy on his lap. I had the fortune of meeting them on the outskirts of the city some years ago.”

With intense emotion, the future poet begged his father to talk about the Wise Men of the East. The father, eager to please him, eloquently described the noble figures of Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazar, the nicest of the three. He spoke of their beauty, their goodness, their majestic impressive luxury garb, and their wonderful entourage. And how they preferred well- behaved, obedient kids who never cried.

“I want to see them,” the impressed boy begged.

“If you try, they will punish you without any gifts.”

The boy, quiet, close-lipped, ran to his room. He scribbled something on a piece of paper, put it in an envelope and handed it over to his father's assistant, asking him to ride and deliver the letter to the Three Wise Men or their servants.

He wrote on the envelope: "To the Wise Men who follow the star."

He recalled having written more or less the following words, with inevitable misspellings:

"Dad told me that he saw you once, but I cannot see you because then you won’t bring me toys or gifts. But I do not care. I don’t love you because of that reason. I love you because I know that you are beautiful and good like the angels who are in heaven with God and I want to see you to love you even more, even if you won’t bring me gifts. "

Kena, Vol. 12, Mexico D.F., January 15, 1964, pp. 76.