The Feast of the Nativity of Christ 2016

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11)

And Matthew again saith, that the Wise men coming from the east said, We have seen His Star in the East, and are come to worship Him (Matthew 2:2): and that being brought safe by a Star into the House of Jacob to Emmanuel, did by the gifts which they offered shew, Who He was, Who received their adoration: by the Myrrh first, because it was He, who should die and be buried for the perishable race of man: Gold again, because He is a King, of Whose Kingdom there is no end (Luke 1:33): and Frankincense because He is God, Who was both made known in Judea (Psalm 76:1), and displayed unto those who sought Him not (Isaiah 65:1).

Saint Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.9.2, translated by John Keble and published in Oxford in 1872