Thursday, September 24, 2015 25th Week in
Ordinary Time
1st reading:
Haggai 1.1-8
Gospel: Luke 9:7-9
King Herod heard of all this and did not know what to think, for people said, “This is John, raised from the dead.” Others believed that Elijah or one of the ancient prophets had come back to life. As for Herod, he said, “I had John beheaded; who is this man about whom I hear such wonders?” And he was anxious to see him.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel
in the Assimilated Life Experience)
King Herod’s information about Jesus was hearsay. He merely heard about Jesus from others who described him as another great prophet. Relying upon this hearsay information Herod inferred the coming back to life of John the Baptist – the prophet he had beheaded. This is where he erred: he surrendered his inner peace so easily to mere hearsay information. Why did he? Probably he never had inner peace in the first place. From the day he beheaded the prophet his conscience may have been hounding him.
Past mistakes hound the present. The past can color the present and stand as reference point of a person’s interpretations of present events. Herod’s state of mind was affected by his guilt of a past crime. He had John the Baptist beheaded upon a mere request of a dancer who pleased him and his guests at his birthday party. John the Baptist’s blood was on him, making him paranoid and restless. In paranoia, he interpreted all events of his life in relation to this crime. The mere mention of the word “prophet” which people used to refer to Jesus heightened his anxiety that the prophet he had killed had come back to life to strike back.
How pathetic of Herod to live in fear when Jesus was just living nearby. There are many of us who, like Herod, who live in paranoia even though Jesus is within reach. Hounded by past mistakes, many cannot move on; the ugly tentacles of guilt refuse to let go of them. Some have given Jesus a try by joining different charismatic communities. At first they experience relief. But as soon as paranoia shows its ugly head they become monkeys in the back, pulling their charismatic community down.
We need to break away from the past by giving Jesus a free hand in our lives. Jesus is in our boat waiting for us to cry out for healing. Listen to him saying “Fear is useless; what we need is faith” (Lk. 8:50). Jesus is Lord of yesterday, today and tomorrow. He can heal us of the binding effects of yesterday, restore us to the brilliance of today and assure us of a glorious tomorrow.
These words are not hearsay; the Word himself became flesh to make these assurances a reality. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM., MAPM. Email: [email protected]. Website: www.frdan.org.
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