Thursday, September 22, 2016 25th Week in Ordinary Time First Reading:
Eccl 1: 2-11 Gospel Reading: Lk 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)
There were many powerful people named Herod in the time of Jesus. The one who had John the Baptist beheaded was Herod of Antipas, son of Herod the Great who was appointed king of the Jews by the Roman Senate in 40 B.C. Even though he had many projects for the Jews, foremost was the restoration of the Temple, Herod the Great was remembered for his cruelty to quash any threat to his throne, such as the slaughter of the innocent infants of Bethlehem.
When King Herod the Great died in 4 B.C., the kingdom was divided among his children. Herod Antipas got Galilee while Judea went to his full brother Archelaus (Matthew 2:22). Their half-brother Phillip got the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis (Luke 3:1).
Herod of Antipas soon divorced his wife and married Herodias, the wife of another half-brother also named Philip. When John condemned their adulterous union, Herod did not want to overreact for fear of John’s great following. He had him contained by merely putting him to prison. Eventually he had him beheaded in prison at the request of his step-daughter Salome who delighted Herod’s guests with a dance (Mt 14:6; Mk 6:22).
The thirst for blood ran full circle in this powerful clan. The father had ordered the killing of innocent babies in Bethlehem, and this time the son had ordered the beheading of an innocent baptizer. But nobody is immune to the scrutiny of conscience. News about Jesus bothered Herod. Conscience overrides the security of the powerful and penetrates into their most secured sanctuaries to disturb them day and night. Herod wanted to find out who Jesus really was not out of love but out of fear. He suspected that Jesus was John the Baptizer he had ordered beheaded in prison. Finally he met Jesus when Pilate sent him over to him in the course of Jesus’ trial. But he merely asked him idle questions, mocked him and sent him back to be crucified (Lk 23:7).
The thirst for innocent blood ran full circle in this powerful clan. This full circle became the very noose that strangled them to spiritual death. Jesus was within his reach and was even under his authority. But he profited nothing from his encounter with Jesus because his soul was so hardened to absorb grace.
Like Herod we too may have ample opportunities to encounter Jesus. If our souls are as hardened as Herod’s soul, any grace resulting from that encounter will be for us like water on a duck’s back. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM . Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY: God our Father, grant us the gift of repentance so that your grace may empower us to resist our compulsions. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.