Thursday,
September 26, 2013
25th Week in
Ordinary Time
First Reading: Hg 1: 1-8
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. Eventually he had him beheaded in prison at the request of his step-daughter Salome (Mt 14:6; Mk 6:22).
The thirst for blood ran full circle in this clan. The father had ordered the killing of innocent babies in Bethlehem, while the son had ordered the beheading of an innocent baptizer. But how the clan ended demonstrates how conscience can override the security of the powerful to penetrate into their most secured sanctuaries and disturb them night and day. Herod wanted to find out who Jesus was, fearing he might have been the baptizer he had ordered beheaded. 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. But this full circle only served as the noose that strangled them to spiritual death. Herod profited nothing from his encounter with Jesus because his soul was too hardened to absorb grace.
Like Herod we too may have ample opportunities to encounter Jesus. If our souls are as hardened as Herod’s, 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.
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