Lk 9:7-9 Who Then Is This?

Thursday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
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Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying, "John has been raised from the dead." ...But Herod said, "John I beheaded.  Who then is this about whom I hear such things?"  And he kept trying to see him.

Vanity of vanities.   You would think by now we would know how to discipline, educate and raise children; keep marriages healthy and families together; and get along with our neighbor and learn to dialogue with our foes.  But we haven't! And we shouldn't blame God for it, or say we didn't know any better or didn't have enough time to learn from our mistakes. 

Unlike scientists who learn from trial and error, we seem to have a hard time learning from past mistakes.  We even tend to make bad things even worse!

Hence, to make matters worse, we've taken our throw-away mentality and behavior and extended it to just about everything, including marriage and divorce, fetuses and babies, the sick and the elderly. 

We've made the plague of pornography easily accessible to children of all ages, and contraception and abortion available at the snap of one's fingers (and neck).  And while homework has become illegal in some parts of the country, drugs have become legal in other parts of it. 

We did all of this and we did it by removing the bottom of our civilization (the sacredness of all human life) to make room for more people to go down the unforgiving drain.

Vanity of vanities. 

Power is still craved.  Violence is still cheered.  The poor remain to be despised.  The rich remain to be envied.  Our elderly are ridiculed, while our children are feared.  Parents today are nothing and know nothing.  Hollywood has always known everything.  

"'See, this is news!' has already existed in the ages that preceded us" (Eccl. 1:10).

We need something new.  We need someone new.

Who then is this?  As old as the Lord may be, He remains a revolutionary, a rebel, an avant-garde Artist; that is, Someone new under the sun. 

Herod knows this.  He is on to something.  He knows Jesus is different.  He knows He is not John the Baptist.  Who then is this...? 

Keep searching Herod, keep searching, for your hunch and gut are directing you to the right person.  But are you ready to find out? Are you willing to lose the world to gain your soul?  Are you willing to be poor so as to become rich?  Are you willing to be last so that you can be first?

Time and time again, Christ's life and words - though dissected, picked apart and discarded over and over again - have always, without fail, come back to life.  They seem to know how to resurface, just like someone from the grave. Are you surprised? 

And just when you thought you were so over Him, you found ourselves craving and crawling back to Him.  We need you Lord!  I need you!  For when I thought I had understood you, I realized I had simply misunderstood you.

Who then is this?  It must be the Lord!  He is the incarnation of our wild imagination.  He is our dream come true.  Are you surprised?  You shouldn't be, for nothing is under the sun. 

It must come from above.