From the responsorial psalm: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 9:7-9)
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”; others were saying, “Elijah has appeared”; still others, “One of the ancient prophets has arisen.” But Herod said, “John I beheaded. Who then is this about whom I hear such things?” And he kept trying to see him.
In encountering John the Baptist, Herod heard the words of one of the greatest prophets and then beheaded him. Herod’s view of reality was severely limited because of what he refused to hear and take in. Just as he kept trying to hear John the Baptist before killing him, he kept trying to see Jesus even as he sought to have him killed. Eventually paving the way for Jesus’ crucifixion as he meets and mocks him, Herod stands before Jesus but even in that moment fails to see him. What we hear in the first reading describes Herod’s spiritual condition after hearing John and seeing Jesus: “The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear satisfied with hearing.”
God, help me see the futility of confidence in my plans and comfort in my possessions. Teach me to number my days aright that I may gain wisdom of heart. If I look at Herod and see only his complete failure to recognize the Son of God standing in front of him, I have missed something greater. In all the toil and labor of a lifetime, what good is there in it unless the futility of it all causes me to remain faithful to you in hearing and doing what pleases you? What else lasts or matters? “I am the way and the truth and the life,” I hear Jesus say. Lord, let me take refuge in you. Saints Cosmas and Damian, pray for us!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.