WHO IS HE

Herod is being told that Jesus is John the Baptist risen from the dead.

Herod is filled with fear and curiosity. He “kept trying to see Jesus”.

God is knocking at his door. This is his moment of grace.

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊   

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11

 All is meaningless – says the Teacher – meaningless, meaningless!

 What profit is there for a man in all his work for which he toils under the sun?

A generation goes, a generation comes and the earth remains forever. The sun rises, the sun sets, hastening towards the place where it again rises. Blowing to the south, turning to the north, the wind goes round and round and after all its rounds it has to blow again.

All rivers go to the sea but the sea is not full; to the place where the rivers come from, there they return again.  All words become weary and speech comes to an end, but the eye has never seen enough nor the ear heard too much.

 What has happened before will happen again; what has been done before will be done again: there is nothing new under the sun.  If they say to you, “See, it’s new!” know that it has already been centuries earlier.

There is no remembrance of ancient people, and those to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.

 

Ps 90:3-4, 5 -6, 12-13, 14 & 17bc

In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

 

＊＊＊＊ 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.

          

 Gospel Reflection：

Meaning (Lessness) in Life

When life is seen as pure chance (as we saw yesterday), everything in life becomes meaningless and depressing. It is this sense of meaninglessness and depression that we find in the words of the author of Ecclesiastes (first reading).

But if we dig deeper, we will truly find not only that life has meaning, but also that it is the very vocation of a human being to discover this meaning. Viktor Frankl, who survived the Nazi Auschwitz and saw in person how many victims in the concentration camps found meaning amidst their suffering,

concludes thus: “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.