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”.

Not because he was moved by their teachings.

Why he has to see Jesus in person. John and Jesus haunted him.

This was the case of King Herod. He was held captive by his own insecurity.

 

Sts. Cosmas & Damian, martyrs

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11

All is meaningless-says

The Teacher-meaningless, meaning less!

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 ：

"Truth prevails."

Truth will always come out. One can imprison or even kill the agent of truth but truth itself cannot be put behind bars or be buried six feet underground. Today's Gospel narrates Herod's anxiety. He very well knew that he ordered the beheading of John the Baptist on account of the request of Herodias' daughter.

 

However, people were then saying that Jesus was John the Baptist who came back to life. Herod was anxious perhaps because he thought that he already put an end to the truth-teller who was John. Now then, there was another agent of truth who was gaining popularity after Herod put John the Baptist to death.

 

This new truth-teller was Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus would be the truth-teller par excellence, whose death and resurrection exposed the world's enslavement to lies and falsehood. As followers of the truth-teller par excellence, we are challenged to be the present-day truth-tellers. We are called to counteract the prevailing culture of falsehood characterized by fake news and disinformation disseminated both through online and onsite platforms.