Reflection on Today's Gospel

Luke 9: 7-9

Today’s gospel tells us that Herod kept trying to see Jesus. You would think that as king he could easily have sent out his guards to seize Jesus and force him into his presence.

But it doesn’t work that way. We can’t force him and he won’t force us. If we want to “see” Jesus then we need to answer His invitation and enter into His presence. But what is it to be present to someone? We can be in the same room with someone, live in the same house for years and yet not be present to them. There is a mutuality involved with being present. There is a communication or better yet a communion when we are present one to another, and it can happen even in complete silence.

Herod had John the Baptist, a voice crying out in the wilderness of his own heart, to point the way to Jesus and he had him beheaded. Did he really want to be in the presence of the Christ? Was he afraid, afraid of being condemned; afraid of being challenged; afraid of needing to change?

Who is pointing the way for us? Who are the voices of those crying out in the wilderness of our hearts “prepare the way of the Lord!” Who is calling us to change? Whose voices invite us to His presence? Can we see them and recognize them? Or do we, like Herod, condemn them because they make us uncomfortable or worse act as if they didn’t exist.

I think we know who they are. They are the hungry children of the world; they are the homeless; the alcoholic and the drug addicted we step over at the entrance to the subway; they are the mentally ill who talk gibberish on the street corner. He is present in all the faceless strangers we pass every day. He is there in their sadness, in their loneliness, their grief and despair.

If we really want to see Jesus then we have to start looking in the places from which we usually turn away and listen to the voices we usually shut out.

Lord, send me someone to serve in your name today, help me to recognize the need, the courage to act upon it and the wisdom to speak as you would. Amen.