Seeing Jesus

Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Sir 36: 18 Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for you, that your prophets be found true. Hear the prayers of your servant, and of your people Israel.

Collect Look upon us, O God, Creator and ruler of all things, and, that we may feel the working of your mercy, grant that we may serve you with all our heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Ecclesiastes 1:2-11; Psalm 89; Luke 9:7-9

Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed, because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. But Herod said, I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about? And he was eager to see him. (Luke 9:7-9)

Seeing Jesus We read in the Gospel of St John that before our Lord began his public ministry, John the Baptist saw him coming to him and said — obviously to certain others — that the one approaching him was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He was the one whom he, John, was sent to make known to Israel, and on him he had seen the Spirit descend like a dove. Jesus would baptize not with mere water, but with the Holy Spirit. So Christ’s identity and the essentials of his mission were announced (John 1:29-34). The “next day” he pointed him out again, this time to two of his disciples. He was encouraging them to follow him, which they did. The two heard about Jesus from John, saw him, followed him, and entered into his personal friendship. They came, they saw, and they were conquered. Andrew brought his brother Simon to Jesus, and Simon was told by Christ of his future vocation and mission. Philip was invited to follow him, and he did so immediately. At Philip’s invitation, Nathanael came, and was won over entirely: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel (the Messiah)!” That is to say, Christ’s first manifestation evoked the response of faith, and John’s account implies that that stood to reason. But it was not long before the opposite response showed itself. On his cleansing of the Temple in Jerusalem, the leaders of the Jews challenged his authority, demanding signs to prove it. So it is that the Gospels portray the revelation of the Son of God to the people, and the profoundly mixed response to this revelation. There were divine signs. At the wedding feast of Cana, Christ worked the miracle of the water being changed into wine. The disciples saw his glory and believed in him. Others saw signs, and did not believe in him. The response of those who heard of him, who saw him and who listened to him, was governed very largely by their prior moral dispositions. We are reminded of the parable of the sower sowing his seed. The power of the seed to produce the harvest was dependent on the quality of the soil on which it fell.

Our Gospel today (Luke 9:7-9) is a case in point. Herod Antipas heard about Jesus. In fact, he heard a good deal about him. Luke writes that he “heard all (panta) the things (that were) happening”. John the Baptist had been a great voice in the land, a voice that had come right into Herod’s presence to denounce his union with Herodias. That voice had been silenced, and yet out of nowhere another had suddenly sounded, and one far greater than John’s. Indeed, in the previous chapter Luke mentions that Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, was among Christ’s traveling band. She was among those who “ministered to them out of her possessions” (Luke 8: 3). Perhaps some of Chuza’s pay from his service as manager of Herod’s household was finding its way through his wife to the support of Christ. But Herod was simply perplexed. There was nothing in him of the moral inclination towards the person of Jesus, as was evident in the wife of his own steward. Herod was puzzled, intrigued, curious, mystified. Who was this person he was hearing about? What did he look like, and how did he perform? Probably he had heard from Chuza that Joanna, whom he would have known, had been healed from a serious ailment (Luke 8: 2) and was entirely devoted to the great prophet. Indeed, she was busily supporting him. In fact, Herod was hearing all sorts of things. Some were saying he was John the Baptist back from the grave, others that he was Elijah or one of the prophets come back. There was no denying the distinction of the One now being spoken of. And so, we read, “Herod sought to see him” (Luke 9:9). Herod was like so many who are and have been curious about Jesus. But his desire to see Jesus was utterly and completely fruitless. It led to nothing, and when he finally did see Jesus, Jesus would not speak to him. As our Lord said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. A right and good heart is necessary to see God, and Jesus Christ is God. Herod’s case was virtually hopeless, so sunk in sin was he. Or again, we may think of the tragic case of Judas who “saw” Christ daily, and yet whose moral decay led him to lose the sight of him, on to his doom.

Let us be filled with the desire to see Jesus. Our life’s goal is to see Jesus. We ought understand life’s supreme moment, which is death, as the moment when we go forth to see Jesus. But we shall only see him if we work hard, consistently and with the aid of God’s grace, to achieve purity of heart. We must put on the mind of Christ and become like him. In this way shall we be such as to be admitted forever into his presence. Let us take our stand with Jesus, and live consistently each day according to that stand.

(E.J.Tyler)

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