25 September 2014
Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
“Aslan is on the move,” the world of Narnia realizes as their royal Lion, an image of Christ, returns to claim his land again. So too, Jesus is “on the move” in today’s Gospel. Herod is at a loss that Someone as powerful and attractive as the Lord Jesus has come upon the scene. When people tell him that John the Baptist has come back to life, Herod replies, “John I beheaded.” You can hear the mixture of self-satisfaction and shock in his voice. Herod is so unsettled that “he kept trying to see him.”
God wins. Therein lies a central message of the Bible. The world is not stuck in a cosmic tug-of-war between God and the devil, unsure of who will come out victorious. Instead, God’s Son has entered into our existence in order to set it aright. How do we need the assurance of God’s victory in our hearts? In what concrete ways is Jesus “on the move,” seeking to redeem and sanctify us this day?
September 25th, 2014