for September 24
Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week of Ordinary Time

Where shall we look to understand all that is happening around us? Back, or forward?

In chapter nine of Luke, Herod the Tetrarch’s head-scratching moment comes sandwiched between stories of Jesus sending out the Twelve disciples to preach and to heal and the story of their return and report to him, which continues on into more preaching and healing and even blessing five loaves and two fish so that a little food feeds a crowd.

And Herod just doesn’t get it. With today’s first, familiar reading from Ecclesiastes ringing in our ears, it’s hard not to notice that when Herod hears ‘all that was happening’, he looks backward for an explanation: to the prophets of old, perhaps, or Elijah or even John, who he just beheaded. 

There’s an strong contrast between these two reporting situations: Herod hears and looks back; Jesus hears what his disciples have done and goes forward to do even more powerful works.

As world-weary as it sounds, Ecclesiastes is not without hope in what lies ahead: “sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place where it rises.” Yes, at the end of some days, there is nothing left to do but go to bed knowing that tomorrow is also a day, that the sun will come up tomorrow.

(My apologies for planting that earworm from Annie in your head. Wisdom can echo in many places, even Broadway musicals).

Herod looks back, but gains no understanding. If we turn our eyes forward, then the psalmist’s prayer can become our own: “fill us at daybreak with your kindness, that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.”
—BJ Brown

Today’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.