And he wanted to see him.

When man began to use his reason, he always wanted to know, hear, and experience. Our time has reached such a stage of technology that we can have news from the opposite corner of the earth in a few minutes. In one area, however, we can see contrasts. We can see, hear, and experience something extraordinary in it, and we are not interested, although we are free and no obstacle stands in our way. It is an encounter with Jesus.

We often speak of Herod with contempt, yet in the Gospel, we are put to shame when the evangelist Luke writes that he wanted to see the Lord Jesus.

Herod, as ruler, learned about Jesus from several sources. Some informers and people surrounded him, so the reports about Jesus varied. Some considered the Lord Jesus to be John the Baptist, whom Herod had beheaded in prison when John’s head was demanded as a gift by the daughter of his illegitimate wife, Herodias.
Others believed that John the Baptist had risen from the dead. They also regarded Christ as Elijah, who likewise taught the nation and astonished them by the works of God done by his hands. Remember the sacrifice on the mountain when he struck down the priests of the god Baal, who numbered 450, and their sacrifice was not burnt, but his.
Others have said that Jesus is undoubtedly a prophet. He acted prudently; his deeds were extraordinary. He often pointed to repentance.
When Herod hears all this, he doesn’t know what to make of it. That John rose from the dead, he does not believe, but when he hears of Christ as a miracle worker when more than one report of his teachings reaches his ears, he wonders: Who then is he that I hear such things spoken of him?

We say of ourselves that we are believers. We have a reason; we have free will. But can we say of ourselves that we know who Jesus Christ is? Do we want to meet him? Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is God. He is the Redeemer and Savior of the world. The second divine person. Philosopher, sage, scholar, politician, revolutionary, humanitarian, etc. But neither answer quite captures the question: Who is Jesus Christ?

That is why we should try to know better the teachings of the Lord Jesus, to keep his commands, to take the time to encounter him when we read the Holy Scriptures, and when we celebrate Mass when we approach the sacraments.

It is a good sign when you feel, sister, brother, that Jesus is not a stranger in your life, but that you seek him, that you want to meet him often, that you have something to say to him in prayer, in contemplation, in meditation, in communion, in the family… Your attitude says that Christ is not only genuinely alive but that he is also alive in your life. It is lovely to feel that God is in my life!

St. Vincent de Paul speaks about his experience in an incident: he was already a priest when he arrived as an enslaved person in Tunis. Pirates captured the ship on which they were sailing. In the August heat, he was digging irrigation canals. He never made any secret of the fact that he was a priest. The master enslaved person hated him for that very reason. Vincent was once told by his fellow slave, a Frenchman, “This is hell!” And Vincent answered him: “No! Wherever God is, there is no hell. And God is here. God knows about us.” Vincent did not know why the Lord God had allowed this to happen to him, but he did not despair. He hadn’t lost his trust in the presence of God, not even when he had been wracked with fever-malaria for three months. Even then, he felt God within him. The bondage ends with the escape. He does not escape alone but with his enslaver, in whom, with the help of his wife, the Mohammedan Fatma, he awakens his conscience and confesses to Vincent that he, too, was a priest and also fell into slavery. Unlike Vincent, however, he could not bear slavery and betrayed God. After the death of his master, he confessed to Allah and became the owner of his estate. Vincent had his conscience reawakened, and he was accepted back into the Church in Avion.

Let us seek God! Let us not silence his voice within us! Even though we know that life with God is often nothing easy or pleasant, it is a fantastic prize, looking at eternal life.

And that is why it pays to take time typically to encounter Christ in the celebration of Mass, approach the sacraments, and pray.