HE WAS GREATLY PERPLEXED

Qo 1,2-11; Ps 89; Lk 9,7-9
27 SEPTEMBER
True religion, if it is not nourished without interruption, with total constancy, with great assiduity by the true Word of the Lord, is transformed into falsehood, because it is nourished by the rumours of men. Only God is the source of truth. Either man draws the truth in God or he becomes a forger of religion, because he makes himself the forger of the Word of God. One of the characteristics of the life of the community of the origins was the assiduousness to listening.

They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life. Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to one’s need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area. They are their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number (At 2,42-47).

Saint Paul stopped taking care of his communities, because his mission took him elsewhere, and in a few months nothing remained of his announcement. The First Letter to the Corinthians is shocking in this sense. In this community everything had been deformed and falsified.

But if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty (too) is our preaching; empty, too, your faith. Then we are also false witnesses to God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all (1Cor 15,12-19).

Herod does not know what to think because he certainly is not used to being formed and to live in the Law of the Lord, in obedience to a particular divine commandment given to him by Moses in Deuteronomy. The king must also read the Law of his God.

“When you have come into the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you, and have occupied it and settled in it, should you then decide to have a king over you like all the surrounding nations, you shall set that man over you as your king whom the Lord, your God, chooses. He whom you set over you as king must be your kinsman; a foreigner, who is no kin of yours, you may not set over you. But he shall not have a great number of horses; nor shall he make his people go back again to Egypt to acquire them, against the Lord’s warning that you must never go back that way again. Neither shall he have a great number of wives, lest his heart be estranged, nor shall he accumulate a vast amount of silver and gold. When he is enthroned in his kingdom, he shall have a copy of this law made from the scroll that is in the custody of the levitical priests. He shall keep it with him and read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord, his God, and to heed and fulfil all the words of this law and these statutes. Let him not become estranged from his countrymen through pride, nor turn aside to the right or to the left from these commandments. Then he and his descendants will enjoy a long reign in Israel (Dt 17,14-20).

Where there is no formation in the Law, falsehood is always hidden in the heart. The light that comes from God disappears, darkness takes its place. Herod does not know God.

Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying, “John has been raised from the dead”; others were saying, “Elijah has appeared”; still others, “One of the ancient prophets has arisen.” But Herod said, “John I beheaded. Who then is this about whom I hear such things?” And he kept trying to see him.

A severe warning for the Church. An unformed Christian will always return to darkness.

Virgin Mary, Angels and Saints, aroused formers of light to form in the light.