[Today’s readings are
very apropos as they come on a day when Pope Francis, the Vicar of Christ and
head of the Catholic Church (his Mystical Body) will address a joint session of
Congress on his Apostolic Visit to the United States]. It is interesting to
note in the gospel passage how civil authority, even the civil authority of the Romans, desires to
peer into the mysteries of truth, (whether
intentionally or unintentionally), real truth as it is manifested in Jesus Christ.
“Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening and was greatly
perplexed…and he kept trying to see him.” It is not so unlikely that this
should happen. Those in authority are human beings too, with a human being’s
curiosity and intellectual bent on getting to the bottom of an issue. Jesus was
a mystery to be solved; but he was more than that he was the very “mystery of
God” made flesh. This mystery is a mystery rooted in love, in justice, in
peace, in human helpfulness. It is when the civil authority goes to the heart
of the matter: to love, justice, peace and human helpfulness as they originate
and emanate from God that they can right appreciate, understand and use them.
We pray today that civil authority – while on the one hand
touts a politically correct, generic form of human interrelations – bases all
of these things at the very least on the very real natural law planted in their
hearts no matter who they are: a law of love, justice, peace and human
helpfulness: which of course is based on the supernatural law from which they
come.
I am the way and the truth and the
life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father except through me; just being a “good generic citizen”
is not going to get you to heaven, there must be more to it than that: as God’s
children, there is! Be a true child of
your Father in heaven, today!
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