Today’s Scripture Readings

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem.” Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”’

Jesus is warned by some Pharisees to escape because Herod wants to kill him. His response is both courageous and prophetic. He will not be deterred from accomplishing his mission and stays true to God’s plan. Jesus knows that his life and ministry will end in his death in Jerusalem at the appointed time, not before. Just as Herod the Great had failed to kill the infant Jesus, so too, his son, Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, does not have the authority to condemn Jesus to death. This is the work of Pontius Pilate.

Often, we can face obstacles and challenges that can easily dissuade us from doing the work of discipleship: fear, in standing up for a friend falsely accused; laziness, in making time to visit someone who is lonely and in need of our support; reluctance, to listen to the same story being told for the tenth time; forgetfulness, in failing to meet with someone needing our encouragement; or the hundreds of ways we are called to bring the love, healing and joy of Jesus into our world. Like Jesus, we need to acknowledge the obstacles we face, and rather than succumbing to their power, we can choose to stay the course and finish what we have started.

St. Paul battled many obstacles and intense opposition but did not let them stop him from proclaiming the Gospel. He assures us in today’s first reading that nothing ‘in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (Romans 8:39) We can stay the course if we share this same conviction that ‘we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.’