REFLECTION:

Being in a parish, and especially a parish with a school, I hear a lot of names. A parishioner will come up to me and say, “Father, you remember so-and-so?” And I’m thinking, Nope. Never met them in my life. But of course, I try to look like I know who they’re talking about. “Ohhh…yeah…” Then they start telling me, “They used to sit over there. They were involved in this ministry. Their family has been here forever.” And slowly I’m putting the pieces together.

Same thing at the school. A teacher will mention a student or a parent: “You know so-and-so?” And I’m thinking, I have over a thousand names to learn between the church and school. Give me a little time!

But then sometimes they mention a name I actually know, and immediately it clicks: “Oh! Yes! I know them!”

There’s a big difference between hearing someone’s name, hearing stories about them, and actually knowing them.

That’s basically Herod in today’s Gospel. Herod keeps hearing about this man named Jesus. Everybody is talking about Him. Some people say, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead.” Others say, “It’s Elijah!” Others say, “One of the ancient prophets has come back!”

Poor Herod is probably thinking, Okay, can somebody just tell me who this guy is?

Finally he asks, “Who then is this about whom I hear such things?” And Scripture tells us that Herod kept trying to see Jesus. He had heard about Jesus. He knew the stories. He knew what other people were saying about Him. But he didn’t really know Jesus. And maybe that’s the challenge for us.

Because many of us have heard about Jesus our whole lives. We know the stories. We know Christmas. We know Good Friday and Easter. We know some prayers. We come to Mass. Some of us went to Catholic school for years. We can know a lot about Jesus without really knowing Jesus.

And our first reading from Ecclesiastes reminds us, “Vanity of vanities.” Everything else comes and goes. The things we chase after, the things we collect, even the things we think are so important right now—eventually they pass. But our relationship with God remains.

So maybe Herod’s question should become our question today: “Who is this Jesus I keep hearing about?” Not, “Who does Father say Jesus is?” Not, “Who did my religion teacher say Jesus is?” Not even, “Who does my family say Jesus is?” Who is Jesus to me?

Maybe our prayer today can be very simple: “Jesus, I don’t want to just hear about you. I don’t want to just know things about you. I want to know you.”

Because there is a big difference between recognizing someone’s name……and actually knowing the person.