Coffee With God

Reflection: Luke 9: 7-9

Herod Antipas ruled over Galilee and Perea from 4 BC to 39 AD. Although not strictly speaking a ‘king’, Matthew and Mark gave him that title – following popular usage. Herod has recently beheaded John the Baptist. But now he is puzzled because he is being told that Jesus is the same John the Baptist risen from the dead. Herod asks himself who this Jesus is, who is the talk of the town. The person of Jesus often prompted questions of this sort: Who is he? Where does he come from? When Jesus went to the synagogue of Nazareth for the first time, his own native people began to raise similar questions: where did he learn these things? We know him well; he is the carpenter’s son. After Jesus silenced that storm in the sea, Peter and the apostles raised the same question: “Who is this that even the heavens and the earth, the wind, the rain and even the storms obey him? Who is he?” These questions may be asked out of curiosity. Have we ever asked ourselves this question? Who is Jesus to me? How do I know him? We do know the answers – in the Bible, through the sacraments, in prayer. Pope Francis reflects on this passage and says that we come to know a lot about Jesus in the Catechism, and we should study it. However, the fact remains that knowing about Jesus through the Catechism “is not enough”: knowing him with the mind is a step in the right direction, but “in order to know Jesus, we need to enter into a dialogue with him. By talking with him, in prayer, on our knees. If you don’t pray, if you don’t talk to Jesus,” he said, “you don’t know him”. The Pope in his reflection also speaks of a third way to know Jesus: “It is by following him, by going with him, by walking with him along the road of his ways”. If you know Jesus with these three languages: of mind, heart and action, then you can say that you know Jesus”. Therefore, in order truly to know him, it is necessary to read “what the Church tells us about him, to speak with him in prayer and to walk along the path of his ways with him”. This is the road, and everyone has a decision to make.