Intriguing, how attitudes can shift—on neurodivergence, gender identities, racial diversity… So let’s consider a different attitude towards Herod. After all, we can learn from anyone. Sure, he’s a murderous thug, but there’s something tantalizing about his words, “John I beheaded. Who then is this about whom I hear such things?”
To flesh that out, we might imagine adding: “Why doesn’t the usual violence work? Frustrating–I thought I was done with that problem! How can this guy who’s almost unknown, powerless, and vulnerable cast doubt on my power and prestige? How can some ragged bunch of hicks, far from the corridors of power, accomplish ‘all that was happening,’ so that murmured rumors grow loud enough to rock the palace?”
Yet the Gospel tells us that Herod kept trying to see Jesus. What does his persistence teach us? Do we keep trying? Do we seek Jesus in the tattooed girl with piercings and green Mohawk? the homilist who can talk only about himself? the prison guard or bureaucrat whose harshness masks inner misery? Or in our ordinary activities and interactions: the traffic jam, the grocery store line, the crowd at the copy machine?
Most of us prefer certainty to perplexity—but Herod, despite his arrogance transforms bewilderment into a path towards Jesus. Isn’t that, after all, where we want to go? Scholars say this passage is a bridge between the departure and return of the Twelve. They’ve been preaching and healing. If the Holy is incarnate everywhere, does Herod too reach blindly towards his part in the Great Drama? And if there’s hope for Herod, maybe too for us…
•Kathy Coffey, “Rethinking the Villain” from the September 25 issue of Give Us This Day giveusthisday.org (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2025). Used with permission.
Retreat at Marillac Center, Leavenworth, KS
The Genius of Jesus, The World of Women–Kathy Coffey
October 13 at 4pm (arrive in afternoon)– October 18 after lunch
For more information or to register,
visit https://www.scls.org/prayer-spirituality/marillac-center/
or contact retreats@scls.org 913-758-6552
Kathy Coffey 