As bright as the Sun in Palm Springs

Albert Einstein once said, “Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” The question here is who determines what we are or how valuable we are. People’s conclusions of us often reveal how we plan and exhibit our externals. The way we dress, relate, talk and walk about act as indicators for people who see us to brand as good, better, best or bad, worse or worst. Oscar Wilde once said, “A cynic knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.” People equate value with price. Charge more and you will be valued more. Reducing prices makes you a commodity. Increasing prices makes you a luxury.

God is the only person who knows what we are and who we are. A husband can never know everything about his wife, and a wife can never understand her husband fully. This knowledge factor is applied to any relationship in this world. Our knowledge of other people does not depend on how much a person is trying to reveal rather how much we try to open our hearts to the other. In today’s Gospel Jesus reveals the true character of Herod: Fox. Herod’s most marked characteristic was unscrupulous cunning. Whatever position we hold, how much ever we studied, our true character is known to God as bright as the sun in Palm Springs.

‘Go and tell that fox’ indicates another important mandate for all the missionaries. Missionaries announce Good News to people. The missionary mandate of Jesus starts with the same tone, ‘Go and tell’. Here, Jesus wants the Good News to be announced to a fox: a cruel, treacherous, unworthy human being – in other words: a sinner. This is one of the attempts of Jesus to make Herod realize how completely Jesus knows him and his cunning behaviors, thus calls him for conversion.

Good News comes to us day after day, making us realize who we are and how little we are in the presence of God. Once we know and realize how vulnerable we are, we would certainly put our efforts together in returning to God through conversion. If God were to define our personality, what word or words would he use? We can never remain a secret. God knows us and shares his Good News with us.