Wednesday, September 21, 2016

25th Week, Ordinary Time, Thursday, 22-09-16

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 / Luke 9:7-9

The meaning of "Déjà Vu" is that it is a common intuitive experience that has happened to many of us. The expression is derived from the French, meaning "already seen." When it occurs, it seems to spark our memory of a place we have already been, a person we have already seen, or an act we have already done.

We may have been to many places and seen many things and met many people. But there are occasions when we thought we have already seen a place or a thing, or met this person before somewhere, and now we have this feeling of familiarity or similarity, although the setting is different.

The 1st reading has this to say: What was will be again, what has been done will be done again, and there is nothing new under the sun.

As much as we may already seen many things and met many people, whenever a feeling of familiarity or similarity arises, could it be that God is telling us something?

In the gospel, when Herod heard about Jesus and all that He was doing, he had a feeling of familiarity and similarity about it.

He was puzzled, because some people were saying that John had risen from the dead, others that Elijah had reappeared, still others that one of the ancient prophets had come back to life.

Herod would have heard about Elijah and those ancient prophets. He knew who John was since it was he who ordered his execution. So there was something familiar about Jesus.

Indeed Jesus is familiar. Yet He is also showing us something new as He reveals Himself to us.

As into the sea all the rivers go, and yet the sea is never filled, we will never have enough of what Jesus is showing us. May our hearts be open to receive Him as He reveals Himself to us.