FIRST READING: Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun? One generation passes and another comes, but the world forever stays. The sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place where it rises. Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north, the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds. All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they go, the rivers keep on going. All speech is labored; there is nothing man can say. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear filled with hearing. What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!” has already existed in the ages that preceded us. There is no remembrance of the men of old; nor of those to come will there be any remembrance among those who come after them. - Ecclesiastes 1:2-11

RESPONSORIAL PSALM: But humans you return to dust, saying, “Return, you mortals!” A thousand years in your eyes are merely a yesterday. Before a watch passes in the night, you have brought them to their end; They disappear like sleep at dawn; they are like grass that dies. It sprouts green in the morning; by evening it is dry and withered. Teach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Relent, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! Fill us at daybreak with your love, that all our days we may sing for joy. May the favor of the Lord our God be ours. Prosper the work of our hands! Prosper the work of our hands! - Psalm 90:3-17

HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT LUKE

Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying, “John has been raised from the dead”; others were saying, “Elijah has appeared”; still others, “One of the ancient prophets has arisen.” But Herod said, “John I beheaded. Who then is this about whom I hear such things?” And he kept trying to see him. - Luke 9:7-9

REFLECTION

“A longing to see Christ”
by Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
Bishop, Doctor of the Church

John says: «We announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested in us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you (1Jn 1,2-3). Let Your Charity pay heed: «What we have seen and heard we announce to you.» They saw the Lord himself present in the flesh, and they heard words from the Lord’s mouth, and they announced them to us. We also have heard, then, but we haven’t seen. Are we therefore less fortunate than those who saw and heard? And why does [John] add: «So that you also may have fellowship with us»? They saw; we didn’t see, and yet we are in fellowship because we maintain a common faith.

To the disciple who wished to touch and thus to believe, the Lord – consoling us who are unable to touch him with our hand as he is now seated in heaven, although we can touch him by faith – said, «Blessed are those who do not see and who believe» (Jn 20:29). It is we who were described, we who were designated. May there be in us, then, the blessedness that the Lord foretold would come to be! Let us hold firmly onto what we don’t see, because those who have seen it are announcing it so that we also may have fellowship with them and so that «our joy may be full» (v.4).