Commentary on the Gospel of September 25, 2025

The Desire to See Jesus

Luke paints a brief picture about the identity of Jesus, even catching Herod’s attention. Almost everyone was in the dark. They saw something extraordinary in Jesus and so compared Him to great figures of the past, like Elijah, or the present, like John. But all of them missed the step of faith. What made Jesus extraordinary was not that He extended the prophetic tradition, but that He fulfilled all that the prophets had spoken—the fullness of God’s revelation.

Herod, who once had some respect for John (though worldly fears led him to kill him), also took an interest in Jesus, about whom he had heard many things. He wanted to see Him. And he did—but only as a prisoner on trial. And all he showed was a sick curiosity, which Jesus answered with complete silence.

It is not enough to hear rumors about Jesus or to want to see Him out of curiosity. We must listen to what He says and look at Him with faith. Only then does hearing and contact bring salvation. Without faith, life becomes sterile, because we set God aside, thinking He can always wait. If we want to bear fruit, we must begin building the temple of God. We already know that this temple is the humanity of Jesus. Listening to His word and seeing Him with the eyes of faith is the concrete way to start building God’s true temple, to make Christ present in our world, in our history, in the place where we live.

Fraternal greetings,