From that moment Herod went steadily downhill, though his conscience remained uneasy for a time over his crime.  When he first heard of Our Lord’s miracles, he was very disturbed, thinking that John the Baptist had returned to life.  Soon, however, this superstitious dread was replaced by the fear that Our Lord’s popularity would lead to riots and, unwilling to stain his hands with the blood of another innocent man, he used threats to get Our Lord to leave his domains.

By the time, however, that Our Lord was sent to him by Pilate, Herod had passed a spiritual point of no return.  The influence of John the Baptist had brought him to the stage when he admired justice and integrity, when he enjoyed the company of a Saint, when his conscience was sufficiently tender to worry him.  But all that was now a thing of the past.  His conscience was dead and all that was left of his religious interests was a casual curiosity.  Though face to face with a greater than John the Baptist, Herod’s sole interest was to see some entertaining miracle, and when this was not forthcoming, the admiration he had shown for John was replaced with jeers and sneers.

What was Our Lord’s attitude to this man who had fallen so tragically short of the promise he had once shown?  He did not speak to him.  Herod had had his chance and he had thrown it away.  By the time Our Lord confronted him it was too late.  Where before John the Baptist had rebuked him, Jesus met him with silence.  Herod’s day of grace was over.