So today the struggle for the eternal future of the souls of men and women is being waged between these opposing influences: between the forces that are for God, and those that are hostile or indifferent to him.  But whatever the outcome, no one can dodge their own personal responsibility for the choices they make.

For whether one accepts Our Lord wholeheartedly as one’s Lord and Master, or treats him as an unwanted stranger, one does so of one’s own free will and with one’s eyes open.  And what one does, reveals what one is, just as Herod’s spiritual decline and fall was revealed by his attitude, first to John the Baptist, Christ’s herald, and finally to Christ himself.

So, when all is said and done, people become either God’s servant and disciple or pass a point of no return, and become those to whom God can never mean a thing and who, even if they have gained the whole world, end by losing their own soul.  And when that stage is reached, nothing else remains but for God to recognise and accept, however unwillingly, their freely made choice.  For through Christ, and through his Church, God has said and done everything that he can say and do.

And that was why Jesus before Herod did nothing and said nothing.

Reference

1. Josephus, F. (born 37 AD) trans Whiston, W. (1861) The antiquities of the Jews, 18, 5, 2, Halifax: Milner and Sowerby.