hatred, disguised under the name of zeal, and covered with the specious pretext of observance of the law, was the first movement of the persecution which the Pharisees and the priests raised against the Son of God.  Let us fear lest the same passion should blind us!  Wretched passion, exclaims St. Bernard, which spreads the venom of its malignity even over the most lovely of the children of men, and which could not see a God upon earth without hating Him!  A hatred not only of the prosperity and happiness, but what is yet more strange, of the merit and perfection of others!  A cowardly and shameful passion, which, not content with having caused the death of Jesus Christ, continues to persecute Him by rending His mystical body, which is the Church; dividing His members, which are believers; and stifling in their hearts that charity which is the spirit of Christianity!  Behold, my brethren, the subtle temptation against which we have to defend ourselves, and under which it is but too common for us to fall!

A Redeemer reviled and mocked in the palace of Herod by the impious creatures of his court!  This was, without doubt, one of the most sensible insults which Jesus Christ received.  But do not suppose, Christians, that this act of impiety ended there.  It has passed from the court of Herod, from that prince destitute of religion, into those even of Christian princes.  And is not the Savior still a subject of ridicule to the libertine spirits which compose them?  They worship Him externally, but internally how do they regard His maxims?  What idea have they of His humility, of His poverty, of His sufferings?  Is not virtue either unknown or despised?  It is not a rash zeal which induces me to speak in this manner; it is what you too often witness, Christians; it is what you perhaps feel in yourselves; and a little reflection upon the manners of the court will convince you that there is nothing that I say which is not confirmed by a thousand examples, and that you yourselves are sometimes unhappy accomplices in these crimes.

Herod had often earnestly wished to see Jesus Christ.  The reputation which so many miracles had given Him, excited the curiosity of this prince, and he did not doubt but that a man who commanded all nature might strike some wonderful blow to escape from the persecution of His enemies.  But the Son of God, who had not been sparing of His prodigies for the salvation of others, spared them for Himself, and would not say a single word about His own safety.  He considered Herod and his people as profane persons, with whom he thought it improper to hold any intercourse, and he preferred rather to pass for a fool than to satisfy the false wisdom of the world.  As His kingdom was not of this world, as He said to Pilate, it was not at the court that He designed to establish Himself.  He knew too well that His doctrine could not be relished in a place where the rules of worldly wisdom only were followed, and where all the miracles which He had performed had not been sufficient to gain men full of love for themselves and intoxicated with their greatness.  In this corrupted region they breathe only the air of vanity; they esteem only that which is splendid; they speak only of preferment:  and on whatever side we cast our eyes, we see nothing but what either flatters or inflames the ambitious desires of the heart of man.