The first reading is taken from the Book of Ecclesiastes. Most biblical scholars conclude that its author is someone known as Qoheleth, a Hebrew word meaning "preacher", "teacher", or a collector of sayings". Qoheleth mentions a relentless series of events and images which conjures up feelings of endless sameness. One generation succeeds another endlessly; the sun rises and sets each day; the wind keeps blowing, now from one direction and then from another; the rivers keep flowing to the sea but never fill it; we keep explaining but never really say anything; we keep seeing and hearing, but we never learn what it is all about. The whole enterprise of what we know as life is nothing but vanity. Everything seems the same, and there is nothing really new.

As Jesus expanded His mission to different parts of Israel, it drew the attention of more and more people, including Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee. On hearing "all that was being done" by Jesus, Herod became curious and alarmed when he learned that some people were saying that Jesus was John the Baptist who had risen from the dead or that He was the prophet Elijah who had reappeared. Little did Herod realise that with the coming of Jesus, there was something, or rather someone, new in the world. From now on, there would be a change in how humanity understood life. Life would no longer be a senseless and endless cycle of events ending in death. With Jesus, the newness of life had begun!