When Herod had heard John speak he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him

In today’s first reading, the prophet Jeremiah is almost put to death because he spoke God’s Word to the people, a word they didn’t want to hear because it required them to change their ways.

In today’s gospel reading, John the Baptist, another prophet, is put to death because he spoke God’s Word to Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee, a word he didn’t want to hear, because it would have required him to change his ways.

So, both readings show that God’s ways are often in conflict with human ways. What God asks of us can sometimes be heard as too demanding from a human point of view.

Of course all these used to happened long time ago for the people of both – Old & New Testament. And I think that today is not different. That’s our daily life as well: sometimes we will hear Jesus’ Word as demanding and disturbing; He can set the bar very high indeed. At other times, we will hear Jesus’ Word as reassuring and comforting; he reveals God to be merciful and patient with human weakness.

For me the first message of today’s gospel sounds: Behind every word Jesus spoke, both the demanding and the consoling words, stands the love of God for the world.

In fact Herod was fighting with himself, you know… inside… Herod didn’t hate John. He got a clear message from him and he respected this message, he recognized it as a truth… BUT it wasn’t easy message. In today’s gospel we can see that Herod is pressured to do what he doesn’t want to do because he is afraid of doing the right thing. He is overwhelmed by the hate in the heart of Herodias and, as a result, gives in to the execution of John whom he actually appeared to like and enjoyed listening to.

And this case brings to us also another message hidden in the gospel: Look… normally we seek to be inspired by the good example of others. BUT when anger appears and grows it causes deep passion, so much so that it clouds a person’s thinking and reason. Hate and revenge can consume a person and lead to complete foolishness.

I think that today we should use the witness of John’s execution as an opportunity to look at any struggles we have with anger, resentment and maybe with hate (if there is any hatred in us). Let us ask ourselves today of how good is our ability to forgiveness to others.

Let us try to keep the light we have received in baptism shining brightly, regardless of the circumstances in which we might find ourselves.