Being Messengers of Truth!

Saturday, August 2, 2025

Lev 25: 1, 8-17; Mt 14: 1-12

Today’s Gospel highlights the cost of being messengers of truth through the martyrdom of John the Baptist.

John’s life and martyrdom help us with compelling insights for reflection. 

1. If John the Baptist had wanted, he could have been a people pleaser and befriended Herod, the ruler of the land. However, his commitment to speak out the truth endangered his very life. But John made no compromises with speaking the truth, though it discomforted many. John’s vocation could be summed up in being a messenger of truth till the end of his life. 

2. Mark 6:14-29 describes Herod’s attitude towards John. ‘Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. [Herod] he liked to listen to him [John]’ (v. 20). But Herod’s high regard for John did not prevent the prophet from saying what he ought to. By exemplifying moral courage and prophetic integrity, John refused to be silenced by fear or flattery. The straightforwardness of John did not change his message according to the audience, though in his case it happened to be the ruler of the land. 

3. John’s clarity regarding his prophetic mission is amazing. Sr. Joan Chittister throws light on what can come in the guise of goodness. She affirms, ‘Never confuse goodness and acceptability, goodness and conformity, goodness and piety. They are dangerous confusions.’ In light of this distinction, we discover that for John, moral integrity was about being right in the eyes of God and not seeking approval from mortals. John’s faithfulness to God empowered him to fight and die for truth. 

Let us pray that, like John, we may choose moral integrity over cheap popularity and be faithful messengers of truth in the world. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar