Gospel Delights!

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist!

Jer 1:17-19; Mk 6:17-29

In today’s gospel, we find Herod becoming the example of how, without a deliberate effort toward an act of conversion, any external influence could remain powerless. 

1.Though Herod was a ruler, when John the Baptist warned him about his unlawful marriage with Herodias, he did not silence the prophet. He lets the dissenting voice continue his prophetic mission. 

2. Herod also feared John the Baptist because he was righteous and holy. His ‘holy fear’ points to some marginal ‘remnants’ of his religiosity. 

3. Herod’s heart was stirred whenever he listened to John the Baptist. He was perplexed because he was leading a kind of life that the prophet preached against. His behaviour also suggests a remote possibility for his well-meaning remorse, but one on which he never acted upon. 

4. Herod liked to listen to John the Baptist. He was a kind of silent admirer of the prophetic message.  

In short, Herod had all that would have made him a disciple of John the Baptist. But where is he lost? He is lost in his indecisiveness. He did not have the courage to correct what the prophet alerted him to. The prophet’s warning comes in addition to his own realization about what he did. Still, his hesitation and indecisiveness take a toll on him. 

Often enough, sin so disables the self that in course of time, reluctance replaces the willingness to act upon what we might hate as something sinful. Conversion results from a combination of disposition and committed action to right one’s wrongs. Anything short of the two amounts to a person’s failure. Herod is an unmistakable example of it. 

 Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar