How Not to Be!

Thursday, August 29, 2024

Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist!

1 Cor 1:1-9; 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 its prophetic mission. 

2. Herod also feared John 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. 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. 

4. Herod liked to listen to John. He was a silent admirer of the latter’s prophetic message.  

In sum, Herod had all that would have made him a disciple of John the Baptist. But where was he lost? He was 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 took a toll on him.

Often enough, sin so disables the self that, over time, reluctance replaces the willingness to act upon the sinful acts that we might even hate. Conversion results from a combination of disposition and committed action to right one’s wrongs. Anything short of the two only amounts to a person’s failure. 

Because Herod’s moral life was weakened by hesitation and indecisiveness, even John the Baptist could not help his conversion. 

We learn from Herod how not to be a sinner who could never act upon his remorse. 

Let us pray for the grace to safeguard ourselves against the very flaws that cost Herod’s conversion and a life of discipleship!

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar