(Jeremiah 26: 11-16, 24 / Psalm 69 / Matthew 14: 1-12)
Today’s gospel is about the beheading of John the Baptist. If you remember, John was beheaded for telling Herod that it wasn’t lawful for him to have his brother’s wife. Herod divorced his first wife and married Herodias, his brother’s wife, while his brother was still alive. Herodias was truly an evil woman who did not want her position as queen to be jeopardized by John the Baptist’s accusations. She used her own young daughter to dance immodestly before Herod, in attempt to gain an advantage over him, to get him to kill John the Baptist. It worked. For a while. Herodias retained her position as queen and remained in an unlawful marriage without John the Baptist calling attention to her sin anymore, but we sure wouldn’t want to be in her shoes now. She may have sacrificed her eternal life for the sake of a few years of power and pleasure on earth.
Herod is another story entirely. It didn’t take much convincing for him to agree to have John the Baptist beheaded. The gospel said that, “Although he wanted to kill him, (John the Baptist), he feared the people, for they regarded him as a prophet.” Herod didn’t want to kill John, but he gave in during a moment of weakness.
This is such a huge lesson for all of us, how easy it is to compromise our beliefs. In a moment of peer pressure Herod went against his better judgement and had the greatest prophet that ever lived, killed. The same thing can also sneak up on the best of us, if we let our guard down.
In our modern times, living together without the benefit of marriage is becoming more and more culturally acceptable, 40% of babies are born to unwed mothers, multiple divorces and remarriages are also accepted, and the laws of our countries are being manipulated to call civil unions marriage too. The lines on morality are becoming more and more blurred. We are accepting things by degrees that John the Baptist would not have ever tolerated. This is really a difficult thing to face. That’s not to point the fingers at anyone, because many of us may have varying degrees of accepting immorality.
It’s hard to take a stand against immorality, because sometimes we run the risk of alienating our own family and friends. Parents love their adult children and do not want to alienate them from their lives. Young people have friends that live together and they value their friendship. Middle aged couples struggle with so many problems, stresses and pressures raising their families that divorces are very common. Only 25% of children grow up in a two parent home with both biological parents in some of our more developed countries. Single seniors have the fastest growing rates of sexually transmitted diseases now, because of the dating scene after a spouse dies.
This sounds pretty depressing doesn’t it? The first reading for mass also sounds pretty depressing too at first glance. The priests and prophets were trying to kill the prophet Jeremiah for speaking out against the sins of the people, on God’s behalf. They were attempting to put him to death for it. But, then a miracle occurred. Because of Jeremiah’s unwavering, honest testimony to God’s laws, the people changed their mind. They recognized the truth in Jeremiah’s words. Jeremiah was willing to allow them to kill him, rather than betray God and not speak out against their sins. The people listened, and changed their mind. They recognized the truth.
That’s really enough to think about for the rest of the day, how easy it is for us to compromise our values for the sake of getting along with others, or out of fear of losing their love or friendship. Our acceptance of sin can creep in so gradually that we hardly notice we are doing it. The prophet Jeremiah and John the Baptist show us a better, yet more difficult way in the scriptures today. How hard it would be for us to follow in their footsteps. But, we should at least consider the example of their lives. God’s words are given to us for a reason, not to make things more difficult for us, but to ensure that we all make it safely to our Father’s kingdom.
