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1.Jeremiah
1:17-19
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2.Mark
6:17-29
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MEDITATIONS
AND REFLECTIONS
" The call to
stand for the truth of Christ even at the cost of our lives"
John the Baptist having
been called by God he became the herald and forerunner of Jesus, the Messiah.
From his late teenage years he was directed by the spirit to lead an austere
and contemplative life in the desert until he was thirty years of age when he
begun to discharge his mission as the preacher of reform and renewal.
Clothed in the robes of penance, he
invited his people to have their sins washed away by repentance and baptism in
the Jordan; he proclaimed the messiah who was coming among them. He was
respected by people as a true prophet of God, and his voice rang out with a
clear summons to moral and religious reform. John's message angered king Herode
and his wife Herodias, the wife of Herod's brother Philip, with whom he lived
in defiance of the Jewish law. The issue that caused the controversy between
John the Baptist and Herode was the scandal of an incest and adultery committed
by Herode and Herodias, his brother's wife, it is under this background that
Herode imprisoned John the Baptist.
Promise in our lives is
part and parcel of our daily experience. We may find that majority on their
daily basis associations they do make a lot of promises a thing that is
considered to be good in itself. Nonetheless, promise sometimes is made to be
broken. Yes we ought to keep our promises. But if the promise refers to
something wrong or unjust, then we have no time and obligation to keep that
promise, we have to break it. We should not let our promises break our
relationship with others or destroy the well being of our fellow human beings.
In the case of Herode, actually, he did not want to kill St. John because he
had certain veneration for him. However, he was trapped by his rash oath. He
made an oath to the daughter of Herodias to please the audience forgetting the
safety of the life of John the Baptist.
Herodias, on the other
hand, took the advantage of the weakness of Herod. Her intent was malicious and
wicked. Herode has no choice but to save his face and avoid shame from those
who were invited to the banquet.
In our today's world we
are not far from the situation of Herod and John the Baptist. How many times
have we witnessed some people taking advantage of the predicament, ignorance,
and weakness of others in order to pursue or preserve self-serving objectives
and interests. It is such kind of attitude that destroys our country's chances
for economic development. It is this kind of attitude that breaks up families
and leaves many communities without peace. It is this sort of attitude that
destroys other people's lives. The promises we tend to make should be in
accordance with our capacity. The promise should not be made to amuse the
audience, rather it should be made in accordance with our capacity.
It is not easy to tell
the truth to people who seem to be our close friends, relatives or
employers. We tend to love those people
who speak things that seem to please us or to tell them things that seem to
please them. It has happened to some occasions that others fear to tell the truth simply because if they
do so they may lose their job position or promotions or may not get financial
support that they need. One British convert to Catholicism, writer and poet,
said: " I don't want a church that tells me when I am right. I want a
church that tells me when I am wrong." Let us ask the Holy spirit so that
we can see the truth and judge our intentions according to His guiding light.
In the readings more
especially the gospel, it is an invitation to us all to please God in the first
place than to please our close friends. We are invited not to take a stand on
wrong things when we know the right.
Taking a stand on wrong things is an impression of weakness and cowardice. We
do not need to fear death as the love of Christ is stronger than death.
Hakuna maoni:
Chapisha Maoni