Two-edged Sword

February 06, 2015
Friday, 4th Week in
Ordinary Time
1st reading: Hebrews 13.1-8
Gospel: Mk 6:14–29

King Herod also heard about Jesus because his name had become well-known. Some people said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.” Others thought, “He is Elijah,” and others, “He is a prophet like the prophets of times past.” When Herod was told of this, he thought: “I had John beheaded, yet he has risen from the dead!”

For this is what had happened. Herod had ordered John to be arrested and had him bound and put in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. Herod had married her and John had told him, “It is not right for you to live with your brother’s wife.” So Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted to kill him, but she could not.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)

King Herod thought that by a stroke of an executioner’s sword he could get rid of John who dared to evaluate in public the morality of his lifestyle. Herod was wrong. When he had John’s head on a platter, he became a bothered man for the rest of his life. With so much power in his hands he couldn’t defend himself this time because the enemy he killed could die only once. Had he kept John alive, John could have disturbed him only by day with his preaching. After he killed him, he was bothered down to his spirit both day and night. Nobody can silence God’s preacher for good!

There were times when we too wanted to do get rid of preachers. Just as Herod banished John to prison we banish preachers who bother us by deserting their parishes and by moving to non threatening churches. Just as Herod ordered the beheading of John we decapitate these preachers by maligning their reputation.

Herod and John’s story is lesson to learn for the flock and the shepherds alike. For the flock, the call of today’s gospel is openness to the Word even when the medium is as poor as the priest people hate, or even when the Word itself is disturbing. Preaching necessarily hurts because the Word is a two-edged sword. For the shepherds the call of today’s Gospel is perseverance. Despite resistance preachers should not give up, for the Word is like rain that never returns to the sky until after it has watered parched land.

Here’s more for the shepherds. Preachers shouldn’t be cowed. There are other forms of death that honest preachers undergo. But even if it should come to the point of shedding blood at the pulpit, such death glorifies a preacher and gives him even more power over those who dislike him. Nobody can kill an honest preacher for good. -Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: [email protected]. Website: www.frdan.org.

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