The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today alert us to the difficulty we have to act well when we are operating from a state of disorder in our being.
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| Truth to power |
In the reading from the Prophet Jeremiah he is threatened with death by the religious authorities.
“he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”1
Psalm 69 is a prayer for deliverance from persecution.
* [69:31] That I may praise God’s name in song: the actual song is cited in Ps 69:33–35, the word “praise” in Ps 69:35 referring back to “praise” in Ps 69:31.2
The Gospel of Matthew describes the death of John the Baptist.
* [14:3] Herodias was not the wife of Herod’s half-brother Philip but of another half-brother, Herod Boethus. The union was prohibited by Lv 18:16; 20:21. According to Josephus (Antiquities 18:116–19), Herod imprisoned and then executed John because he feared that the Baptist’s influence over the people might enable him to lead a rebellion.3
Tom Shanahan, S.J. comments that the gospel today confronts us with a grizzly, violent and disturbing drama. Most likely, we will not have to be confronted with the deeply dark levels of activities central to this gruesome history: murder, lying, deadly deception, extreme evil, vicious violence and raucous retribution. But, how about those times that we are met by the push/pull of looking good in the minds of those we know?
What are the incidents of pride that intertwine with our thoughts and actions? We are subject to anger and the call to be less than truthful that menace us from near and far. We can dissemble like Herod, give in to the moment. Or, we can seek to discover and use the God-given gifts at the core of our being.
Loving God, teach us your ways and give us the courage to live faithful to your call to live and love as Jesus taught us and as your Holy Spirit invites us.4
Don Schwager quotes “Integrity is a hardship for the morally corrupt,” by Peter Chrysologus (400-450 AD).
"John aroused Herod by his moral admonitions, not by any formal accusation. He wanted to correct, not to suppress. Herod, however, preferred to suppress rather than be reconciled. To those who are held captive, the freedom of the one innocent of wrongdoing becomes hateful. Virtue is undesirable to those who are immoral; holiness is abhorrent to those who are impious; chastity is an enemy to those who are impure; integrity is a hardship for those who are corrupt; frugality runs counter to those who are self-indulgent; mercy is intolerable to those who are cruel, as is loving-kindness to those who are pitiless and justice to those who are unjust. The Evangelist indicates this when he says, "John said to him, 'It is not lawful for you to have the wife of your brother Philip.'" This is where John runs into trouble. He who admonishes those who are evil gives offense. He who repudiates wrongdoers runs into trouble. John was saying what was proper of the law, what was proper of justice, what was proper of salvation and what was proper certainly not of hatred but of love. And look at the reward he received from the ungodly for his loving concern!" (excerpt from SERMONS 127.6-7)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Jeremiah 26:11-16, 24 notes that confronting people with their sins doesn’t paint the full picture of what it means to be a prophet. Rather, a prophet’s primary role is to point others to the Lord (and yes, sometimes toward the sin that blocks them from him). We see this expressed in Jeremiah’s exhortation: “Listen to the voice of the Lord your God” (Jeremiah 26:13).
You might think, “I’m no prophet!” But that’s not exactly true. You can fulfill your prophetic mission simply by witnessing to God’s work in your life. When you pray for someone’s healing and they recover more quickly than expected, you can say, “It was the Lord” (Jeremiah 26:15). When you are able to forgive and reconcile with a family member who had been hostile to you, you can tell people, “It was the Lord.”6
Friar Jude Winkler notes how the religious authorities acted against Jeremiah and portrayed his words as treason. Herod’s crime warns us to be careful about rash judgements. Friar Jude comments on the number of relics of John the Baptist’s head in Christian sites.
A post by Franciscan Media on Saint Alphonsus Liguori notes his great pastoral reforms were in the pulpit and confessional—replacing the pompous oratory of the time with simplicity, and the rigorism of Jansenism with kindness.
Saint Alphonsus was known above all as a practical man who dealt in the concrete rather than the abstract. His life is indeed a practical model for the everyday Christian who has difficulty recognizing the dignity of Christian life amid the swirl of problems, pain, misunderstanding and failure. Alphonsus suffered all these things. He is a saint because he was able to maintain an intimate sense of the presence of the suffering Christ through it all.7
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Resmaa Menakem, a therapist and trauma specialist whose work focuses on how we carry our pain and fear in our bodies. We pass it along to those around us, and we pass it down from one generation to the next. We cannot hope to bring peace to the world if we are not at peace within ourselves. Menakem explains how we might begin the peacemaking process within our own bodies.
Few skills are more essential than the ability to settle your body. If you can settle your body, you are more likely to be calm, alert, and fully present, no matter what is going on around you. A settled body enables you to harmonize and connect with other bodies around you, while encouraging those bodies to settle as well. Gather together a large group of unsettled bodies—or assemble a group of bodies and then unsettle them—and you get a mob or a riot. But bring a large group of settled bodies together and you have a potential movement—and a potential force for tremendous good in the world. A calm, settled body is the foundation for health, for healing, for helping others, and for changing the world.8
Conflict with power is an opportunity for us to seek calmness and confidence through our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
References
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