History That Repeats Its Self…

History That Repeats Its Self…

“17For Herod had sent and seized John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Hero’di-as, his brother Philip’s wife; because he had married her. 18For John said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19And Hero’di-as had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, 20for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he was much perplexed; and yet he heard him gladly. 21But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and the leading men of Galilee. 22For when Hero’di-as’ daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will grant it.” 23And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” 24And she went out, and said to her mother, “What shall I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the baptizer.” 25And she came in immediately with haste to the king, and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” 26And the king was exceedingly sorry; but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. 27And immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard and gave orders to bring his head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, 28and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. 29When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb. ”  ( Mark 6:17)

It is said that those who do not study history, are doomed to repeat it.  Unfortunately, it seems that this is not always true.
Take for instance, Israel, After the Exodus, Moses spent the rest of his whole life watching the fledgling nation fall from the grace of God, sin and error, and he would stand time after time and remind them of all that God had done for them.  Possibly for a  time they would return for a time. They would eventually fall back into sin and error, and then Moses would have to again remind them of what God had done for them, and what they were called to do.

Time has not changed this pattern what so ever.  Jesus would find the disciples falling into error, and He would over and over again teach them, remind them, and tell them the things that they needed to hear, so they understood.

This world, is not our home, but we are called to make it better, to tend to its needs, to work to make it better.  LIke the parable of the talents, we can not afford to just sit back and do nothing, and hide until the Master returns.. believing that He will be pleased that we have kept our faith to ourselves.. that we have done nothing overtly bad…hidden away from as much of the world as we can manage.

No, our world is over run with sin.. murder, abortion, euthenasia, greed, abuses of every type and size, violence, and not one bit of it is new or different.  In the time before Christ, most of these things were being done.  Just like today, there were times in history that these things were even considered right, and socially acceptable !

Consider the case of John the Baptist.  He found himself in a position were he was faced with a choice.  He was asked whether adultery was right, and if he could take his brothers wife for his own pleasure.    We know from scripture that John had moments of faith that was shaken, but in the end John stood firmly in his faith, and spoke the truth to Herod, who quite literally held Johns life in his hand for the entire time.

And lets look at Herod.. Herod was king, and he was not a king of virtue or strength.  We already know he wanted his brothers wife, but at this feast he had the same opportunity that John had, to stand on what was right.  He could have declined his daughters request.  He could have used that opportunity to teach not only his daughter but his subjects and friends about what is right and wrong.  He could have used the opportunity to examine how it is that God would view his actions, as well as his subjects, but instead, he gave in to social pressures.  He gave the example not only to his daughter, but to others that it was fine to do what is pleasurable, and give in to those things that make us feel good for the moment, instead of what is right.

The Herod ordered that John be killed.  His head to be brought before others on a platter, to be mocked and ridiculed, presented as a present to bring joy to his daughter.  It is obvious that the daughter did not really want John’s head, she only wanted to do what pleased her father.

THen there is Herodias, Phillip’s wife, whose sole desire was to do what pleased herself.  She wanted to be with Herod, and John was in the way, and not only was he in the way by telling Herod what was right, she was afraid that Herod might listen, so she removed the obsticles she saw in the way of what she really wanted.

Lets take a modern view of this story.

The culture of death is a plague that is rampant across the world.  Abortions that are performed on demand.  Like the beheading of  John the Baptist, there are children who are gifts from God, but who are murdered, because they are unwanted, unwelcomed as the gifts that they are.  They are killed because they are an inconvenient truth.

We are seeing cases where the elderly, and mentally ill are being murdered or talked into suicide, because society tells them they are not wanted, they are inconvenient, and they are a burden.

THere are those like Herodias, who stand publicly for those who would see this continue, and advance the cause of getting rid of those “inconveniences” fighting to make their brand of sin, “good and right”.   Their hearts black with hedonistic desires.
There are even people who stand in the public square stating publicly their faith in God, while at the same time stating that their faith tells them that what they are doing is right.    This is satan at work in our world.

God and the church do not stand for or teach sin.  The church teaches truth. It teaches that ALL life is sacred from the moment of  conception until natural death.  There is no equivocation, there is no justification, there is no rationalizing.  It is just the truth.
Lastly, there is John.  John who has spent his entire adult life working in the church, leading souls, doing everything that was right and good, yet look at what happens to him !    This is another example for us to take to heart.  John spoke the truth,
no matter what happened he spoke the truth.

In our day to day lives we eventually are faced with choices that come in conflict with our faith.  We are constantly bombarded with demands from parts of society that we live in, to “give in” and give up, and let go of those antiquated beliefs that do not apply in todays world.   Our faith calls for us to make sacrifices, big and small, to live the faith that we profess.  LIke John we may sacrifice some of our freedom to do things.  Like John, we have to be willing to die to the world around us, to die to the “self” and live for Christ.    We have to be willing to give up small things in order to gain the greatest thing.

In the end, on that great day, when we stand before God to render that accounting for ourselves, we will get asked about what we stood for,,,  what we did,,,, and the choices we have made.

” Choose this day whom you will serve.. as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord !”

May God give you courage.. strength… and the gift of His peace !

What is Lawful….. What is right.

Good Morning brothers and sisters !  Peace be with you !

This mornings Gospel is read from St Mark 6:14 -29.    In the reading we hear the story of the beheading of John the Baptist.   Lots of stuff going on in these few lines.   First there is King Herrod who is both not very pleased with John and at the same time intrigued with his messages.   Then there is John who is doing his thing by preaching the Good News.   There is a celebration where the daughter dances.   The daughter who acts just like kid, and the wife who can be painted as angry and bitter or as the wife trying to please her husband.

Herrod, who is sitting there having married the wife of his brother Phillip.  Is being told by John the Baptist that he is wrong, and it is against the law for you to have married your brothers wife.    Now, you have to remember that Herrod is King.  So if Herrod is king.. and the king makes up the law, how is it that its not lawful for Herrod to have what ever he wants ?    It is not the law of the land that John speaks to Herrod about, it is the spiritual law that Moses refers to.

By Jewish law, it is not permitted for a man to marry his brothers wife, while the brother still lives.     Now in modern day this whole thing might never have been an issue since Phillip probably wouldnt have married Herodius, since Herodius was the daughter of his half brother ( making her his neice).      So the daughter spoken of in the Gospel was actually Saolme, the teenaged daughter of  Phillip and Herodius and not the daughter of  King Herrod and Herodius.

Alright, so then now we know that Herrod is mad at John for having the nerve to tell him he cant have Herodius who he already has.   But Herrod does not have him killed because he really wants to hear him.  Someplace in his heart of hearts he knows that what John is saying to him is right and he wants to hear more.

Next comes Salome. There is a great feast, a celebration,  good food, probably some wine.  It was Herrod’s Brithday and he loved to watch Salome dance, and so she did.  She pleased Herrod so much that in the throws of delight he goes overboard in making promises to her about what she could have if she names it.    Like any child (?) the mind probably was racing at the possibilities.   Imagine being offered anything you wanted …. anything.   She went back to consult with her mother, who prompted Salome to ask for the head of John.

You have to wonder at a few things here.   Herodius  was not in love with John since he was the one busy telling Herrod he couldnt have her.   If Herrod disowned Herodious, where would she go ?  She obviously would not be able to go back to Phillp nor did she want to.

Herodius, had tried again and again to get Herrod to do something about John but Herrod refused and just left him in prison.  Herodius seized the opportunity at Herrods promises to get her way.     You really need to ask at this point why things went the way they did.

There was Herrod, who after making the grand speeches of promises to his step daughter in front of everyone, who is now faced with the consequences of his words.

There is Salome, who asked her mother what she thought, got this prompting from her mother under the guise of making Herrod happy.

And then there is Herodius who seems content to do anything necessary to get what she wants.

Lastly, there is John who is there to do the Fathers will, to preach the word of God, to be the one who stands up for what is good regardless of the cost to him.

At some point in our lives we have to stop and take stock of where we are in our lives.  Putting yourself in the role of one of these characters.   It is easy to relate these character traits to some people we know.  Possibly even for ourselves.    In our day to day lives, at home, or at work, is it possible that there is a situation that you may find yourself in.  There is a problem, the situation you find yourself in is not right.  The decisions about how you deal with that problem is also found here.

You can be Herrod, and choose not to deal with it until you are forced to.   When are eventually forced to what path will you take.  The path that you know is right but will cause you to pay some personal cost, or the path that is easy and to give in to what ever you are getting pressured to do.

You can be Salome, who chooses to dance around the issue, to try to delight everyone, and make everyone happy.

Possibly you could be Herodius, who chooses what will get you the most worldly gain from the situation at hand.

The choices we are faced with, the paths we walk, the crosses we bear, and ultimately what we choose and why, are the things that define who we are as people, as Christians.

May the Lord bless us with wisdom and light !

Off with his head !

Brothers and Sisters,

In todays Gospel we hear the story of the beheading of St John the Baptist.    As part of the story, we heard how the kings wife told her daughter to ask the king for John’s head on a platter.    This occurred at a party for the kings birthday, in front of tons of guests and courtiers.    Several things come to mind here.

Many parents can relate to this scenario, where a child who does not know what they want when asked, goes rather shyly to their parents for suggestions and when the gift is probably more than what they can imagine.    After being told some suggestion, the child might go in front of all the guests and ask for something totally off the wall and startles the unsuspecting parent.    Out of the mouths of babes..

It is testament to the fact that no matter how much things change, they still stay the same.   This child asks for a man to be murdered and is not shy about it.     We may think this is totally outlandish and would never happen in todays society.  It was a sign of the times they lived in right ?    I tell you that we are no different today when the world still has Euthenasia,  Abortion, fetal stem cell research, and the death penalty.

What about the parents ?  Have we changed ?  Do we still ask for the death penalty ?   Do we support abortion on demand ?   The mother in the gospel was in bloodlust for Johns head, the father it says was deeply distressed but it did not stop him from fulfilling the wish of the young girl, or asking why she would ask such a thing.      Are we different ?  Have we asked our legislators to put laws into effect to protect life ?  Do we involve ourselves in works of mercy that directly effect these areas of our lives ?

Too often we are presented with opportunities for change, that we are too busy for, or maybe are afraid it will take too much time in our busy days.   ” No greater love has one man for another, than to lay down his life for a friend.  ”  This is not just to trade your life for another who would be dying.  It is said we all die a little each day.  Possibly one of the things we missed was that  we need to give some time for the life of everyone.