WHAT IS OUR REACTION?

T.S. Eliot famously wrote in The Four Quartets, “The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”

The reactions to John’s preaching, his unabashedly proclaiming the kingdom of God at hand at the Jordan, and speaking the truth to Herod concerning his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, sparks two distinct reactions. Herod is perplexed. Despite John’s condemnation of his marriage, and Herod being put off by John’s judgements against him, he likes to listen to John’s preaching. Herodias’ response is hatred toward John’s preaching. She seeks any opportunity to seize the moment to rid herself of John’s preaching, and she capitalizes on Herod’s rash oath.

The death of John the Baptist is marked by the noise of his absence. The herald of Jesus as the Christ known as a voice crying in the desert. How ironic, that his death occurs during a worldly birthday party with music and dancers. He is quite “present” but not in person, and he has no opportunity for final words before Herod and his guests. It seems, we can almost sense and feel Herod’s insides turning, as he finds himself caught up in the energy of the moment, cornered into having to fulfill the rash oath he is seduced into making.

Mark’s account of the death of John the Baptist takes place amid the disciples’ first mission to preach, returning with a report of how pleased they are at what they have done and taught (Mk 6:30). In their excitement and joy, they speak of the values shared in our reading from Hebrews. Values of mutual love for one another, hospitality, mindfulness of prisoners and those who suffer, and keeping marriage sacred. Yet, in the last two verses we hear a stark reminder: “Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Heb 13:7-8)

What’s your reaction to the preached Word? Does it leave you perplexed, confused? Because we hear it regularly does it lay dormmate or brushed off as irrelevant to your lived experience now? Maybe it angers you, you don’t understand why you listen, why you keep coming to church, because you are just angry at God.

John and Jesus are men unjustly judged, sentenced, and put to death, much like St. Agatha, whose memorial we celebrate today and so many other saints. The sequence of events leading to John’s death is a reminder of the potential cost of discipleship, the potential cost of preaching Gospel truths amid a materialistic, self-absorbed world. In the Christian tradition, all the apostles are remembered as martyrs for the faith.

Their legacy lives on, when the faithful continue to work to prepare the way of the Lord knowing “with confidence: The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid.” (Heb 13:6) We are all called to first hear, to be moved by the Word of God, and then we are sent in the dismissal at every Mass to “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord,” or to “Go in Peace, glorifying the Lord by our lives,” boldly to preach the Kingdom of God is at hand, in word and in deed, only to discover “the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know this place (this Eucharist) for the first time.”