And he solemnly swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.” Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.- Mark 6:23-29

Socrates said that the people who commit vile and despicable acts are to be pitied and not hated. They are powerless to do what they ultimately desire. They want to have a complete life but they end up destroying everything good in their path.

To be honest, I find it easier to dislike and despise them because I want to distance myself from them. It is just human nature. We think that if we have strong negative emotion against someone, we create a distance between us and them. We want everyone to know that we are not like them. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work this way. Hate always produces more hate. When we hate someone for being hateful, then we are just following in their footsteps. This is why Jesus showed us a way out of this conundrum. He taught us to love our enemies. His attitude is more active and powerful than that of Socrates. When we pity someone, we are still being condescending. Love means that we are willing to see the other person as a fellow human being, or even as a reflection of ourselves. Someone just like us. Herod is someone just like us. This should be our starting point when we reflect on the above passage from the gospel.

Herod was a conflicted person. He wanted to do whatever he desired because he thought that he knew what was good for him. Yet, he was drawn to John the Baptist, the purveyor of Truth. Herod recognized that John was a holy and righteous person who always pointed out that he was on the path of self-destruction. He found listening to this disagreeable prophet to be comforting, despite the fact that he continued in his misguided path. Paul described this attitude in a concise manner in Romans 7:19,

“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”

However, Paul was not talking about Herod when he wrote this. He was talking about our human nature. Herod thought that he had power and authority but in reality he was a helpless and weak soul. He could not do what he knew to be the right thing to do. If we are able to look deep into our soul, we would realize that this story could be about us. If we had the power and authority like Herod, we might fall into the same trap. Thanks be to God, we are not given authority and power to act as we please. These things only made Herod believe that he had something to prove and he ended up killing the only one that truly cared for his soul.

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” -Matthew 16:26

John lost his life but Herod lost his soul.

Herod was truly the person who lost everything in this story. Unless we can see this clearly then we can never to be truly effective Christians in this world. However, if we cannot see beyond the vile act of Herod to perceive his lost and helpless soul, then we have nothing to say to the world. We will be just plain self-righteousness people like the Pharisees whose spirituality Jesus admonished us to surpass. It is not our prerogative to judge Herod or anyone for that matter. Our vocation is not to judge but to love. We must look at Herod and see ourselves in him. We must recognize that we are just as lost and helpless like him. We must see that we are vulnerable to the temptations that he faced. We are also prone to be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine just like him. When we admit this about ourselves, then we can see that it is only by the grace of God that we can be see all these things about ourselves. It is the grace of God that gives us the strength to press on the follow the footsteps of our Lord.

This story is not about judging but instead it is about compassion and love. To love someone like Herod is not easy. Frankly speaking, even as I write this, I would rather hate him than love him. This alone makes me realize that I am not worthy to pass judgment on him. This confession is not an act of humility but just a honest assessment of myself required by vocation. Therefore, Jesus was right about warning us not to judge anyone. I don’t have the capability or the maturity or wisdom to judge anyone. However, I can love someone like Herod, as long as I am willing to admit that I am just like him in many ways. The only difference between Herod and I is God’s grace. I don’t know why Herod was not able to respond to His grace and I am not sure why I did. It has nothing to do with my own merits that I can boast about. It is all an undeserved gift from God.

I wondered what this reading was going to teach me in the beginning of this week. Now I realize that it contains an indispensable lesson. I am not here in the streets because I am better than our homeless children and teens. It is easy to think this way especially when we compare our social and educational differences. This attitude is quite a subtle one. Many people who serve the less fortunate think that they are better than those whom they serve. It is social convention that prevents them from expressing it. Thinking that we are better gives us a false sense of power and authority. It is better to discard this attitude. It leads to the path of self-destruction. Besides, we can’t do anything valuable or special from this artificial view of ourselves. Loving our neighbor as ourselves is better way. It means seeing that we are just like them.

I look at Wanderson, Bruna, Gabriel and Dreyson. These are the teens we had the most contact with this week. I realized that if I was born into their families and given the same things as they given, I would be in the streets just like them or maybe even worse. Yet, I was given much and now God’s grace has revealed this to me. I am not more blessed than them. I have been given God’s grace to see that I have a role to play in their lives and they have one in mine. Together, through the grace of God, our lives can become richer. Herod used his power and authority to bring death upon himself. By the grace of God, we don’t have to follow his footsteps.