Homily: Saturday, 17th Week in Ordinary Time

Readings: Lv 25:1,8-17; Ps 67; Mt 14:1-12

When we view this Gospel passage in context we find Matthew, in these verses and those that precede and follow them, offering us a litany of rejections. We encounter scribes and Pharisees, priests and kings, and even ordinary folks, all rejecting Jesus. Each seemed to reject Jesus out of a kind of personal pride, that same lack of humility that plagues the human race and leads us to believe we are such independent beings we really don't need the God who created us out of love. Perhaps we can learn something about ourselves from all these rejections.

Teachers, those scribes and Pharisees, wanted recognition and respect for their knowledge and scholarship. They certainly didn't want to be criticized and embarrassed by Jesus, this nobody from Nazareth.

Priests and Levites wanted to be admired by the people as holy and justified, and not called out in public as hypocrites.

A king, even a small-time king like Herod Antipas, wanted to satisfy his every desire and exerted his power over others to do so.

Even the crowds, the ordinary folks, wanted to escape the anonymity and banality of their everyday lives. But they simply couldn't accept that one of their own was something very special.

It's as if Matthew ran all these people by us, one after another, so we can identify our reasons for rejecting Jesus  Although their reasons may differ, they all suffered from the same spiritual sickness that prevented them from recognizing Jesus as He truly is. They're just so wrapped up in themselves, so tightly wrapped, that their minds and hearts can't accept what their senses tell them. As for us, whether we accept Jesus with faith or reject Him with indifference, our choice, like these others, will reflect our circumstances and our desires.

John Chastises Herod

Just look at Herod Antipas and his desires, his weaknesses, his fears. Matthew presents this son of Herod the Great as a fearful man, one so afraid of John the Baptist's moral authority that he must shut him up by locking him up. We encounter a self-important, power-hungry, lustful little man, whose shabbiness symbolizes the evil and sin that ruled his life. Herod killed John to satisfy his lust and his pride, and then in a communion of evil, a self-absorbed celebration of his birthday, had John's head brought to Salome, his niece and stepdaughter, on a platter.

Salome with the Head of John the Baptist

But even Herod had a conscience, though grossly deformed and deformed by fear. We see it in his fear, not a fear of God, but a fear that this Jesus, who has such mighty powers, might be John resurrected.

Indeed, speaking of John, Herod uttered those words that seem blasphemous from one such as Herod, the same words the angel spoke to the women at Jesus' tomb:

"He has been raised from the dead" [Mt 14:2; 28:6].

But Herod couldn't bear the thought of God and His justice, or even His mercy. Perhaps he hoped that this evil distortion of the true Resurrection would free him of the guilt he carries for John's murder and so much else. 

Yes, indeed, Satan was working overtime in Herod's palace. Herod wanted a world safe for his desires and will do anything to maintain it. This becomes clear by the verbs Matthew uses to describe Herod's actions: arrested, bound, imprisoned, feared, killed, beheaded.

Are we all like Herod? One would hope not, but I can speak only for myself, where the difference is perhaps just a matter of degree. What Herod lacked, and what every sinner lacks is the virtue of humility, the one virtue that drives all the others.

And so perhaps each day, as we wake and greet our loving God, we should thank Him for making us so dependent on His love. How did God put it to Moses at the end of our first reading? 

"...stand in fear of your God. I, the LORD, am your God" [Lv 25:17]. 

Yes, stand in fear, in awe, of our God. Thank Him for our smallness, for our weakness, and for the gift of recognizing the presence of His love, His greatness, in all the others we encounter.

And perhaps, too, we should do the same at the end of each day, thanking Him for all the opportunities to share His love, and repenting for those opportunities we ignored. Then, like John, we too can be joyful as we pray: 

"He must increase; I must decrease" [Jn 3:30].