Gospel:
Matthew 14:1-12
Herod the
tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus and said to his servants, “This man
is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty
powers are at work in him. Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him
in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, for John had
said to him “It is not lawful for you to have her. Although he wanted to kill
him, he feared the people, for they regarded him as a prophet. But at a
birthday celebration for Herod, the daughter of Herodias performed a dance
before the guests and delighted Herod so much that he swore to give her
whatever she might ask for. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on
a platter the head of John the Baptist. The king was distressed, but because of
his oaths and the guests who were present, he ordered that it be given, and he
had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given
to the girl, who took it to her mother. His disciples came and took away the
corpse and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.
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Reflection:
There is
a saying that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. King Herod
is an example of a man who was corrupted by his absolute power. He allowed his
power to rule over him and not him ruling over his power. Otherwise if King
Herod was in control of his power he would have not ordered the beheading of John.
When a
leader allows his power to get into his head he would do many foolish things.
For example, he may act as if he is more powerful than God by saying words and doing things that
are inconceivable for a normal person to say and do.
In the
gospel we have a character named King Herod he is a perfect example of a leader
who is drunk with power. His power made him arrogant and it made him act as if
he is more powerful than God for the reason that he ordered the killing of John. But we also know
that those who arrogantly abuse power suffers defeat at the end.
So what
is the lesson for us here? Simple, we should not abuse the power that we hold otherwise
we will have to pay for it someday. As they say, what goes around comes around. In
other words this simply tell us that whatever evil that we do today brought about by our abuse of power will eventually
catch up with us someday. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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