Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- A Worthy Cost

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 7.30.22 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Matthew 14:1–12

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Herod has John the Baptist beheaded,
making him a protomartyr of Christ’s followers,
the first of many martyrs to come.

Can we read that terrible and wonderful book of martyrs, the book of Revelation,
without seeing the power of bold, truthful proclamation in the early Christian Church?
And the cloud of witnesses grows up and down the Christian centuries.
Today, from Pakistan to Nigeria, from Egypt to Iraq, ordinary Christians routinely risk
their lives simply by declaring their faith and worshiping according to their consciences.

They are walking in the footsteps of great martyrs of the tradition,
from Stephen, Peter, and Paul to Miguel Pro shouting “Viva Cristo Rey” to his executioners;
Martin Luther King Jr. taking an assassin’s bullet
because he insisted on being a drum major for New Testament justice;
and Franz Jaggerstätter, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Edith Stein
challenging to their dying breaths the lies of Nazism.

And what we see in these martyrs is not ordinary courage
but a courage elevated and transfigured through love.
We see a willingness to give away even one’s life
out of love for Christ and his people.

[MurphsLaw]

+++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.+++