August 29, 2008
Memorial of the Martyrdom of
[W]e proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 1 Corinthians 1:23-25
When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. Mark 6:29
Piety
Let us pray: God, you gave your servant John the wisdom to speak truth to those in power. Through the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, please share with us that same wisdom to see through false arguments and witness the Good News to those who fail to recognize the wisdom and power of God. Help us to look for your spirit in the people and places where we least expect to find you. Amen.
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/082908.shtml
Look for God where you least expect to find Him. God is not on top of some Mile High mountain but in the gutters and valleys and jail cells where the poor and abandoned can be found and served. The Lord flips over what we might expect to serve up what we least expect.
Today Mark teaches us that the “foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.” Herod knew that what he was doing was wrong. He was using his temporal powers to punish a man to whom he was drawn. Yet Herod also was perplexed by John’s message. Who would not be so perplexed? John was living the life of a hermit in the desert wearing sackcloth and eating locusts and wild honey (That sounds like a bad episode of “Fear Factor” to me! I guess the honey made the crunchy locusts go down easier.)
We, too, are drawn to John and Jesus yet are we also reluctant to fully realize their messages in the way we live our lives?
The notes to the New American Bible for today point out the similarities between Mark’s account of the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist and the account of the passion of Jesus. “Herod and Pilate, each in turn, acknowledges the holiness of life of one over whom he unjustly exercises the power of condemnation and death (Mark 6:26-27; 15:9-10, 14-15). The hatred of Herodias toward John parallels that of the Jewish leaders toward Jesus. After the deaths of John and of Jesus, well-disposed persons request the bodies of the victims of Herod and of Pilate in turn to give them respectful burial (Mark 6:29; 15:45-46).”
It is in the very powerlessness and apparent weakness of John and Jesus in the face of death that God reveals true wisdom and power. On the surface, such death-by-execution is the ultimate loss. Dying by the indignity of a criminal’s death would indicate not only that some crime was committed but also that the accused put forth no logical case to avoid execution.
Why would someone on death row not put forth every defense possible?
Why would a powerful preacher risk his life by speaking truth to power?
Why would a seemingly wise and powerful leader put himself in a position to meet such an inhuman wish?
The answers can not be found in mortal logic. Only when we recognize that “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” do these stories begin to make some sense to us.
Action
We have among us modern day John’s who donned the same kinds of simple clothing and carried the message of Gospel truth and nonviolence to speak truth to power. Earlier this month, remembering the atomic bombing of
The Catholic Bishops, too, have spoken out against the sin of nuclear war yet many people tend to forget or ignore such statements as relics of the past rather than firmly rooted in the peace tradition of the Catholic Church.
We never want ourselves, our friends and our families to ever be on the receiving end of a nuclear weapon. If we faced such a tragic event, we would be placing many bodies in tombs as a result of the war and many others as a result of the disease and sicknesses that would follow.
Why, then, would we ever contemplate using anything in such an arsenal? As our bishops taught in the peace pastoral, not only is the use of such weapons a sin, but also the production of such an expensive arsenal is a sin because it diverts so much money that could be used serving the poor and helping others to the production of these weapons of mass destruction. The palmist today reminds us that the “earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” Yet bombs like these would destroy life on earth wherever they are used.
Who is the fool here and who is the wise…those who continue to build and stockpile such weapons or those trying to get us to dismantle such bombs? Support actions that will curb our appetite for nuclear weapons and nuclear war.
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