Jeremiah 1:17-19 / Mark 6:17-29
Today's gospel for the memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist has a rather intriguing sentence that sticks out like an extra digit on a finger of a hand.
The mood of the passage would have flowed quite well except for this sentence: When he heard him speak, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him.
Why was Herod perplexed when he listened to John the Baptist speak, and yet he liked to listen to him?
Given the historical facts about Herod, it would be quite obvious that he would have ordered the head of John the Baptist to be lopped off before he could finish saying anything about Herod and Herodias.
But Herod being Herod, he probably wanted to watch John the Baptist die a slow and painful death for saying such embarrassing things about him.
Yet that hideous desire slowly became a great perplexity for him. But he stilled liked to listen to John the Baptist.
Logically it may sound strange but that's the power of the Word of God. It comforts those who are disturbed but disturbs those who are comfortable.
And the Word of God is to be proclaimed by prophets such as John the Baptist and by Jeremiah (1st reading).
And the Word of God is to be proclaimed by us who are baptized into the prophetic mission of Jesus.
It may mean that we are to stick out and cause others to be perplexed. But deep in the heart of hearts we still want to hear the Word of God. The question is what are we going to do about it?