Ecclesiasticus 47:2-11 / Mark 6:14-29
Each of us has some shadows, some dark spots lurking in our lives.
Though these belong to the past, yet they haunt our present, maybe because we have yet to come to terms with them and to be reconciled with what we did.
Hence, we may limp and stagger in the present because of the shadows from the past.
In the gospel, we heard how king Herod was haunted with a shadow from the past.
It was the shadow of John the Baptist whom he executed.
Everything that happened around him had that shadow of John the Baptist.
Even when he heard of Jesus, he immediately reacted by saying that it was John the Baptist whom he executed.
But Jesus did not come to settle scores with Herod.
Rather, Jesus came to save him from the shadows of the past.
Problem was that Herod chose to live among the shadows of his past.
We may have a shadowy past, a past that is peppered with black spots.
But Jesus comes to bring light, and that light gives life to the present and to scatter the shadows.
Jesus came to show us God's love and mercy and forgiveness, so that we may start living again and walking in the light of God's love.