"Following the birth of Jesus, Herod met in secret with the wise men to find out exactly when they first saw the star. He directed them to tell him when they found the baby. This story is in Matthew in the New Testament in the Bible.The Bible Art Library is a collection of commissioned biblical paintings. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, under a work-for-hire contract, artist Jim Padgett created illustrations for 208 Bible stories encompassing the entire Bible from Genesis through Revelation. There are over 2200 high-quality, colorful, and authentic illustrations. The illustrations are high quality, biblically and culturally accurate, supporting the reality of the stories and bringing them to life. They can be used to enhance communication of Bible stories in printed, video, digital, and/or audio forms."
Read today’s Gospel. Mark 6:17-29
Going against our better judgement.
That Herod recognized John the Baptist for who he was, is obvious. YET because of pride and a certain cowardice, he went against his ‘better judgement’ and had John beheaded. Herod was deeply distressed on hearing the girl’s request and must have remained so for a long time, yet he gave in. Was he taken in by her charm?
Can we see the Herod in ourselves? Are there times when we, knowing what was right, have gone against our own better judgement? Were there times when the desire to save face; to please another, to satisfy our own selves and for many other seemingly good reasons, would have taken priority?
We too, like Herod, might have felt deeply distressed, whatever the circumstance, because we knew we had not done right. Some things we can change but, like in Herod’s case, there are some things we can do nothing about.
We have to depend on the mercy of God to help us through, and make any reparation possible.
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