Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Gospel seems gruesome. John the Baptist was beheaded and then his head was put on a platter. Behind all that, Herod seemed plagued by other people’s opinions. He wanted to kill John but feared the people who regarded John as a prophet. Herod arrested John because of his wife and became distressed over beheading John after impulsively promising Salome to fulfill any request she (and her mother) had. Other people determined Herod’s actions. This Gospel passage can inspire us to reflect on the motivations behind our own actions.
Focusing life on pleasing others is difficult. Constantly seeking approval from people can be tiring particularly if the good actions we do are motivated by recognition and the beliefs and values we hold are centered on matching other people’s. Getting others to like us can badly affect our self esteem especially when how we view ourselves becomes dependent on how people like us. Many in our society are always seeking status and power. However, such efforts can feel like being put in a cage in which other people’s opinions and the world keep us inside.
If pleasing others doesn’t bring freedom, then what (or who) does? Today’s Responsorial Psalm asked God to free us out of “the mire,” “flood-waters,” “abyss,” and “pit” we are in. Indeed, Jesus teaches us that in God we find freedom. During the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus taught to his disciples to not seek a reward when giving and fasting (Matthew 6:3-4; 17-18), to store our treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:20), and to depend on God, trusting that God will provide what we need (Matthew 6:31-34). When we stop pleasing others, we have the freedom to love and the freedom to be who God calls us to be: ourselves.
—Sr. Emily Sandoval, FMI