Let Me Entertain You | August 29, 2015

 August 29, 2015

“We aren’t an information age, we are an entertainment age.” Tony Robins

“I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained” Walt Disney

Let’s face it; we all want to be entertained. I think it is safe to say that our fascination with entertainment can sometimes become obsessive and if we are looking at it with spiritual eyes, entertainment can turn into idolatry. That is certainly true for the ever-eccentric maniacal star of today’s gospel, King Herod. Herod was considered a madman and murdering several of his own family members was just one of the many things that proved this to be true. For whatever reason(s), Herod’s life had become so numb that only extreme pleasure could stimulate him. This need for the extreme impacted every area of his life and there was never enough food, drink, killing, sex, power, etc. for him. How can we relate to this excessive behavior? I know that I am not necessarily a Herod-type kind of crazy, but I do suffer from continually wanting more (i.e. clothes, shoes, creature comforts, entertainment, etc.). It’s something for us to think about and perhaps to practice some sort of fast from these things.

In today’s scene John The Baptist is in jail because there was all kinds of buzz about him among the Jews that he might be the Messiah. Herod had been on the hunt for the Messiah since the birth of Jesus; remember the killing of all the first born in Judea? So Herod had his thugs haul John The Baptist into the station, but then Herod becomes a little bit fascinated with John. I think he was wildly attracted to John The Baptist’s crazy look (camel hair leisure suit and dreadlocks?) and his crazy lifestyle (eating bugs in the desert, no alcohol, yelling all the time). John The Baptist was approved entertainment on Herod’s extreme entertainment scale and so he had the plan to keep John around like a circus pony to perform at his beckon call.

Enter onto the scene…Salome, the dancer (yes, you can say it…the stripper!). Herod, like a lot of people was totally taken by the “entertainment” of it all and was obviously pleased. Herod definitely lost all sense of anything after Salome’s “dance” and in his drunken aroused stupor, he promised her anything she wanted. Raise your hand if you have ever been so taken by someone that you would do anything for him or her? Herod, of course thought that she would ask for riches or material things, but Salome with the help of her mommy dearest, went to another extreme. She wanted Herod’s circus pony’s head on a platter. Now who’s the eccentric one?

Herod granted her fatal attraction-type request because he was out of his mind. He was bummed because he still wanted John The Baptist to do some magic tricks, but with one heated dance, the voice that cried out in the desert, “Prepare the way”, was silenced. The good news is that John The Baptist had served the Lord well and the good work that God began in him would be completed in the very person that he heralded. His work was done and God called him by name to be with him forever. His beheading would go down in history as one to behold for all time, a martyr for the Savior of the world. A victim of excessiveness, greed, and disordered pleasure, but somehow the drama of his death only gave more credence to his message. This must have been a vital character with an even more important mission.  

Today’s gospel shows us that we need to keep our appetite for pleasure and entertainment at bay and to always search for the truth and the heart of the matter. Let’s not get duped by shiny things and stay focused on the light of Christ that is at the center of our souls.  

Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist
Lectionary: 430/634

Reading 1 1 THES 4:9-11

Brothers and sisters:
On the subject of fraternal charity
you have no need for anyone to write you,
for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
Indeed, you do this for all the brothers throughout Macedonia.
Nevertheless we urge you, brothers and sisters, to progress even more,
and to aspire to live a tranquil life,
to mind your own affairs,
and to work with your own hands,
as we instructed you.

Responsorial Psalm PS 98:1, 7-8, 9

R. (9) The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.
Let the sea and what fills it resound,
the world and those who dwell in it;
Let the rivers clap their hands,
the mountains shout with them for joy.
R. The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.
Before the LORD, for he comes,
for he comes to rule the earth;
He will rule the world with justice
and the peoples with equity.
R. The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.

Alleluia MT 5:10

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 6:17-29

Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison
on account of Herodias, 
the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.
John had said to Herod,
“It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
Herodias harbored a grudge against him
and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.
Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man,
and kept him in custody.
When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed,
yet he liked to listen to him.
She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday,
gave a banquet for his courtiers,
his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee.
Herodias’ own daughter came in
and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests.
The king said to the girl,
“Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.”
He even swore many things to her,
“I will grant you whatever you ask of me,
even to half of my kingdom.”
She went out and said to her mother,
“What shall I ask for?”
She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.”
The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request,
“I want you to give me at once
on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”
The king was deeply distressed,
but because of his oaths and the guests
he did not wish to break his word to her.
So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders
to bring back his head.
He went off and beheaded him in the prison.
He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl.
The girl in turn gave it to her mother.
When his disciples heard about it,
they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.