Gospel: Matthew 14: 1-12
Herod was a man who, like many in high positions of leadership, viewed the world from within the confines of his palace rooms. Earlier in the Gospel he stayed within his fortress to muse on the birth of the Messiah. Seeing that as a threat to him, he sought the death of the child and many others. In today's Gospel portion and in a later episode, he seeks to understand Jesus not by going out to meet and observe Jesus, but in the abstractions of his mind within his regal environs.
It is easy to see why powerful leaders who live only in their palace walls and minds arrive at false conclusions so often and inflict violence and death wherever they go. Jesus, by contrast, left the environs of his heaven and came among the world to understand and love those he encountered wherever he went. The approach of encounter leads to love and understanding, never to violence and hatred. The fortress mentality and navel gazing leads to bad judgment, mistrust, and violence.
John the Baptist and Jesus ministered to people out in the desert, in villages, hillsides, and homes of people in need. They did not minister in palaces and fortresses of power. Each was brought to these seats of power in order to be condemned and executed. Those who choose the court of Herod have their reward - power, influence, wealth. Those who choose the way of encounter, the way of John and Jesus, have the Beatitudes as their eternal reward.
