Daily Mass Reflections - 8/4
While reading today’s daily scripture selections (Jeremiah 26:11-16, 24 & Matthew 14:1-12) I couldn’t help but reflect upon the bravery of our two protagonists, the Prophet Jeremiah and John the Baptist, the latter of whom would go on to meet his grisly demise in the waning moments of today’s passage.
In the case of Jeremiah, his response to those who sought to put him to death for preaching the truth did in a very real way foreshadow Jesus. He once again implores the angry mob that confronted him with the warning to “reform your ways and your deeds; listen to the voice of the Lord your God, so that the Lord will repent of the evil with which he threatens you,” selflessly and courageously backing that warning up with these words, words that could’ve very well been the last ones he would utter:
“As for me, I am in your hands; do with me what you think good and right.”
I couldn’t help but think of Jesus on the cross as he uttered “forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.”
Whereas Jeremiah’s life was saved, the same cannot be said of John the Baptist, who was beheaded in today’s Gospel for merely defending the truth as it pertains to the sanctity of marriage.
The lives of these two men and all the saints for that matter truly serve to reinvigorate those who seek to defend the truth and walk in the way of the Lord, a path that will certainly culminate in a rendezvous with the “narrow gate.”
Thank God we have them to inspire and galvanize us.
