Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist

Have you ever been backed into a corner? This is what Herod encountered with John the Baptist in today’s Gospel reading.  Herod didn’t want John the Baptist killed, but his pride got in the way after he promised Herodias’ daughter anything she wanted.  Sadly, Herod felt he had nowhere else to turn and had John the Baptist beheaded.

Besides Jesus, Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians gives us a good choice by imitating him/them as role models. Let us all ‘shun…disorderly way[s]’ so we can live in ‘peace at all times and in every way.’