RBWords

     There is a story about a bishop coming to a parish for Confirmation in the years immediately following the reform of the liturgy after the Second Vatican Council.  At offertory time, the gifts were brought forward by some of the youngsters led by a young lady in a flowing white robe, dancing with a bowl of incense in her hands.  As the procession neared the stony-faced bishop with the nervous pastor standing by him, the bishop turned to the pastor and muttered:  "If she asks for your head, John, she can have it!"  This amusing story shows the impact of the scene recounted by the Gospel of Mark about the death of John the Baptist!  It's hard to forget the dancing girl and her wrathful mama and the drunken king!

 

     As tawdry as the story is, the danger of the prophetic vocation comes through loud and clear!  A prophet knows that eventually he or she is going to say something that will offend the powerful!  The Gospel of Mark is also giving a hint that Jesus will meet a similar end.  The scribes and Pharisees would demand that Pilate put Jesus to death. 

 

      Sometimes the death comes at the hand of someone who is not "powerful" in the political sense but is angry with the message of the prophet.  Who had ever heard, before, of the characters that assassinated John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King, Jr.?  But, without courageous prophets, we may be at a loss. They may irritate or threaten us but their voice may be that of God!  AMEN