Be His hands & feet

For Herod feared John, knowing he was a righteous and holy man.” (Mk 6:20)

Let’s be honest; sometimes – no – many times we are scared to live out our faith both in word and in action. You know what I’m talking about. I can think of many situations, like when I’m sitting at McDonald’s in the highly populated food court of a shopping centre about to begin grace with that public gesture – the Sign of the Cross – when out of nowhere I am struck by fear. ‘What will all these people think? What will they say? As I bless myself I can just hear them conspiring to one another as to how they will go about eradicating the entire Catholic population. The question here is whether this fear of publicly living out our faith is a legitimate fear. Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is no. Perhaps even more surprisingly, I believe we have a lot to learn and a lot from which to take heed when it comes to this fear, by looking a little bit closer at King Herod’s fear of John the Baptist just two thousand years ago.

It is specifically the fears of prejudice, rejection, and a general feeling of intimidation, which fuel the greater fear of living out our faith as a witness to all the world. Our faith in God will tell us, however, that this intimidation is empty; this fear illegitimate as there are no substantial reasons as to why exactly we should be afraid; we could lose a friendship, but then we must ask ourselves upon what value – upon what perception of love – was that friendship built? What else can happen? We can receive some dirty looks and a few snide remarks, but the question must be asked: is it really worth living our lives trying to avoid such judgement from our society when it means we choose to live as cowards? John the Baptist chose not to be a coward; he chose to be fearless and courageous for the sake of God. He was a man so humble and filled with surrender to God that it allowed a power to be unleashed in him so much so that he seemed like a wild man, yet his heart was scarily attractive. If I were a woman, my heart would long for a man with a heart like John’s; as a man something in my heart longs to be as surrendered, as wild as John was.

 The truth of the matter is that because Jesus died and rose for us, and by His grace we can have eternal life, we have a rock on which to stand – a rock of peace, joy, love and salvation. We should never be intimidated by the ideologies which our society would prescribe as worthy objects of worship: money, material possessions, socio-economic status, and good looks. If we jump back a couple thousand years ago we will see these ideologies personified by King Herod. Herod had everything. He looked as though he was secure and comfortable enough in all of his status-building ‘stuff’ to never be afraid of anything – at least from a secular perspective he did. He was afraid though, of a man who by his standards had nothing, nothing but righteousness and holiness. When Herod saw John the Baptist he would have seen a man who seemed slightly insane yet spoke and taught with authority, and who relied on a King far greater than Herod. Herod was a Jew and so he would have known the Ten Commandments, and how he had repeatedly and unabashedly broken each one of them. When Herod saw the light that shone from the holiness of John, it would have revealed to him his own darkness and sin. Suddenly his ‘everything’ becomes nothing, and suddenly John’s nothing becomes everything. EVERYTHING!

What I believe Jesus is saying to me, to us, through this Gospel, is that it doesn’t matter how intimidating someone seems, or how it may hurt us to feel judged by someone who seems to have everything going for them, because the truth is they don’t. They don’t have it all together. Me? I have more than enough. We are called in each and every moment to know that we have more than enough. More than enough what? Grace! Love! We are called to let our own lights shine the love of Jesus every one of our brothers and sisters (that means everyone. Seriously, everyone). When we do this we will not be afraid to stand up for the Truth, and we will be like John and all the other saints, but most importantly we will be like Jesus. To those who are knowingly in the wrong we will seem scary; to those who are earnestly searching our lives will be attractive; and to those somewhere in between we will be scarily attractive, because true holiness demands a respect and a reverence that goes far beyond any passing persecution or insult. Inside each of our hearts we long for the same thing. John had it. Herod wanted it, and the fear he had was not so much a fear for John as it was a fear for the One whom John feared.

Jesus in us, if we allow Him to shine through, will demand respect and reverence, and people will know we are different – steadfast in not being tossed around by the winds of cultural norms. This is one way that Jesus calls us to be His hands & feet.