It is true that “faith comes by hearing,” however, if the heart is not open to it, we continue as spectators and do not let ourselves be transformed by what we hear. The Word of God itself, brings grace to touch and transforms our lives, however, we are free to welcome or not his action in our lives. The word of the month is in the Gospel of Mark 6.14 to 29. Read it carefully, listen to it with ears and also to uphold the heart. Meditate on this word and let it grow inside you, for this silence and recollection promote the enabling environment.
King Herod heard about Jesus simply but simply refused to hear what others told him, and ended up taking a wrong impression of who the Lord was. That’s because he was accustomed to hearing it only as a spectator, letting the words enter in one ear and come out the other, as we say. Herod liked to listen to John the Baptist, yet he became bewildered and embarrassed by his words of this because of being in an immoral living situation. We all want to hear the truth, even if it reveals our weaknesses, however, have the courage to take upon ourselves and change our attitude for life is the great challenge.
The truth will always bother those who do not want to change their life! John the Baptist bothered Herod and Herodias, who lived in adultery; however, both chose to continue in error and chose to remain silent for fear of the prophet rather than change their lives and convert! And I need to make a different choice! We can not stay in the mediocre attitude of mere spectators of the Word of God, those who hear the word, but do not live what they hear. We need to hear the Word of God with the strong desire to be changed by what we hear. Surely this will be challenging for all of us; however out of our comfort zone is something always necessary.
We often say that “standing water creates critters”, and this is true; when a little water is standing for a long time, it becomes an enabling environment for the emergence of worms and diseases. We apply it to our lives, we can also say that a Christian becomes critter when he stops continuously converting, when he does not break the bond sin and vice, ends up resembling an animal living a life disfigured and dehumanized. That’s what happened to Herod who, by refusing to leave his wrong life, ended up killing John the Baptist, solving, in a cowardly way, continuing to eliminate wandering who showed him the truth.
Jesus is the truth and that truth will always cause us to make decisions and make choices. Although we are troubled by the proclamation of the truth, our lives need to be transformed by it, otherwise we become like Herod, killing John the Baptist to eliminate risk rather than to change his life. So renounce “Herod syndrome”, which is resistant to truth and murderous rage, seeking to resolve situations that tell us to eliminate all the unwanted truth. “Know the truth and it will set you free,” Jesus teaches us; let this truth transform your life.
Father Fabrizio
Member of Canção Nova Community