Feast of St. John the Baptist
TRANSFORMING FEAR INTO HOLY WISDOM
by Frank Savadera, SJ
I was just wondering:
If there are surveys measuring the public’s approval ratings of
government leaders ... are there also such similar kinds of quantitative surveys
assessing church goers’ approval of their priests and bishops?
Given the bad press the church has been getting the past
years ... one may think that people’s perception of church leaders had gone really
sour.
Believe it or not ... a recent survey released by the PEW
Research Center of Washington D.C. and published by the UCANEWS ONLY this
August 2012 reveals interesting results.
For the 20-year period between 1992 to 2012 ... the approval ratings of
priests in the United States had been steady at 80-83%. (This is high ... considering Obama’s 49%;
Pinoy’s 42% in July 2012). The approval ratings of American bishops on the
other hand, had increased dramatically from 51% ten years ago to a current high
of 70% despite the many controversies hounding the Church of North America
(i.e. the newly-delegated Archbishop of San Francisco was recently caught
driving under the influence of alcohol).
Though it may not be the Church’s way of proceeding to
refer to popularity ratings as means to assess the effectiveness of church
programs ... we can still nevertheless surmise that ... regardless of the countless accusations
hurled against the church ... the public ... amazingly still easily accord their church leaders degrees of respect and
positive regard. If the ratings above
apply to the church in Northern America ... we can perhaps expect higher approval
ratings of priests and bishops here in the Philippines where life still
revolves much around the activities of the church (with or without the RH Bill).
In a similar way ... no matter what charges Herod and
Herodias hurled against John the Baptist ... which merited his being in prison
... the Baptizer as gleaned from our Gospel reading ... nevertheless STILL enjoyed the
confidence of many ... and even of Herod himself.
As the Gospel implies:
Herod seemed to have feared John, knowing him
to be a righteous and holy man. Herod
kept John in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet
he liked to listen to him.
HEROD FEARED JOHN. HEROD LIKED TO LISTEN TO JOHN. Friends, SINNERS as we are ... and
much like what Herod himself manifested in the Gospel ... we nevertheless are called
to pray for and keep a basic sense of FEAR of the LORD. As in the case of Herod, FEAR
of the LORD allowed him a recognition of what is TRUE, RIGHTEOUS and HOLY. He thought of John the Baptist as a righteous
and holy man. Herod feared him because
he knows that John speaks the truth. Consequently and
this we know ... knowing the truth is accompanied by a lot of FEAR ... FEAR
that sometimes causes us a lot of panic attacks, headaches, fatigue and stomach
problems. Herod feared John ... but
Herod nevertheless still liked to listen to him. Friends, let our fears be HOLY fears of the
Lord. Let our approval ratings of Him
remain high ... knowing that indeed His holiness and righteousness transform our FEARS to a greater wisdom
of ourselves and our God.
Though Herod continued to listen to John ... he was just too weak to put into
effect what he believed was TRUE. He
was just caught up with the many demands and influences which surrounded
him. He was just so enthralled by the
girl, daughter of Herodias who danced in front of him. He became overly concerned not to be
embarrassed in front of many people. As
such even though He believed and continued to listen to John ... he succumbed
to his weak and easily swayed self. He
had the holy and righteous KILLED. We
pray for greater strength of
character ... the inner will to stand by what we believe is TRUE
despite the numerous voices and influences we hear around us.
After
beheading John the Baptist, Herod was DISTRESSED. What for us is distress? DISSONANCE between what we
TRULY desire and what our current concerns force us to do. The
king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not
wish to break his word. Amidst
instances of distress ... may we grow in greater integrity.
