The martyrdom of St John the Baptist presents how sins are interwoven and eventually bring about the shedding of innocent blood. And today’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews makes comments on the sins that resulted in the Saint’s martyrdom.

King Herod took his brother’s wife Herodias while his brother Philip was alive. Why? Because of a beautiful or tearful romance? No, it was their wanton desire for flesh, which the Letter to the Hebrews condemns. “Let marriage be held in honour by all, and the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.” If someone still has a doubt of a biblical basis for the Church’s condemnation of all kinds of immoral and illicit sexual behaviours, this passage of the Letter to the Hebrews clears such a doubt.

But was it only lust that attracted Herod and Herodias to each other? The Romans appointed Herod as a ruler of Galilee and Perea. Noticing this opportunity, Herodias abandoned her husband Philip for a more powerful and richer man. Herodias herself was a royal family. Philip and Herod were her paternal uncles. For Herod, Herodias could secure more inheritance of the royal wealth. Herod’s political and financial calculation made it easy to desire his niece. He also abandoned his first wife from Arabia for Herodias. The Letter to the Hebrews warns us of the love of money and advises us to be content with poverty. Jesus told his disciples they could not serve money and God at the same time. St Paul calls greed the root of all evil.

While the Letter to the Hebrews encourages us to be hospitable to strangers, Herod serves his political friends only at his birthday banquet. The Letter to the Hebrews asks us to remember the imprisoned for their safety as unjust and arbitrary incarceration was common in ancient times. On the opposite, Herod silenced St John the Baptist by throwing him into a dungeon. He might have highly regarded St John the Baptist, but he certainly did not want to listen to the truth.

Now, all these sins compounded one another and finally grabbed an opportunity for a more terrible crime. The bitter anger of Herodias against the Baptist was looking for murder. Her daughter’s sensual dance before Herod roused him to making an irrevocable promise. And the Baptist’s head ended up on a platter.

You can find most of the capital sins in this story: pride, lust, greed, anger, envy, gluttony, and sloth. Pride disregards the truth. Lust paralyzes the reason. Greed ignores God. Envy kills the good. Gluttony loses temperance. Spiritual sloth gives Satan a chance.