Mark 6

“Stay sober and alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” St Peter warns us of the constant danger of falling prey to Satan. It’s because Satan is ceaselessly looking for opportunities to deceive us into sin and the destruction of our souls.

Today in the gospel, at his birthday banquet, Herod is drunk and excited at his step daughter’s dance. And St Mark wrote, “an opportunity came.” The adulterous and illegitimate wife of Herod was always looking for a time to get rid of John the Baptist. And Herod’s drunkenness and unwariness easily let her grab the opportunity to demand the head of John the Baptist. So lethargically and helplessly, Herod gives in to his wife’s wicked wish. The greatest man out of the women’s wombs, as Jesus praised, was beheaded so easily for the amusement of a petty king’s birthday!

But Herod had already been deeply drunk in his adulterous life. He had much an opportunity to remove his sins as John the Baptist had clearly warned him. However, Herod turned a deaf ear to the Baptist’s voice. Rather, he arrested and threw the Baptist in jail, and continued his sinful life. Finally, he was led into the terrible sin of murdering the forerunner of the Messiah.

When we are intoxicated in our sins, we invite more sins, more terrible crimes, and more irreversible misfortunes. The devil is always awake.