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Let brotherly love continue.
Do not neglect hospitality,
for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.
When we choose to love in simple and concrete ways it is often the case that these little ways are actually hiding great spiritual power. This was what happened with Abraham when he welcomed three strangers who turned out to be angels (see Genesis 18). In another way, this is what Jesus preached in the parable of the sheep and the goats. Whatever we do or do not do to the least of our brothers and sisters he receives as done on not done for him. What does this mean except that every moral choice takes on striking significance?
Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment,
and of the ill-treated as of yourselves,
for you also are in the body.
In showing compassion for any prisoner we show compassion to Jesus himself, and, in him, all prisoners. In working for a world of true justice and mercy we are, in a way, working to unleash Jesus himself to a greater degree in the world. For to the extent that prisoners remain recalcitrant and unrehabilitated they do not fulfill their potential role as vehicles of the presence of Christ to the world. If we are preoccupied with vengeance and tribal politics we will impose barriers between ourselves and others that prevent the purpose and desire of Jesus that God may be all in all (see First Corinthians 15:28).
"What shall I ask for?"
Her mother replied, "The head of John the Baptist."
We see in the story of the death of John the Baptist the myriad ways in which sin darkens the mind. Herod did not want to kill John, knowing that there was something interesting there that was worth hearing, although he couldn't quite bring himself to understand it. And yet, because of his pompous pride he conceded to kill him before this secret wisdom could be unlocked for him. The mother that requested John's head might have asked for any number of things of actual value, "even to half of my kingdom", but had been so offended by the way John the Baptist had spoken against her sinful relationship that she was more interested in vengeance than value. She thought that easing the wound to her pride was worth more than anything else she might request. It's hard to imagine that even the daughter was totally innocent to go along with such a plan. How could her choice to accede to it have been anything except her choosing the voice of her mother over and against the voice of conscience? And of course, the results of this tragedy could bring true happiness to no one. "The king was deeply distressed" but did it anyway, proving that sin itself was the master and he the slave.
When we insist on filling the emptiness in our hearts that is meant to be filled by God with lesser things we run the risk of being enslaved by those things as to idols. We should instead trust God's plans for marriage, knowing that he has designed it to make married people more free and more holy. We should seek our ultimate reward from him and not from lust or love of money, so that we can't be ensnared by dance of a girl, nor by anything that Herod could promise. We fall for such temptations when we forget the reality of the unfailing presence of God in our lives.
for he has said, I will never forsake you or abandon you.
Thus we may say with confidence:
The Lord is my helper,
and I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?
It is not the case that Jesus was only personally and humanly available to the early disciple's, that we are only left with rules and an example of following the rules. Whatever we see of a personal relationship between Christ and his disciples in Scriptures, perhaps vivified in our minds by the way shows like the Chosen portray it, is in fact still available to us, because, as the author of Hebrews tells us: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever". We tend to seek to salve our wounded hearts through great efforts of our own. But we can instead look to the almost limitless small ways in which Jesus can be found in our own lives each day.
Your presence, O LORD, I seek.
Hide not your face from me;
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