The Gospel of today's mass, Saturday of the 17th week in ordinary time 30 July 2022, brings us to the context of Herod the tetrarch capturing and jailing John the Baptist. He ended up chopping off his head because of his promise to grant whatever the dancer--Herodias' daughter--asked. She had them bewitched by her sensual dance. Alcohol helped. But alas! She asked at her mother's instance for the head of John the Baptist. He was constrained by the oaths he made in front of his guests. He went for it to be granted. Had he acted on the Baptist's teaching of separating from Herodias, his brother's wife, whom he had taken to be his own, he would not have been put on the spot.
