Mean Girls 

Today we celebrate the Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist. In the Gospel, taken from Mark 6:17-29, we come across a mother and daughter duo who serve as the Bible's version of the archetypal 'mean girls'.

Unlike mean boys who usually use physical aggression or name calling, girl bullies do it differently. The power play within the social group is centered around a basic vulnerability that comes with the desire to be thought of as acceptable and included. They seek to destroy these socially vulnerable people from the inside out through reputation assassination. Their weapon of choice is public shaming and gossip. 

When they are called out and the mirror put before them to expose their own character flaws and when someone publicly exposes their evil, they attack with a vengeance. This is what happened in today's gospel. 

Herodias, the illegitimate wife of Herod, despised John the Baptist because he, in the defense of marriage and divine law, publicly shamed her. The mean girl go-to weapon of reputation assassination was used against her. She was given a taste of her own medicine and she had a visceral reaction. “Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.”

Hurt people hurt people. She let the hurt and embarrassment that she felt fester in her heart and it became rotten and covered in the bitter mold of vengeance. Like most mean girls, she manages to cover over her blackened heart with fake smiles and vapid conversation at her balls and parties. Like a highschool homecoming queen she obsesses about drawing attention to herself on the stage of Herod’s royal court.  

Of course she plots and conspires, like a chess player moving the pieces that will eventually lead to decapitation of her enemy. Even though time has passed, she is no less furious. One day at one of Herod's partys she finally gets her chance at revenge. 

One thing she knows well is how to manipulate men, powerful men. If she has to, she will use her own daughter's allurements. Herodias is like those moms who dress up their toddler girls and paint their faces with makeup to dance in tiaras before an audience.  With an unhealthy fixation on attention, awards and acclaim, secretly, she is feeding her own innate desire to be loved and held in high esteem. In the end, it’s all about the mom's distorted ego. If Herodias had social media, she would have posted hundreds of carefully staged and filtered photos of her daughter in every performance and in every cute outfit, desperately trying to convince the world that she, Herodias, was relevant and interesting. 

It seems as though the daughter is not a toddler in this story but probably a teenager. Undoubtedly, she was pretty and she had all the right curves and moves. The men were swayed and the power of the female form prevailed over their drunken and foul judgment. She knew what she was doing. Willing to cross the line into immodesty for the sake of power, she  was a mean girl in training. “Herodias' own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, "Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you." He even swore many things to her, "I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom." 

Proud of her success she immediately went to her doting mother who probably looked more like her older sister. Seeking her approval and her affirmation which she has been trained to do since she was a toddler, she asks, "What shall I ask for?". Without hesitation and without even trying to hide her hatred anymore, she says with a smile, “The head of John the Baptist”.  The teen, without shame, sauntered up to the king and the men who lusted after her. With the power and privilege of her mother behind her she made her morbid demand with a smirk on her face.

Herod was distressed but played it off. He ordered the executioner to behead John. Like a first place award that the little brat won for her dance recital, “He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother.”

The head of John the Baptist became the prize trophy for the mean girl and her spoiled, morally bankrupt mean girl daughter.

The man of whom Jesus said, "...among those born of women there has been none greater" was taken down by the vindictive power of the mean girl.