Commentary on the Gospel of
Herod was a weak man, but all the more cruel for that. Rather than face his own falsity he killed the man who pointed it out to him. Still, inside every bad conscience there is a scrap of good conscience. Otherwise we would not suffer from bad conscience. To know a bad conscience as bad is surely good. Herod died in exile from his kingdom in the company of Herodias. They had ruined each other’s lives. No one knows if their bad consciences grew still worse, ruining each other to the very end. Who cares? We all do because, we will all be exiled form our kingdom sooner or later—our power over others, our power to make decisions, even our power over many aspects of our own lives—but the drama of conscience will not end; it will continue to our last breath.
