At that time Herod the ruler heard reports about Jesus; and he said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him."  For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because John had been telling him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."  Though Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded him as a prophet.  But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and she pleased Herod so much that he promised on oath to grant her whatever she might ask.  Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter."  The king was grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he commanded it to be given; he sent and had John beheaded in the prison.  The head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who brought it to her mother.  His disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went and told Jesus.  Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself.  But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.

Our conscience speaks out to us, which is the good angel by our side, guiding our actions and telling us of our faults.  But when we do not like hearing that we have sinned or are living in sin because we do not want to repent or change our ways we flee from that voice.  The principal way we flee from the voice of our conscience is by more deeply embracing sensuality.  The world of sensual excesses is at odds with the spiritual life.  We may not even be aware that we are trying to silence our conscience this way, just as Herod sought to silence John's accusations of his immorality through the excesses of his birthday feast and Herodias' daughters' captivating dance.

There then comes a time when we are given an opportunity to acknowledge that we have deliberately done this.  In choosing to continually ignore the knock of our conscience it becomes more and more silent until eventually it is as though we have beheaded it.  We can also do this out of fear of human respect as Herod did.

Once we have done this Jesus departs, as it were, from the soul and the soul becomes a deserted place.