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The Beheading of St John the Baptist
14 years, 7 months ago
Posted in: Podcast, Saints, Spirit Morning Show, The Discerning Hearts Blog
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“Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. “
– Matthew 11:11 RSV
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“John the Baptist is the only saint in the calendar (apart from St Joseph) who has two feasts to himself. One, in August, celebrates his death, and one, in June, celebrates his birth. And this is as it should be, for as Christ himself said, John was the greatest of the sons of men.
  The greatest, but also the most tragic. A prophet from before his birth, leaping in the womb to announce the coming of the incarnate God, his task was to proclaim the fulfilment of all prophecies – and thus his own obsolescence. And he did it: with unequalled courage he spread the news that he, the greatest of all men, was the least in the kingdom of heaven. His disciples, and the devil, would have preferred him to fight, to build his sect, to defeat this upstart whom he himself had baptized, to seize his place in history. But he did not – and so, rightly, he has his place, and he has glory in heaven.
  We envy the great and the talented, and sometimes we think that they themselves are beyond envy. But when they come across someone with greater gifts, as one day most of them will, they will see for the first time what it means to feel like us. Let us pray that they, like John the Baptist, may pass that test.”  See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.
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The Martyrdom of John the Baptist is a nasty one. To behead a man in payment for a dance? It kind of makes you sick to your stomach, doesn’t it? The heads of the seven deadly (cardinal) sins really show themselves in this incident: pride (Herod, Herodias), envy (Herodias), anger (Herodias), lust (Herod’s for his dancing step-daughter, Salome), gluttony (Herod, the party goers, Herodias), sloth (Herod), greed (Herodias). And yet, it is part of one of the greatest stories of the triumph of humility every told. .
Indeed, the earthly body of John the Baptist was killed that day, but, of course, not his soul. But I suspect something uglier occured that day long ago; the potential death of the souls of those who committed this act against him. For in the case of John the Baptist, I don’t doubt for one second, that the same Holy Spirit that was with the child in the womb, was with the man at the moment of his death, anointing him with the same superabundance of God’s loving grace.
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Tags: alexander j burke, beheading of st john the baptist, cardinal sins, catholic, catholic podcast, catholic prayer, cathollc spirituality, martyrdom, st john the baptist
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 29th, 2010 at 9:40 am
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