Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 08-29-05, Memorial, Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

From: Mark 6:17-29

John the Baptist Beheaded
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[17] For Herod had sent and seized John, and bound him in prison for
the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife; because he had married
her. [18] For John said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have
your brother's wife." [19] And Herodias had a grudge against him, and
wanted to kill him. But she could not, [20] for Herod feared John,
knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When
he heard him, he was much perplexed; and yet he heard him gladly. [21]
But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for
his courtiers and officers and the leading men of Galilee. [22] For
when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his
guests; and the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish,
and I will grant it." [23] And he said to her, "Whatever you ask me, I
will give you, even half of my kingdom." [24] And she went out, and
said to her mother, "What shall I ask?" And she said, "The head of
John the Baptizer." [25] And she came in immediately with haste to the
king, and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of
John the Baptizer on a platter." [26] And the King was exceedingly
sorry; but because of his oath and his guests he did not want to break
his word to her. [27] And immediately the king sent a soldier of the
guard and gave orders to bring his head. He went and beheaded him in
the prison, [28] and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the
girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. [29] When his disciples
heard of it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

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Commentary:

16-29. It is interesting that the extensive account of the death of
John the Baptist is inserted here in the Gospel narrative. The reason
is St. John the Baptist's special relevance in the history of
salvation: he is the Precursor, entrusted with the task of preparing
the way for the Messiah. Besides, John the Baptist had a great
reputation among the people: they believed him to be a prophet (Mark
11:32); some even thought he was the Messiah (Luke 3:15; John 1:20);
and they flocked to him from many places (Mark 1:5). Jesus Himself
said: "Among those born of women there has risen no one greater than
John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:11). Later, the Apostle St. John will
speak of him in the Gospel: "There was a man sent from God, whose name
was John" (John 1:6); but the sacred text points out that, despite
this, he was not the light, but rather the witness to the light (John
1:6-8). More correctly, he was the lamp carrying the light (John
5:35). We are told here that he was a righteous man and preached to
everyone what had to be preached: he had a word for people at large,
for publicans, for soldiers (Luke 3:10-14); for Pharisees and Sadducees
(Matthew 3:7-12); for King Herod himself (Mark 6:18-20). This humble,
upright and austere man paid with his life for the witness he bore to
Jesus the Messiah (John 1:29 and 36-37).

26. Oaths and promises immoral in content should never be made, and, if
made, should never be kept. This is the teaching of the Church, which
is summed up in the "St. Pius X Catechism", 383, in the following way:
"Are we obliged to keep oaths we have sworn to do unjust and unlawful
things? Not only are we not obliged: we sin by making such oaths, for
they are prohibited by the Law of God or of the Church."

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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

American Catholic's Saint of the Day

August 29, 2005

Beheading of John the Baptist

The drunken oath of a king with a shallow sense of honor, a seductive dance and the hateful heart of a queen combined to bring about the martyrdom of John the Baptist. The greatest of prophets suffered the fate of so many Old Testament prophets before him: rejection and martyrdom. The “voice crying in the desert” did not hesitate to accuse the guilty, did not hesitate to speak the truth. But why? What possesses a man that he would give up his very life?

This great religious reformer was sent by God to prepare the people for the Messiah. His vocation was one of selfless giving. The only power that he claimed was the Spirit of Yahweh. “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). Scripture tells us that many people followed John looking to him for hope, perhaps in anticipation of some great messianic power. John never allowed himself the false honor of receiving these people for his own glory. He knew his calling was one of preparation. When the time came, he led his disciples to Jesus: “The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God.’ The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus” (John 1:35-37). It is John the Baptist who has pointed the way to Christ. John’s life and death were a giving over of self for God and other people. His simple style of life was one of complete detachment from earthly possessions. His heart was centered on God and the call that he heard from the Spirit of God speaking to his heart. Confident of God’s grace, he had the courage to speak words of condemnation or repentance, of salvation.

Comment:

Each of us has a calling to which we must listen. No one will ever repeat the mission of John, and yet all of us are called to that very mission. It is the role of the Christian to witness to Jesus. Whatever our position in this world, we are called to be disciples of Christ. By our words and deeds others should realize that we live in the joy of knowing that Jesus is Lord. We do not have to depend upon our own limited resources, but can draw strength from the vastness of Christ’s saving grace.

Quote:

“So they came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing and everyone is coming to him.’ John answered and said, ‘No one can receive anything except what has been given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said [that] I am not the Messiah, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease’” (John 3:26–30).

Homily of the Day

Homily of the Day

Title:	The Patterns Don't Lie
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
Date:	Monday, August 29, 2005

Mt 25:1-13

Like a runaway train, life can get away from us and surge out of control. It sneaks up on us. At one moment, we're like those foolish maidens in the gospel, all dressed for the party, their lamps burning brightly, relaxed and unworried about taking a little nap while they wait for the groom to show up. Then suddenly, everything changes: it's time to go, their lamps burn out, they arrive late, and they're locked out — for good! Show's over.

Lives don't go sour overnight. They may appear to, and the final unravelling may be swift and terrifying, but the process takes time and thousand of tiny decisions, building one upon the other. And often we hardly notice where they're leading and what they're adding up to.

As we examine our consciences, we usually find no single matter of great seriousness, no murders, no child abuse, no major hates, no adulteries. And we think we're home free. But what we really need to look at are the persistent patterns of our daily choices which cumulatively define who we are.

In the Watergate crisis, "Deep Throat" said to "follow the money" if we wanted to find the real culprits. In our lives, there's a parallel: follow the persistent patterns of your choices if you want to find out who you really are.

There's our bottom line: if you don't want your life to surge out of control, track the patterns of your daily choices early and often. They'll tell you who you are and where you're headed, and they'll tell you when you have some course corrections to make. The patterns don't lie, so watch them closely with the Holy Spirit at your side.

A Voice in the Desert

Monday August 29, 2005 Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist

Reading (Jeremiah 1:17-19) Gospel (St. Mark 6:17-29)

Today we celebrate the feast of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist. This particular thing is something that is of great interest because we know from Sacred Scripture that Our Lord has told us that Saint John the Baptist is the greatest man born of woman. Now you would think, if that were the case, that God – especially after having bestowed upon him so many extraordinary graces to be able to know who the Messiah was and point Him out to the people, to baptize the people and prepare them for the coming of the Messiah – was going to protect him, shield him, make sure that nothing happened to him. You recall Our Lord Himself telling us that we might be hauled into synagogues and before magistrates and so on, but He said, Not a hair on your head is going to be harmed. When we hear these words and then we look at what happened to John the Baptist, we have to ask ourselves, “What happened? Why didn’t the Lord protect him?” It is because his martyrdom was the greatest act of witness to Jesus that Saint John the Baptist had ever performed. Instead of looking at it and saying, “But I thought God was going to protect him,” we have to look at it the other way, first of all, recognizing that God did protect him. He kept his faith strong right to the end, He gave him the grace to offer his life in witness to Christ, and He brought him to heaven. What greater protection can there be?

We would like to think this means that nothing is going to touch him. Why would we think that? Look at the Cross. Look at the Son of God hanging on the Cross, and then say, “Do we think that we should not have to do anything like this?” The promises God makes are absolute and irrevocable. The difficulty is that sometimes we do not quite understand them the way God intended them. We look at this promise and we think that therefore we should not have to suffer. We think that we should not have to endure martyrdom because God made this promise that not even a hair on our head would be touched. But that is a little different from the way He would intend it, so we have to learn to see things from His perspective.

But we also need to learn to see the value, the dignity, of martyrdom and of suffering. While it is not something that most of us are going to stand in line for, it is something that we have to understand the importance of. The old saying is: The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians. We know from the Cross that it is only through suffering and through death that the greatest good in the world has come about. And it is going to be through suffering and through martyrdom that the greatest good in the world is going to continue to come about, not only that the martyrs get to go straight to heaven, but that many souls will be saved because of the uniting of their sufferings to that of Christ.

It is quite an interesting phenomenon to see how things change with time. Back in the 4^th century, Saint Augustine actually had to preach homilies to the people telling them that not everybody had to be a martyr. The people wanted to be martyred! He was trying to explain to them that there are different people in heaven who were not martyrs; there are married people and there are the virgins and there are all these different categories of people; not everybody has to be a martyr. Now we have to stand here and say, “Well, some people will be martyred.” And our 21^st century response is: “It’s not fair.” The question really has to do not with what is fair but with what is proper. What is proper is what the Church has recognized right from the very beginning. What is not proper is our mindset on the whole thing.

If we are looking at it and saying, “It’s not right. People shouldn’t have to do this,” that is not true. People are willing to do this out of love. For those of you who are parents, all you have to do is ask yourself, “What would you do for one of your kids? If your child were in the immediate line of danger, would you put yourself in the place of that child? Would you risk your life to save the child’s life?” I hope and pray and trust that the answer to that is “yes” because you love your children so much, not because you want to get hurt, not because you want to die, but because you love your children. Well, we are called to love God above all with our whole heart and soul and strength. That is what the martyrs show us, that they love God so much that they are willing to suffer and die for Him.

Now for those of us who run away from the suffering, and those of us who would absolutely cringe at the possibility of martyrdom, we need to ask ourselves, “How much do I really love the Lord? If I am unwilling to accept even a little bit of suffering for Him then I must not love Him very much.” The martyrs loved Him so much that they were perfectly united to Him in His suffering and in His death so that they could be perfectly united to Him in His resurrection and His glorification. That is what we are all called to do as well, to love the Lord so much that we would be willing to do anything for Him. If we find that we are not willing to do anything for Him then we need to start really working on our love for God because that is what is lacking, not the promises of God, not anything from His side, but rather only from our side. So that is what we need to look at very, very seriously, and ask ourselves, “How much do I really love God? Do I love Him enough to suffer for Him? Do I love Him enough to die for Him?”

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

The Word Among Us

Monday, August 29, 2005

Meditation
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

The Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

“Work as if everything depends on you, and pray as if everything depends on God.” These words of wisdom from St. Augustine are really good advice as long as we don’t forget that we are powerless without God. We have all been given gifts and talents that God calls us to use to build up his kingdom. He has sent the Holy Spirit to guide us and assist us in this work. But in the eternal scheme of things, it is God’s sovereign, divine work in the world that ultimately accomplishes the work of salvation.

We see this truth played out in today’s first reading. No matter how well we use the talents God has given us, and no matter how fully we cooperate with the Holy Spirit to become holy men and women, it is God who raised his Son from the dead. It is God who gives us victory over death and glorifies our bodies. It is God who, despite all the sin in the world and the sin in our own hearts, makes it possible for us to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Today we recall the life and death of St. John the Baptist. What a great witness to the power of God’s involvement in the world! Still, John was a strange man. He lived in the desert, wore strange clothes, and ate bugs with honey. But as strange as he was, John worked hard at preaching his message of repentance. He was unrelenting in holding people accountable for their sins. Despite his unorthodox methods, he sparked a spiritual revival that prepared Israel for Jesus. Ever humble, even John knew that God was behind this great awakening. He never failed to insist that his was only a forerunner, a voice in the wilderness, and an instrument in the hands of the Lord.

Like John and like St. Augustine, we too should try our hardest to advance the kingdom of heaven even as we abandon ourselves to the providence and miraculous grace of God. The more we recognize God’s sovereignty and love, the more we will find ourselves acting like John, that is, like a true servant of a mighty and awesome God.

“Lord, I surrender all to you and to your mighty power working within me. Use me as you will to further your kingdom.”

Psalm 96:1,3-5,11-13; Mark 6:17-29

One Bread, One Body

<< Monday, August 29, 2005 >>

Beheading of
St. John the Baptizer

Jeremiah 1:17-19

Psalm 71

Mark 6:17-29

View Readings

THE JOHN THE BAPTIST AWARD

“Stand up and tell them all that I command you.” —Jeremiah 1:17

At the monthly Mass for Presentation Ministries, the priest who celebrated Mass revealed his dream during the homily. He wants to see an annual award, called the St. John the Baptist Courage Award. It would be awarded to that Catholic bishop who has most courageously spoken out for the cause of pro-life. The “trophy” would be a silver platter, symbolizing both the courage St. John the Baptist displayed in continuously speaking out against Herod’s public adultery (Mk 6:18) and his resulting imprisonment and execution (Mk 6:28).

Such an award would be yet another encouragement for all of us, in every walk of life, to speak out against injustice and for the Lord. God tells us: “Whatever I command you, you shall speak...Stand up and tell them all that I command you” (Jer 1:7, 17). “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking and do not be silenced, for I am with you,” says the Lord (Acts 18:9-10). It’s as simple as this: there is legalized abortion in the USA because enough people who wanted abortion stood up and spoke out, while not enough people who opposed abortion spoke out.

Is the Lord calling one of you to make this dream a reality?

Prayer: Father, teach me “what to say and how to speak” (Jn 12:49).

Promise: “They will fight against you, but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” —Jer 1:19

Praise: St. John the Baptizer spent years telling people to repent and live an austere life. Many people said he was mad (Mt 11:18). However, thousands of people repented.

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