THURSDAY AUGUST 29, 2024
THURSDAY TWENTY FIRST WEEK OF THE ORDINARY TIME B
THE BEHEADING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST (MEMORIAL)
Jeremiah 1: 17-19
Mark 6:17-29
ORDEALS OF SERVANTS OF GOD
Any one who takes up the task of serving the Lord in any capacity has been asked to prepare for an ordeal. It is a task that demands total giving of oneself and ones life. It is to be seen more as total abandonment of oneself to God. It demands sacrifice of oneself. But it promises to be a great and glorious life too.
John the baptist as well as our Lord Jesus Christ stood for the truth, lived good moral lives and preached same to the world. But both shared the same fate of being killed by cruel and ruthless Roman Kings and their cohorts. Does it mean that God is not aware of these deaths? Or does it mean that anyone who walks in the ways of God must experience death by cruelty of men?
The story of the beheading of John the baptist had it that he stood for the truth and spoke the truth to power, correcting the errors in people’s lives. He was described as a good and holy man, full of wisdom and knowledge. Jesus speaks of John the baptist as a man who is greatest of all men in this world, yet the least in the Kingdom of God. Meaning that John the baptist harboured no sins, and was not loose in living. So, he was not paying for his sins by his being beheaded.
God allowed it for his own purpose which is beyond man’s understanding and comprehension. Some say it is the greatest witnessing John could have offered for the faith he believed in. Indeed, it is the greatest witness. To give one’s life is the greatest witness. And that is what God desires of us.
John began his witnessing with an auster life. Eating wild honey and holocaust, wearing camel’s skin and living in the wilderness. He had followers, he was listened to. People flock to him. He baptised them and cautioned all who came to live a good life. All these are great symbols of witnessing – the life he lived, what he eats and where he sleeps to be able to be disposed for the mission of witnessing. This is the beginning of the ordeal of a servant of God.
There must be a sign of total self giving, a distinctive characteristic that marks one out in the line of duty and lifestyle. A change in mode that attracts attentions to what one stands for. John stood for repentance, and had to model his life towards repentance. Repentance from sinfulness, from gluttony, from ostentatious living, from falsehood, and repentance from all forms of false living.
When such becomes our duty and is assumed as such, then oppositions must arise. This is natural. It is like a war between light and darkness. John stood for what he believed in and when Herod and Herodias became infatuated with themselves and because it was wrong, John spoke up. He had always spoken up, even against leaders of the people and religious leaders too. So Herod and Herodias were not the first.
So the courage of witnessing is not lacking. But the powers of the opposition can always be tamed by reason and fear. Which was the case with Herod until the catalyst, the daughter of Herodias danced and made the king to swear to give her anything she requested.
Reason acted until emotion, pride and power met. That changed the whole thing. Emotion, anger, animosity, strive from Herodias, combined with power and pride, from Herod, to kill the truth which resulted in the beheading of John the baptist.
When we lean so much on human emotions of anger, animosity, and the evil of pride and power come along, the consequence is not difficult to predict, – death.
The intentions of anger and animosity is usually destruction as seen in Herodias. And the unintended result of pride and power crystalizes into death. John became the victim of power play and emotional outburst.
But John’s life and death is still a testimony of the ordeal of a servant of God. That even though the killers understands in their minds the evil in their actions, they took to silence the truth, to fight what scares them most, to annihilate what disturbs them. Instead of repenting, they took to resisting and eliminating the sources of their discomfort.
This situation accounts for the ordeals that servants of the gospel undergo, especially those that stood strong for what they believe in.
John inspires us to be faithful in witnessing to the truth. To stand firm in our beliefs and resolves, to hold on to it and even give our lives to it. John also encourages us to not only be half baked but fully testify with all our life. And to also know that when we stand for the truth, oppositions must arise and may result in the earthly termination of our lives if our God allows or permits it.
God our Father, you have called us to a life of grace and witnessing. John the Baptist died witnessing. May we have the courage to stand firm in our faith, and trusting in you always be faithful and courageous preachers even in the face of oppositions. And May our little witnessing bring many to repentance, and draw souls back to you. Bless and protect our lives always through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Fr Norbert Uchuno
