Blameless in Holiness, Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, August 29, 2019

Fr Roger J. Landry
Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Memorial of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist
August 29, 2019
1 Thess 3:7-13, Ps 90, Mk 6:17-29

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Earlier this month, on August 3, we read together St. Matthew’s account of the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist and pondered many of the elements of his martyrdom. Today we can reexamine it within the frame given to us by St. Paul in his First Letter to the Thessalonians. He prayed that God would “strengthen [their] hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones.” St. John the Baptist was one who was strong and blameless at the coming of Jesus in the womb, at the Jordan, and even in death. He was the precursor who was always preparing the way not only for himself but for others.
• He stands in sharp contrast to what happened at Herod’s birthday party. Michael Pakuluk, in his excellent new translation and commentary on the Gospel of Mark, entitled, The Memoirs of St. Peter, described how most of the capital sins were being indulged at the party: “Lust, excited by the daughter’s dance; gluttony, indulged at the feast; pride, casting Herod to suppose himself exempt from the law; vainglory, keeping Herod from retreating from his rash oath in the presence of his lords; anger, stoking Herodias’ burning grudge against John; and envy, fueling Herodias’ resentment toward women who have their men without the reproach of adultery.”
• John had reminded Herod Antipas that it was not lawful for him to marry his brother Philip’s wife. The book of Leviticus had said clearly, “You shall not have intercourse with your brother’s wife, for that would be a disgrace to your brother” (Lev 18:16). Herod had gone to Rome to visit his brother and while there seduced his sister-in-law, persuaded her to leave his brother, divorced his own wife and married her. To make the incestuous matters worse, Herodias was Philip’s and Herod’s niece as well. For all these reasons it was not right for Herod to have Herodias as his wife. With a string of violent verbs, the evangelist tells us that Herod had John arrested, bound, and imprisoned. He wanted to kill him, St. Matthew tells us, but he feared the people. And Herodias absolutely wanted him dead and was constantly looking to kill him. Eventually Herod would kill him when his vindictive bride pimped her princess daughter to do a striptease before her step-father and uncle and all his drunken courtiers to seduce him into vowing to give her anything she wanted. He was basically saying to this young girl that he would treat her as his consort, splitting everything he had equally with her. It was an incredible promise and Salome would ask for far more than half his kingdom. She would ask for his soul. She would ask for him to murder an innocent man and bring John the Baptist’s head on a platter. Herod gave the command. And we can imagine to the Aramaic tune of Happy Birthday to You, the soldiers brought in, instead of birthday cake, the Baptist’s severed head. But while that day was a tragedy for Herod and all those participating in his Satanic liturgy where lust ruled instead of sacrificial love, where immoral oaths dominated over the truth, it was a triumph for John the Baptist, in essence, his spiritual birthday in which he was born into eternity and we believe leaped for joy again.
• The Mass, in which John the Baptist’s words echo until the end of time indicating to us the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, is where we become one with the Word we announce. This is where we are strengthened to become martyrs, witnesses, to Christ. This is where we receive something far more valuable than even 100 kingdoms of Herod!

The readings for today’s Mass were: