In our Catholic liturgy, the colors we
use have great significance with what we are celebrating or commemorating. The color red can represent the Holy Spirit,
but it also signifies martyrdom or the death of a person for our faith, which
we commemorate today in the martyrdom of John the Baptist.
It was John's prophetic voice that
carried God's message to his people and prepared the way for the coming of
Jesus, but it's also his prophetic voice that got him into trouble. He charged the highest-ranking governmental
official of the region, Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, of making an
unlawful marriage with Herodias, the daughter of one of Herod's brothers &
the ex-wife of another brother. Speaking out against Herod landed John in
prison.
Imprisonment might have been enough to
silence John, but Herodias wanted him dead. In the midst of the wine and food
of a great banquet, in the midst of an oath he makes in front of his guest in
order to please his wife's daughter, Herod agreed to kill John the
Baptist.
It's interesting that King Herod is
both puzzled by John and attracted to him.
Herod feared John, he listened to him, he saw him as a holy &
righteous man. Yet, Herod was willing to
sacrifice the life of John the Baptist in order to maintain his own honor,
prestige, and power. Wanting to show his
subjects that he had a firm grasp of power and control, he showed us what a
weak person he really was.
It seems that at one point, Herod was
willing to listen to John's proclamation of God's word, but Herod cared more
about the world, which silenced God's message in him. Perhaps we can ask ourselves today: what are
the messages of our world that silence the word of God within us?
Our Christian faith is more than just
knowing about Jesus, more than just admiring him and hearing his word. Herod heard what John the Baptist had to say,
even admiring it to an extent. However,
we as followers of Christ are called to do more: we need to let the word of God
find fertile ground in our lives, to grow and become a part of our very
being. We need the word of God to take
root in us and bear fruit.
The martyrdom of John the Baptist has a
message for all of us. in the midst of
the reality of our lives , the word of God speaks to us: it wants to take root
in our lives. All of us can be
messengers of God's word in all that we say and do. We can bring God's word and God's love to
others, no matter what is going on in our lives.
The story of the martyrdom of John the
Baptist is shocking, and I do believe it is meant to be. Sometimes, as modern followers of Christ, we
need to be shocked out of our complacency, shocked out of the mundane routine
of our daily lives, shocked out of a faith that perhaps comes at very little
cost or no cost to us in our daily reality.
Very few of us in the modern world as called to be martyrs in the sense
that John the Baptist gave his life for the faith. But, those of us who are followers of Christ,
we are asked to be bold and courageous in the way we live out our faith. Sometimes living out our faith boldly is not
comfortable or easy for us to do. But we
are asked to stand in solidarity with Christ, to stand with John the Baptist
and those who prepared the path of faith for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment