[Goanet] Happy Fest of St John the Baptist: John's brief ministry was thus terminated by a monstrous crime great sadness among them who had hearkened to him.Jesus n his disciples, retired "to a desert place apart, " to mourn.

[Robin Viegas]

From: b sabha <bcsabha.kal...@gmail.com>


From: Fr. Cedric Prakash sj 
<cedricprak...@gmail.com<mailto:cedricprak...@gmail.com>>



HAPPY FEAST OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST!






St. John the Baptist
[https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/pictures/6_24_john_baptist.jpg]We
 are given the story of the ministry of John the Baptist, called the Precursor 
or Forerunner of the Lord, with some variation of detail, in the three synoptic 
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as in the Book of John. Luke tells 
us of the birth of John the Baptist in a town of Judaea, about six months 
before the birth of the Saviour. The attendant circumstances, which we have 
already recounted under the headings of and , his parents, suggest the 
miraculous and wonderful. The New Testament tells us nothing of John's early 
years, but we know that his pious, virtuous parents must have reared the boy 
with care, conscious always of the important work to which he was appointed, 
and imbuing him with a sense of his destiny.

When John began final preparations for his mission, he was probably in his 
thirty-second year. He withdrew into the harsh, rocky desert beyond the Jordan 
to fast and pray, as was the ancient custom of holy men. We are told that he 
kept himself alive by eating locusts and wild honey and wore a rough garment of 
camel's hair, tied with a leathern girdle. When he came back to start preaching 
in the villages of Judaea, he was haggard and uncouth, but his eyes burned with 
zeal and his voice carried deep conviction. The Jews were accustomed to 
preachers and prophets who gave no thought to outward appearances, and they 
accepted John at once; the times were troubled, and the people yearned for 
reassurance and comfort. So transcendant was the power emanating from the holy 
man that after hearing him many believed he was indeed the long-awaited 
Messiah. John quickly put them right, saying he had come only to prepare the 
way, and that he was not worthy to unloose the Master's sandals. Although his 
preaching and baptizing continued for some months during the Saviour's own 
ministry, John always made plain that he was merely the Forerunner. His 
humility remained incorruptible even when his fame spread to Jerusalem and 
members of the higher priesthood came to make inquiries and to hear him. 
"Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,"-this was John's oft-repeated 
theme. For the evils of the times his remedy was individual purification. 
"Every tree," he said, "that is not bringing forth good fruit is to be cut down 
and thrown into the fire." The reformation of each person's life must be 
complete—the wheat must be separated from the chaff and the chaff burned "with 
unquenchable fire."

The rite of baptism, a symbolic act signifying sincere repentance as well as a 
desire to be spiritually cleansed in order to receive the Christ, was so 
strongly emphasized by John that people began to call him "the baptizer." The 
Scriptures tell us of the day when Jesus joined the group of those who wished 
to receive baptism at John's hands. John knew Jesus for the Messiah they had so 
long expected, and at first excused himself as unworthy. Then, in obedience to 
Jesus, he acquiesced and baptized Him. Although sinless, Jesus chose to be 
baptized in order to identify Himself with the human lot. And when He arose 
from the waters of the Jordan, where the rite was performed, "the heavens 
opened and the Spirit as a dove descended. And there came a voice from the 
heavens, Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased" (Mark i, 11).

John's life now rushes on towards its tragic end. In the fifteenth year of the 
reign of the Roman emperor, Tiberias Caesar, Herod Antipas was the provincial 
governor or tetrarch of a subdivision of Palestine which included Galilee and 
Peraea, a district lying east of the Jordan. In the course of John's preaching, 
he had denounced in unmeasured terms the immorality of Herod's petty court, and 
had even boldly upbraided Herod to his face for his defiance of old Jewish law, 
especially in having taken to himself the wife of his half-brother, Philip. 
This woman, the dissolute Herodias, was also Herod's niece. Herod feared and 
reverenced John, knowing him to be a holy man, and he followed his advice in 
many matters; but he could not endure having his private life castigated. 
Herodias stimulated his anger by lies and artifices. His resentment at length 
got the better of his judgment and he had John cast into the fortress of 
Machaerus, near the Dead Sea. When Jesus heard of this, and knew that some of 
His disciples had gone to see John, He spoke thus of him: "What went you to 
see? A prophet? Yea, I say to you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom 
it is written: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy 
way before thee. For I say to you, amongst those that are born of women there 
is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist" (Matthew xi, 10-12).

[https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/pictures/6_24_john_baptist2.jpg]Herodias
 never ceased plotting against the life of John, who was not silenced even by 
prison walls. His followers now became even more turbulent. To Herodias soon 
came the opportunity she had long sought to put an end to the trouble-maker. On 
Herod's birthday he gave a feast for the chief men of that region. In Matthew 
xiv, Mark vi, and Luke ix, we are given parallel accounts of this infamous 
occasion which was to culminate in John's death. At the feast, Salome, 
fourteen-year-old daughter of Herodias by her lawful husband, pleased Herod and 
his guests so much by her dancing that Herod promised on oath to give her 
anything that it was in his power to give, even though it should amount to half 
his kingdom. Salome, acting under the direction and influence of her wicked 
mother, answered that she wished to have the head of John the Baptist, 
presented to her on a platter. Such a horrible request shocked and unnerved 
Herod. Still, he had given his word and was afraid to break it. So, with no 
legal formalities whatever, he dispatched a soldier to the prison with orders 
to behead the prisoner and return with it immediately. This was quickly done, 
and the cruel girl did not hesitate to accept the dish with its dreadful 
offering and give it to her mother. John's brief ministry was thus terminated 
by a monstrous crime. There was great sadness among the people who had 
hearkened to him, and when the disciples of Jesus heard the news of John's 
death, they came and took the body and laid it reverently in a tomb. Jesus, 
with some of his disciples, retired "to a desert place apart," to mourn.

The Jewish historian Josephus, giving further testimony of John's holiness, 
writes: "He was indeed a man endued with all virtue, who exhorted the Jews to 
the practice of justice towards men and piety towards God; and also to baptism, 
preaching that they would become acceptable to God if they renounced their 
sins, and to the cleanness of their bodies added purity of soul." Thus Jews and 
Christians unite in reverence and love for this prophet-saint whose life is an 
incomparable example of both humility and courage.

Excerpted from Lives of the Saints, Published by John J. Crawley & Co., Inc.