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Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist - The Greatest Act of Witness to Jesus Christ
by Fr. Altier
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 4th 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 21st 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?"
See Also:
Sermons and Bible Commentaries on the Birth of John, The Baptist
Sermons and Bible Commentaries on the Annunciation to Zechariah
Sermons and Bible Commentaries on the Life and Death of John, The Baptist
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