Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of the Passion of St. John the Baptist, remembering the courageous stand that this faithful servant of God showed in the last moments and days of his life, in staying true to his faith and in completing his mission of calling all the people to God. And he did this, even when he knew that he would be persecuted and suffer for all of his dedication.

St. John the Baptist spent several years ministering to the people and calling them to repentance, as those people flocked to him by the River Jordan and were baptised by him in the waters of the river. Many thousands came up to him and sought to repent from their sins, and through this, the servant of God fulfilled his mission as the one who prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah, calling the people to turn away from sin and open their hearts and minds to welcome the Lord’s truth that would come soon.

St. John the Baptist had to face against the opposition first of all from the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, many of whom were skeptical of him, because of his teachings and his proclamations, and because of his way of dressing, very simple and like a wild man living in the wilderness, and most importantly, because he was not part of their group, and St. John the Baptist also had scathing remarks against them, as they professed to be the guardians of the faith of the people, and yet, they misled the people and did not practice the Law in the way they should have done.

St. John the Baptist spoke out courageously against them, calling them the brood of vipers, as their actions turned many people away from God, and thus away from His grace and salvation. In this saint, we see a figure filled with zeal and love both for God and for God’s people, his fellow brethren, who had been entrusted to his care as part of the preparation of the coming of the salvation of God.

And he dared to speak up against king Herod and Herodias, his unlawful wife. Herodias was the legal and rightful wife of Philip, the brother of Herod, who at that time was likely still living. In contravention of the Law of God, which stated that a man may only take his brother’s wife should the marriage be childless, the presence of a daughter of Herodias in the Scripture likely highlighted that this daughter was the daughter of Herodias and Philip, as clearly had the daughter been of Herod, she would not have been named as the daughter of Herodias.

Therefore, Herod had committed adultery with his own brother’s wife, and as a king and leader of the people, such a terrible and immoral deed should not have been done at all. It was unbecoming and wrong for the king to commit such an act, and St. John the Baptist courageously pointed this out to the king and his unlawful wife, Herodias. Herod had St. John arrested, although he still respected the servant of God and did not allow any harm to come to the man of God.

But Herodias held deep grudge against St. John the Baptist and plotted to have him killed. She used her own daughter as a tool to coerce her husband to achieve that aim, and she had her chance when she had her daughter dance at a party held by king Herod for his guests and officials. Using the daughter’s beauty to her advantage and Herod’s weakness in tending to succumb to his flesh’s desires, and also likely compounded by being intoxicated with wine drunk at the celebration, Herodias made Herod to commit the wicked deed of executing St. John the Baptist in prison.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we recall the memory of the commitment and the perseverance of St. John the Baptist, we are called to follow in his good examples, in his faith and dedication, that we will always keep alive our faith and dedicate ourselves to God to the best of our abilities. We should be righteous and be brave in standing up for our faith before others, to be genuine witnesses of our Christian faith.

And we are also reminded to be careful and be vigilant against the temptations of pride and greed, as it was the same pride which prevented the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law to acknowledge God’s truth and that they had been wrong. It was also greed that had led king Herod to commit adultery with her husband’s wife, and how he succumbed to temptation and caused the murder of St. John the Baptist because of his lust for Herodias’ own daughter.

Let us all therefore strive to be ever better Christians through our every words and actions, spending and dedicating our every moments and efforts to serve the Lord and His people with ever greater devotion. May the Lord strengthen us and give us the same courage and faith as St. John the Baptist had shown us all. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.