TAKE NO THOUGHT FOR YOUR LIFE

A REFLECTION ON THE 14TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST AND FEAST OF THE BEHEADING OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST

When you read through the annals of Church history you’ll find a vast array of saints.  Among them, indeed towering above them all, is the man about whom our blessed Lord said these remarkable words: “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.”  Today, as we commemorate St. John Baptist’s martyrdom at the hand of the wicked King Herod, we should pause and ponder upon what made this man greater than any other born of women.

St. Paul’s Epistle offers us the comparison between the children of darkness, those who “walk in the Spirit” and the children of darkness, those who live merely to “fulfil the lust of the flesh.”  The latter are not merely those who fall into the actual physical sin of lust, but rather, as St. Paul himself confirms, those who “do the things that they would,”—in other words, those who are slaves to their own fallen human nature which inclines them towards a life of self-indulgence.  The Apostle goes on to list the works of the flesh, and if we think about the life and death of St. John Baptist as we read through this list, we can see how the cousin and forerunner of our blessed Lord represents the very antithesis of every single one of these evils.

Far from living a life of self-indulgence John the Baptist is described as dwelling out in the desert, wearing clothes of camel's hair, and living on locusts and wild honey.  Far from indulging in a life of lust, he actively condemned the adultery of King Herod Antipas, who, after divorcing his own wife, was now openly living in sin with the wife of his brother.  This of course got him into trouble with the king, who ended up having him put to death at the insistence of his mistress Herodias.  But despite knowing the power over life and death the king had over him, John the Baptist did not hesitate to rebuke his sinfulness by speaking “truth to power.”  Before our blessed Lord had even uttered the words in today’s Gospel, that ye should “seek first the kingdom of God,” St. John Baptist had already fulfilled them by his own life, his actions, and ultimately, his death.

As the Last Gospel in our Mass proclaims, John “came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.  He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.”  Our Lord’s cousin was indeed the first of the children of light.  Since his beheading, there have been many other children of light, and even today, I hope that all of us might dare to lay claim to this title, despite our many sins.  By bearing witness of the “true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” we remain members of that noble band of men and women who “seek first the kingdom of God,” a mixture of saints and sinners certainly, but whose first focus is on saving their souls by putting God first in their lives, their neighbor second, and their own earthly happiness last.