CATHOLIC MASS: Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist – Tuesday 8.29.16 – Video, Scripture, Links

“Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias … Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man … he liked to listen to him.” … “Lord, I love Your Commands” … “… my message … were not with persuasive words …but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your Faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the Power of God.”

MASS READINGS 8.29.16 – FIRST READING: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 – PSALM 119:97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102 – GOSPEL: Mark 6:17-29 – FIND A MASS: MassTimes.org – FIND A MASS: TheCatholicDirectory.com

DAILY TV MASS: Catholic TV – Boston

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DAILY TV MASS: Toronto

FIRST READING

FIRST READING: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Saint Paul explains to the Corinthians that his efforts to Proclaim the Gospel rested more on the reality of God’s Power than earthly argumentation.

When I came … proclaiming the Mystery of God,
I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.
* * * … my message and my proclamation
were not with persuasive words …
but with a demonstration of spirit and power,
so that your Faith might rest not on human wisdom
but on the Power of God.

Human intellect, itself a gift from God, has its place and is useful for helping us become better Disciples, and carry out God’s Mission for us in the temporal realm. Yet, in the end, reality is not hypothetical, and God is not an academic proposal. God is Real, All-Powerful and our Creator, the Source of all Existence.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

PSALM 119:97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102

Lord, I love Your Commands.

GOSPEL

GOSPEL: Mark 6:17-29

On this Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist, we encounter the narrative of John’s death from the Gospel of Mark.

John the Baptist, of course, was a Herald of the Messiah, a cousin of Jesus, about six months older. He first Announced the Arrival of the Messiah through a baby’s kick, as a prenatal infant stirring in Elizabeth’s womb at the sound of Mary’s greeting, when Mary was carrying the newly Conceived, newly Incarnated Jesus in her own womb.

The Baptist already has carried out his Mission of Baptism, calling for repentance and a return to God, and promising that the Messiah would soon emerge.

While the corrupt, confused King Herod likes listening to Saint John the Baptist, and fears John’s Holiness, John also has preached against Herod’s marriage to Herodias, Herod’s brother’s wife.

Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison
on account of Herodias,
the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.
John had said …
‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’
* * *
Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man,
and kept him in custody.
When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed,
yet he liked to listen to him.

With John already in prison, Herod is so impressed by the trivial matter of a dance by Herodias’s daughter Salome that he blusters that he will give Salome anything. Having already formed an evil desire to kill John for opposing her immorality, Herodias prompts Salome to ask for John’s head on a platter. Herod proves to be as immature and emotionally infantile as he is bloodcurdlingly evil. Herod’s guests apparently are as morally insane and bloodthirsty as Herodias, because Herod decides that it will embarrass him in front of them if he does not follow through. So he has his men murder Saint John the Baptist. One of the greatest men to ever live is murdered by a pathetic nobody, an evildoer, for the sake of impressing some equally corrupt dinner guests.

… Herod … gave a banquet for his courtiers,
his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee.
Herodias’ own daughter came in
and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests.
The king said to the girl,
‘Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.’
… her mother … replied, ‘The head of John the Baptist.’
The girl hurried back …
‘I want you to give me at once
on a platter the head of John the Baptist.’
The king was deeply distressed,
but because of his oaths and the guests
he did not wish to break his word to her.
So he promptly dispatched an executioner ….
He brought in the head on a platter ….

Note that the supposed leading men of Galilee, and Herod’s courtiers and military officers, are all apparently nuts.

For them to be anything other than aghast at the sight of a decapitated head of an innocent man, and for Herod to think this evil atrocity is necessary to impress them, reveals that, in Galilee, “the lunatics are running the asylum.” Yet these people are not simply unbalanced individuals. They are murderous and thoroughly evil. And, recall that they are henchmen to an evil empire that is occupying the land, the ancient Romans.

The Bible sometimes teaches by illustration. We see an instance of immoral madmen holding positions of responsibility and carrying out power in a structured manner, like “functional psychopaths.”

We also see Herod exhibiting another kind of hybrid, multifaceted set of characteristics. Herod is not simply a vicious animal. He enjoys listening to John the Baptist. He recognizes and perceives that John is a holy and righteous man, and fears him for it. Herod agonizes over the notion of carrying out his hideous crime. Yet he does it anyhow. One wonders how many steps along the way weakened and perverted Herod’s judgment and conscience, that he ends up doing what he does.

Meanwhile, John’s disciples perform a Corporal Act of Mercy by burying the dead, coming to claim Saint John the Baptist’s body and taking it to lay it in a tomb.

[Scripture passages excerpted or adapted from the NABRE, available online from the USCCB, which provides the following rights statement:

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.]