From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   June 24th - St. John the Baptist, The Birth of (RM)   
      
   1st century. John the Baptist, the last of the prophets and the forerunner   
   of   
   our Lord, was a man of the desert. The son of a priestly line, born of aged   
   parents as if by a miracle, brought up as a Nazarite, that is, dedicated   
   from   
   birth to God's service with lifelong obligations never to shave, take wine,   
   or   
   indulge in human pleasures. He lived in the wilderness, a rugged and   
   magnetic   
   figure, clothed in the skin of a camel, living on locusts and wild honey.   
      
   He is the most startling figure in the Gospel narrative, a man of mystery,   
   not   
   as other men, bronzed by the desert sun, with piercing words of ominous   
   malediction, uncompromising and aggressive. No greater contrast can be   
   imagined   
   than the appearance by the river of this prophet of fire and the figure of   
   Jesus   
   as 'the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world.'   
      
   Crowds followed him, held by his hypnotic power and rugged eloquence and   
   lashed   
   by his bitter invective. "You offspring of vipers, who has warned you to   
   flee   
   from the wrath to come? Bring forth fruits meet for repentance. The axe is   
   laid   
   to the rotten trees." The wheat is being threshed and the stubble burnt in   
   the   
   empty fields. It was the voice of the old dispensation, the last echo of   
   Moses   
   and Elijah, the final challenge of the fire and thunder of the God of the   
   ancient Jews.   
      
   But John also prepared the way for Jesus,and with all his fierceness   
   exercised a   
   vital and realistic ministry. With it went a surprising humility and   
   tenderness,   
   for he recognized his own limitations and that he was but a forerunner and a   
   road-builder; and when the time came, he graciously made way for our Lord.   
   He   
   shrank even from the thought of baptizing Him, and spoke of Him with wonder   
   and   
   devotion. I am not the Christ, he said, I am but a voice. "He that comes   
   after   
   me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear."   
      
   His end was tragic, the result of a squalid intrigue. With characteristic   
   boldness he had denounced the unlawful marriage of the infamous Herodias,   
   and,   
   as a result, had been thrown into the gloomy fortress of Machaerus on the   
   shores   
   of the Dead Sea. Then, to gratify the cruel and frivolous whim of a dancing   
   girl, Salome, the daughter of Herodias, who had been prompted by her mother,   
   Herod, to his own disgust, but unwilling to take back his word, put him to   
   death, and there followed the shameful display of his head on a charger.   
      
   Thus ended the life of this sublime and extraordinary figure who blazed the   
   trail for our Lord. The disciples gave his body decent burial and then broke   
   the   
   tragic news to Jesus, who, overcome by grief and unable to face the crowds   
   that   
   thronged Him, took a boat and retired for a while to a desert place apart   
   (Gill).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Our Lord wills that you cling to Him alone! If your faith were greater how   
   much   
   more peaceful you would be even when great trials surround and oppress you.   
   --Saint Paula Frassinetti   
      
   Bible quote:   
   "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth   
   unto   
   everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God   
   the   
   Father sealed."  (John 6:27)   
      
      
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   There is no doubt that blessed John suffered imprisonment and chains as a   
   witness to our Redeemer, whose forerunner he was, and gave his life for him.   
   His   
   persecutor had demanded not that he should deny Christ, but only that he   
   should   
   keep silent about the truth. Nevertheless, he died for Christ. Does Christ   
   not   
   say: "I am the truth"? Therefore, because John shed his blood for the truth,   
   he   
   surely died for Christ.   
      
   Through his birth, preaching and baptizing, he bore witness to the coming   
   birth,   
   preaching and baptism of Christ, and by his own suffering he showed that   
   Christ   
   also would suffer.   
      
   Such was the quality and strength of the man who accepted the end of this   
   present life by shedding his blood after the long imprisonment. He preached   
   the   
   freedom of heavenly peace, yet was thrown into irons by ungodly men. He was   
   locked away in the darkness of prison, through he came bearing witness to   
   the   
   Light of life and deserved to be called a bright and shining lamp by that   
   Light   
   itself, which is Christ.   
      
   To endure temporal agonies for the sake of the truth was not a heavy burden   
   for   
   such men as John; rather is was easily borne and even desirable, for he knew   
   eternal joy would be his reward. Since death was ever at hand, such men   
   considered it a blessing to embrace it and thus gain the reward of eternal   
   life   
   by acknowledging Christ's name. Hence the apostle Paul rightly says: "You   
   have   
   been granted the privilege not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer   
   for   
   his sake." He tells us why it is Christ's gift that his chosen ones should   
   suffer for him: "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be   
   compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us."   
      
   from a homily by Saint Bede the Venerable on the death of John the Baptist   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)