John the Baptist

Today is the Passion of St. John the Baptist. There is a beautiful reflection by Pope Benedict XVI in the Magnificat today that I would like to share with you.

“The task set before the Baptist as he lay in prison was to become blessed by this unquestioning acceptance of God’s obscure will; to reach the point of asking no further for external, visible, unequivocal clarity, but, instead, of discovering God precisely in the darkness of this world and of his own life, and thus becoming profoundly blessed. John even in his prison cell had to respond once again and anew to his own call for metanoia or a change of mentality, in order that he might recognize his God in the night in which all things earthly exist. Only when we act in this manner does another-and doubtless the greatest- saying of the Baptist reveal its full significance: ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (John 3:30). We will know God to the extent that we are set free from ourselves.”

This beautiful reflection by Pope Benedict reminds me that John the Baptist had the same struggles that we do. During his imprisonment, he had to quiet himself in order to recognize God in the darkness. He had to accept God’s will and not despair. Yes, he knew who Christ was and his purpose on earth was to prepare the way for Him, but we all have to continually choose Christ especially when things are extremely difficult. When we are thrown into complete darkness, by the death of a loved one or a life-threatening illness, we have to find our bearings and steady ourselves even when we know that God is present. Just like John, we have to respond once again and anew to God’s will for us.

John continued to speak about Christ even in prison, “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” (Mark 6:20). We are called to do the same. We need to allow Christ to reside in us and allow him to fill every fiber of our being while our old, sinful self dies off. When we put Christ first in our life, the unimportant things fall away. We no longer care what others think of us because we are focused on being pleasing to God. We learn to speak the truth just as John did when he told Herod that it was not right for him to have his brother’s wife. It was John speaking this truth that caused him to be thrown into prison. It was this truth that caused so much hate in Herodias’ heart that she had John beheaded. When we allow pride and sin to crowd our thoughts, the truth gets pushed aside. We make rash decisions that can have long-standing consequences. We may at some point regret what we said or did but sometimes what’s done is done and there is no way to make it right. There was no way for Herod to change the outcome of his decision. There was no way to bring John back or to wash the blood of that sin from his hands.