PERFECTION IN HEAVENLY TRADITION


THE BEHEADING OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST

1 Cor 1:26-31; Ps 33:12-13,18-21; Mk 6:17-29

The Essence of the Heavenly Tradition

The heart or core value that defines the heavenly tradition is God-centredness. The Gospel tradition teaches the supremacy of the knowledge of God the Father and love for Him. We are trained in the holy tradition to prefer the will of the Father in all things and reject our own sinful will. The training commences from the very day we encounter Jesus Christ personally and make our profession of faith in him. To make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ is to have received divine light from the Father as Peter did when he confessed the identity of the Son of Man. Hence, such enlightenment from the Father is a privileged invitation to follow Jesus Christ, the sole teacher of mankind. We sin any time we leave the light of our faith in Jesus Christ to follow our own or worldly light; to desire to do our own will and not follow the teaching of Jesus Christ is to go back on our confession of faith in Jesus Christ. It is to doubt what we received from the Father. Saint Peter did that in Mt 16:22-23 after confessing the identity of the Son of Man. The Lord identified him with Satan, the enemy of our race. Therefore, to receive the heavenly tradition is to follow the word of God, which expresses the Father’s will in all things.

John the Baptist testified to the Son of Man when he appeared and presented him to Israel as his forerunner. Dogged as he was in following the heavenly tradition, he was tempted to doubt the identity and mission of Jesus Christ, especially as it pertains to his own life. Locked up in prison by Herod, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” as recorded in Mt 11:2-11 and Lk 7:18-23. Our Lord’s response to him reveals that the Gospel tradition has the glory of God and human salvation as its goal. Everything is consecrated or sacrificed to these ends. John resigned his fate and life to God when he understood the message. It was the Father’s will to allow Herod to grant the request of Herodias’ daughter, directed by her mother. “She went out and said to her mother, ‘What shall I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the Baptist.’ The girl hurried straight back to the king and made her request, ‘I want you to give me John the Baptist’s head, here and now, on a dish.’” John the Baptist stood for the will of God for Herod, Herodias, and all Israel. But they abandoned and sacrificed him for their own will and pleasure.

Every sin shares the same nature as the abandonment of the Father’s will for our own selfish will. Since the Son of Man is the embodiment of the Father’s will, it follows that every sin is a rejection of Jesus Christ in favour of our individual pleasures. The desire or temptation to abandon the will of God for us in place of our own grows as we grow in fame and worldly status. Our popularity can even be within the Christian community or among the people of God; for Peter was thus tempted after Jesus promoted him to be first among the apostles. We must therefore keep reminding ourselves that we are nothing before God; we become something only when we finally enter the communion of God in heaven. Thus, Paul reminds us of our lowly states. “Take yourselves for instance, brothers, at the time when you were called: how many of you were wise in the ordinary sense of the word, how many were influential people, or came from noble families? No, it was to shame the wise that God chose what is foolish by human reckoning, and to shame what is strong that he chose what is weak by human reckoning.” Just as John the Baptist recognised his importance and fulfilment of his mission in submitting to the Father’s will, we must understand that our perfection in the Gospel tradition lies in our death to self and being alive only to do the will of God in Jesus Christ. This commitment makes us one with Christ. Only the grace of God can bring us to this height.

Let us pray: O God, who willed that Saint John the Baptist should go ahead of your Son both in his birth and in his death, grant that, as he died a Martyr for truth and justice, we, too, may fight hard for the confession of what you teach. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.      

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