August 29: The Beheading of St. John the Baptist

And when Jesus received [the news that John has been beheaded], he withdrew by boat to a lonely place where he and his disciples could be by themselves" (Matthew 14.13).

Matthew in Chapter 14 tells the story of the beheading of John the Baptist; it's a grisly tale that takes place during a birthday party--Herod's. Not unsurprisingly (if I have the details right), this is the Herod who is the son of the man who butchered the babies when Jesus was a toddler. Things do run in families. It must have been quite a good party: lots of booze, pole-dancing girls, loads of bawdy talk, a few salacious eye-winks, a table full of gifts, great food: in short, a blast of conspicuous consumption. And eventually John's head brought in with a lots of "O, look! Salome has got her wish!" Herod's wife smiled. John, telling truth to the Powers, had really irritated her.

You can imagine how saddened and depressed Jesus must have been upon getting the news. After all, John and Jesus were not only cousins; John had been been a "pastor" to Jesus. They knew each other well, so well that when Jesus comes over the horizon at the river and asks to be baptized, John, knowing Jesus from childhood on up, first wants nothing to do with such an apparently inappropriate baptism. Jesus insists, goes down into the soaking water, and comes up with the Father's blessing.

Now his pastor is dead: executed. Shocked, traumatized, in deep sadness, Our Lord wants to get away. Understandably. He heads by boat for the desert, the Silence of God. It doesn't work. Hoards of people are on his trail, eventually disrupting His solitude, forcing him to see them with pity, begging him to heal them. Whoever said grief was easy?

Then comes the great contrast: the other party, the party that begins with scraps of food and ends with baskets of leftovers. The contrast is startling: Herod at his night club, Jesus in the desert. A birthday party with John's unwrapped head as grisly gift. A picnic with thousands who receive bread and the Bread of Life.

I imagine that while Jesus was feeding those people, going around shaking hands, making sure that everyone got blessed and fed, that He did all of that in spite of the sadness in His heart. Jesus pressed on to bless in spite of knowing what happened to His pastor. Jesus fed everyone while the memory of His mentor's death went unabated.

Jesus still presses on today while knowingly bearing the suffering all martyrs. And when we made and make him a martyr, he surely loved, loves, and blesses us. As I wonder about all of this, I also ask myself, "Did the Man who asks us to love our enemies also love Herod and his family?" Did He pity and have compassion on those who killed His pastor?" Did he want to be alone to find out? Did the compassion and forgiveness He came to know for Herod's family find expression within his feeding of the thousands? Were the two compassions connected? I think so. When we love our enemies, it becomes inevitable that we love our neighbors, the thousands near to us.

Image: Carravagio, The Beheading of St. John the Baptist