Today’s liturgical celebration commemorates the death of John the Baptist (Mark 6, 17-29), which was in many ways an anticipation (or precursor) of the death of Jesus. From the time of their birth, the lives of Jesus and His cousin St. John were closely linked. From the very beginning, St. John paved the way for Jesus. Yet, as St. John always insisted, he was just preparing the way for Jesus, the thongs of whose sandals he was not worthy to loosen. A key word in Mark 6 runs like a refrain throughout the Gospel: the single word is rendered in English as “handed over.”
There is a Greek word which literally means “to hand over,” but the Latin translation of the Gospel uses the word tradere, from which we get the words “tradition” (handing on of the customs and wisdom of the past) and, believe it or not, “traitor” (the treacherous handing over of a person into the hands of another). Thus, the whole of the Bible is “tradition” in that sense and we use the word “traitor” for people who treacherously betray the tradition or some good person or good value. Today, we remember the “handing over” of St. John the Baptist into the power of people who were totally against what he stood for – the faithful “handing over” of the longstanding tradition of God’s people. St. John was ultimately executed, his final act of witnessing to the truth.
Let us pray. “Lord our God, you chose St. John the Baptist to prepare, through his life and his preaching, the coming of the Messiah. You chose him to give his life as a final act of witness to the truth and your justice. Help us, through his intercession, to announce with our lives the very same truth – the truth of your Son’s Gospel. He who lives and reigns with you forever and ever. Amen.”
