The Great John the Baptizer

Today the Church celebrates the feast of the beheading of John the Baptist. What a gruesome celebration right? (Just look at my profile picture.) But in light of my recent entry on suffering, this feast is so appropriate for the Church to celebrate. While trying to understand this, we have to think that the Church celebrates the crucifixion of Christ as well, through the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Sept. 14) and Good Friday (plus all other Fridays). Catholic Churches are supposed to have crucifixes which the priest is supposed to face when he celebrates Mass. This participation in the eternal sacrifice is just another example of how something so gruesome as martyrdom and crucifixion can be so uplifting for the Church. It is well known that the Church grows the greatest during a time of persecution. So feel free to try and persecute us (in other words live a world life and it's natural for most people), and we'll continue to grow. The martyr's death is extremely special in that the martyr is uniting himself with Christ's sufferings on the cross. John's beheading is no exception. He was the forerunner of Christ. His death is just another example of that.

On a different note, while I was meditating on the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth today, I thought of John in Elizabeth's womb, and I thought of his beheading simultaneously. Can anyone say...abortion? Yes, here it is again: another thought on abortion. Just as by today's standards, it would be highly recommended for Mary to have aborted Jesus, so too can we think about the abortion of John by his parents. Elizabeth and Zechariah were really old. Hence, Mary went to help them during Elizabeth's pregnancy. Most doctors today would've told Elizabeth that she was too old, and that her body wouldn't be able to handle a pregnancy. It would be "too much of a risk to her health." But, Elizabeth did keep John, who became the greatest prophet ever. It would have been sad to see John beheaded in Elizabeth's womb. Not only because he was to be the greatest prophet ever, but also because his innocent life wouldn't been taken after God had already instilled a soul into him. That horrendous destruction of innocent life occurs over 3000 times every day in this country alone. That is as many people as there were who died on 9.11.01. That's as many people who died from the Inquisition which lasted over 100 years. That's a lot of innocent life being taken because not enough people are helping women and children. If we look at the life of John the Baptist, we must be happy that Mary went to help Elizabeth so that John could be beheaded after his earthly mission was completed. The prophecies would have been wierd if Christ had no Forerunner.