Elijah and John - Prophets of Israel

In those days,                                                                                
like a fire there appeared the prophet, Elijah
whose words were like a flaming furnace.
Their staff of bread he shattered,
in his zeal he reduced them to straits;
By the Lord's word he shut up the heavens
and three times brought down fire.
How awesome are you, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!
Whose glory is equal to yours?
You were taken aloft in a whirlwind of fire,
in a chariot with fiery horses.
You were destined, it is written, in time to come
to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD,
To turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons,
and to re-establish the tribes of Jacob.
Blessed is he who shall have seen you and who falls asleep in your friendship.(Sirach 4:8- 1-4, 9-11)

As they were coming down from the mountain,
the disciples asked Jesus,
"Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"
He said in reply, "Elijah will indeed come and restore all things;
but I tell you that Elijah has already come,
and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. 
So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands."
Then the disciples understood
that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.
(Matthew 17: 9A, 10-13)

The readings today speak of two of the greatest prophets of all time. Elijah and St. John the Baptist.  Elijah lived during the twelfth century B.C. during the reigns of King Ahab, Queen Jezebel, and King Ahaziah of Israel.  He has had his hands full because the Israelites were undergoing one of their periodic movements away from Yahweh and His Laws and turning to worship idols and false gods. He called the people back to God.  He warned them that they were not going to be happy if they failed to return to God. And as he predicted a drought afflicted the land.  For three years not a drop of rain fell. There was, as he predicted, misery throughout the land.  During this time Elijah was fed by ravens!  Jezebel, who was not an Israelite, did not follow the Hebrew religion of her husband Ahab but rather moaned and groaned and nagged until Abab built a temple to her god, Baal.  Elijah decided to have it out with Jezebel and her false god once and for all.  He challenged the priests of Baal to a contest between Baal and Yahweh.  They would build two altars and the god who was real would reveal himself by consuming an offering put there for him.  It kind of was like the Olympic Games of the gods.  The holocaust was prepared for both contestants and the games began. The priests of Baal started chanting and dancing to no avail.  Elijah was a rooting section for them and encouraged them by telling them to chant louder because perhaps Baal was sleeping.  They were less than appreciative of this help and they started cutting themselves to show their devotion to Baal, still, nothing happened to the sacrifice on the altar dedicated to Baal.  After a while, exhausted, they gave up.  Now it was Elijah's turn.  The sacrifice was placed on the altar amongst straw.  Elijah called for the sacrifice to be drenched in water and it was.  The straw was really, really wet.  There would be no way that the sacrifice would be burned up with all of that wet straw on the altar.  The priests of Baal were very confident that Elijah would fail.  Elijah raised his eyes to heaven, uttered a brief prayer and boom, the sacrifice was burned up into nothing in a brief second.  The priests of Baal were astounded and the king ordered them to be taken away and executed for it was proven that they worshipped a false god.  

Sometime after this, his work amongst the people of Israel being done, Elijah was taken away in a fiery chariot and he left his mantle for Elisha who took over the job of being the Prophet of Yahweh. 

We are all familiar with the story of John the Baptist. He was the cousin of Jesus but it was quite probable that they did not know each other and only met one another when Jesus was baptized at the Jordan.  John was a man who brooked no nonsense. When King Herod indulged in adultery, John called him on it and let it be known what a jerk the king and his wife were for violating God's law.  Herod held a grudging respect for John and was loathe to do anything to him and turned a deaf ear to his preaching and condemnation.  But Herodias who actually was the wife of Herod's half-brother was ticked off to no end.  To keep peace in the house, Herod had John arrested and placed in jail.  This did not keep peace in the house at all.  Now John could be heard day and night condemning the king and his concubine.  At a party, the daughter of Herodias did a dance for the king that left him with his tongue hanging out and he rashly promised her a reward of up to half of his kingdom.  I guess he could not hold his liquor very well.  The daughter went to her mother and asked her advice as to what she should ask for, a trunk filled with gold perhaps?  Her own palace?  No, her mother said, none of these things.  She told her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter.  She went back to the king and delivered her demands.  He tried to talk her out of it but she insisted.  Since this had been done in front of all of his friends, he would appear to be weak if he did not fulfill his promise to the young slut.  Painfully, he dispatched a guard and John was beheaded and the head was brought to the daughter who brought it to her mother.  (Yuck!) 

These two men were both prophets of God.  They each displayed courage and fortitude and preached the truth of God caring not whom it might offend. They both took on the mighty and powerful in each of their times and in doing so prepared the way for the Messiah to come.  In this season of Advent, we can do one of two things with the time.  We can wait silently or we can become prophets in our own neighborhood.  We can make sure that the reason for the season is made known and that it is the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, who came into the world to save us from our sins.  The lights, the presents, the parties are all well and good but we need to make sure that we do not lose sight of why this feast if called Christmas which could be translated as Christ's mass.  Bring Christ to someone today and every day between now and Christmas.  Belay the happy holiday greetings and give out a hearty Merry Christmas.  Each time you say this it is like you are delivering a little sermon.  Jesus is coming and He is coming for me and for you.  Merry Christmas!  

I wonder if the poor souls in Purgatory celebrate Christmas?  I am sure that their love for Christ manifests itself of this day in a major way.  Please remember to pray for them.  They WILL remember those who pray for them and they WILL help you on the day you need it most.  Remember too:  As they are now, perhaps someday you shall be. 

Pride and Power - A Bitter Cup

Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison

on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip,

for John had said to him,

"It is not lawful for you to have her."

Although he wanted to kill him, he feared the people,

for they regarded him as a prophet.

But at a birthday celebration for Herod,

the daughter of Herodias performed a dance before the guests

and delighted Herod so much

that he swore to give her whatever she might ask for.

Prompted by her mother, she said,

"Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist."

The king was distressed"

The readings for Mass this Saturday feature John the Baptist. John's mother was in menopause when she conceived John in accordance with the promise of an angel. It is at this event the story of our redemption leaves the realm of a promise for the ages and enters present reality. Jonn's mother was named Elizabeth whose name in Hebrew means, "Oath of God." Elizabeth in her old age would bear the one who would cry out in the wilderness. When she was six months along into her pregnancy, Elizabeth received a visit from one Mary of Nazareth who was betrothed to a carpenter named Joseph in that town some sixty miles away. When Mary approached her kinswoman Elizabeth, John, in the womb of his mother could sense the presence of the Messiah and he was unable to contain himself and John danced in his mother's womb. How Mary and Elizabeth were related is somewhat cloudy because Mary was from the house of David and Elizabeth was from the house of Aron, these identities are taken from the father's side of the family but Elizabeth and Mary's mother could have been sisters and thus John and Jesus would be cousins. The word used in the Bible translates as kinswoman so we know for sure that the relationship was there. Mary stayed and helped out for three months and returned to her town of Nazareth three months pregnant. This coincidence would not be lost on Joseph, her fiance but that story is for another time. Today, we are speaking about John.

John and Jesus were cousins but they did not hang together and met only after each had begun their ministry. John was what we might call strange. His diet would not appeal to most of us as it consisted of locusts and wild honey. He wore clothing that was not too comfortable which was made from camel's hair and when he was not calling people to repent and baptizing at the Jordan River, he spent his time wandering around in the desert. I don't think John played particularly well with others and he was not what you would call a diplomat, far from it. He called a spade a spade and an adulterous king an adulterous king and that got him in a heap of trouble and semi-permanent resident status in Herod's dungeon.

The accommodations did not bother John too much. As a matter of fact, he kind of liked it that he could call the king and his wife sinners and adulterers twenty-four hours a day and six days a week (John rested on the Sabbath.) just about right under their sin tainted carnal bedroom.

The King's birthday was the debauch of the year. This year the queen's daughter provided the king with a special dance that really turned the wine soddened eyes of the king on. The king made a foolish promise of rewarding the dancer with up to half of his kingdom for the titillating dance that he had received as his present that year. The daughter consulted her mother and since being the king's wife she had the whole of the kingdom in her grasp already she told her daughter to demand the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter.

Even in his inebriated state the king was shocked. He was not too thrilled with the loud mouth Baptist shouting about his sinful life, but what the hell, he was the king and nobody was in a position to tell him anything. Also, he had a strange relationship with John. The king almost liked him and would visit him and talk with him and he was gaining, little bit by little bit, a respect for the coarse preacher.


The king was in a bind. He had thought that the young girl would have done the right thing and taken him for a ride for a bunch of silver and gold, things that he could easily replace by reaching into the pockets of his humble subjects. She wanted a man's death. If he refused, he would be the laughing stock of all the drunkards that hung around his court feeding his ego the compliments that it needed. On the other hand, he knew John was harmless. He knew that John had no power of his own and it would be an injustice to kill him. But pride won against justice and the bamboozled king sent a guard to give John a haircut, a very close cut indeed.

John's voice was stilled. In its place, would come a voice with the power to change the world and everyone in it. Herod had planted the wind and would reap the whirlwind, Jesus, the Son of God had entered the scene with a voice that could not be stilled and whose words shake the world even today.

He Shall Be Called John

Today is a rather special day on the Church calendar. Today is the solemn feast of the Birth of John the Baptist. The Church only celebrates one other birthday, we call that birthday Christmas.  No other saint is honored by having the day of their birth remembered in a special mass. They have to be content with having the day of their death memorialized by the Church. So we can see that John must be a very special person indeed.  

I remember when I was young, say about ten or eleven, I spent a lot of time with my cousin Skipper. He was actually named after his father as his name was actually Richard and forgive me but I do not know how he came by the nickname Skipper.  For a couple of summers, we hung around together and had a lot of fun.  One incident comes to mind.  We spent all day in our swimming trunks in his backyard playing in a wading pool.  When the water in the pool got too warm we would tip the pool over and refill it with fresh water.  We would get in the pool and cool ourselves down never realizing that the clear water was acting like a lens and focusing the sun on our bodies.  By dinner time we looked like cooked lobsters and when we sat down to dinner, the pain of wearing a shirt and pants was only slightly worse than what his mother cooked for dinner that day, liver and onions, yuck.  Back then we were trained to be polite and when we were guests at someone's house we ate what was put in front of us. Between Skipper and I, we used at least half of a bottle of ketchup. The pain of the sunburn we had collected was intense.  My aunt did not have anything in the house to soothe the pain.  Necessity being the mother of invention, she broke out the Vicks Vapo Rub.  This menthol laced petroleum jelly was just the thing to increase the agony on our young backs and chests. Sometimes you just can't win!

While I had a somewhat close relationship with my cousin, it does not appear Jesus spent any time with His cousin John. To my modern way of thinking, John really appears to be somewhat of an oddball. My gosh, who in their right mind would choose to live in the desert, wearing hair shirts and eating locusts and wild honey?  Come to think of it, locusts and wild honey have to be better than liver and onions.  

Jesus and John, according to the Bible, met only once in their youth and that was before either of them were born.  Mary had received word that she was to be the Mother of God and she went to visit Elizabeth, who was described as a relative to her and had conceived John in her old age as a special gift from God.  (Children were esteemed as gifts back then.) When Mary approached Elizabeth, John, in his mother's womb, recognized the presence of Jesus, the Son of God, in the womb of Mary His mother.  It is written that John stirred in his mother's womb at the presence of Jesus.  One translation used a stronger word and said he danced in his mother's womb.  The fate of these two children was tightly bound together as John would be the one who would announce the coming of the Messiah and prepare the way of the Lord. 

John was a man of great integrity.  He strived to achieve no man's favor and preached repentance and the coming of the kingdom to one and all.  He called the religious leaders of the day, "broods of vipers" and he actually won the admiration of the king of the land, a vain and lustful man named Herod.  Herod made the mistake of choosing for his wife the wife of his brother and John called him out for this adulterous relationship.  Herod did not mind so much, but Herodias, the king's illegitimate wife, was less than forgiving for being called a harlot and whore. Yet, John enjoyed the king's favor and protection but even the king could take only so much abuse. His wife continued wailing and whining against John and to quiet her shrill voice Herod had John arrested and lodged him in his dungeon.  If Herodias thought that the rigors of the dungeon would quiet the pious prophet down she failed to understand what a diet of locusts and wild honey did to the soul of a man. She also failed to understand what the grace of God could do in strengthening one's soul.  John kept his banter against Herod and Herodias up while chained in the charming confines of Herod's dungeon.  Not only did he continue berating the couple but he did so almost right under their love nest.  Herodias could not take much more of this.  She kept asking that John be silenced and buried.  The king, however, had an admiration and perhaps a bit of fear of John. He knew the stories that the priests told about the Messiah, and he wondered if the Messiah was locked up in his jail.  This thought stayed his hand for the moment.  All the while John kept up his preaching against the king and his concubine.  Herodias's soul was black with anger and hate of the Baptist and she could not understand why her husband, who respected no man, tolerated the insolence and insults that John never ceased broadcasting day or night.  Then Herod himself delivered the fate of John into her hands. 

It was the king's birthday, a time when the whole court celebrated with feasting and drinking that made the normal daily debauch pale in comparison.  The wine made the king very merry indeed. It was when he was deep into his cups that Herodias snapped the trap closed that would end the scandal of John's accusations against her and Herod forever.  Her daughter was extremely beautiful and Herod lusted after her young body.  Herodias then announced that as a special gift and tribute to Herod the greatest king of all time that her daughter, Salome, would honor his majesty with a dance. The announcement caused Herod's libido to stir and he watched with amorous wonder as Salome went through her paces.  The dance was designed to capture the lowest parts of Herod's imagination and it succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.  The king, loudly and drunkenly, stood and applauded the performance and then uttered words that he would in the next moment regret for all eternity.  He offered as payment for the dance anything that Salome wanted even up to half of his kingdom.  The courtiers gasped. Salome had in her hands the ticket to a life of independence and great ease, riches beyond what most people could imagine.  They waited silently for what she would ask for.  Then her mother entered and walked up to her brazen daughter.  Herodias smiled at the king and he drunkenly smiled back.  She turned and whispered in her daughter's ear.  The daughter grinned, then chuckled, then she finally laughed and nodded her head, accepting what her mother had said.  She walked closer to the king and bent down, her ample breasts just out of reach. She smiled into his eyes and demanded the head of John the Baptist be brought to her on a silver platter.  The king was shocked. Surely the girl would want gold or silver, or a palace with servants of her own.  Salome once again looked at the king and this time with cold fire in her eyes demanded that he fulfill his promise and to bring her the head of John the Baptist.  The king had no desire to kill John for he still retained some fear of the man.  But, fear of God was something he had never cultivated and he did not want to appear to be weak in front of all of the assembled dignitaries, some of which had the ear of the emperor in Rome, so with bitterness and a pain that the wine could not cover he sent his guard and had John beheaded and the head brought to his wife and slut of a daughter on a silver charger.  After the "gift" was presented, the king weaved his way to bed. His door was locked when Herodias came to check on him and she laughed loudly as she turned and made her way to her chamber. 

There is much to admire about John the Baptist.  He was a man of principles and he knew the difference between right and wrong and was not afraid to tell a person when they were wrong. Yet, John knew his place and he knew that he would need to decrease as his cousin, Jesus, the Messiah would have to increase. He was to be the best man for the bridegroom and he knew his role was to make an exit at the right moment. Today, the Church honors this man by celebrating his birthday which shows that he is held in great esteem by the Church. His unswerving devotion to God and his testimony to righteousness in spite of personal consequences should serve as an example for us.  He was quite bright too, he never ate liver and onions!