7 February 2020
Friday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Grandma Higgins always said you would see three deaths in a row, and of course who would argue with someone who lived to be 102 thanks to her judicious use of medicinal whisky. Unfortunately, the protagonist of today’s gospel, John the Baptist, crossed the finish line a bit sooner than Grandma Higgins. We celebrated the feast of St. Agatha on Wednesday, the Japanese Martyrs yesterday, and today’s reading tells the story of the beheading of John the Baptist. Grandma was right again. And such a beheading! The narrative was only done justice in its frenzied psychosis when set to music by Richard Strauss in the Opera Salome, an orchestration of a play by Oscar Wilde. So, you can only image that it outraged every censor judging the theater in early 20th century Europe. Of course, little shocks us today, even the deaths brought about by violence; we turn the page, we mute the television. Perhaps Mark’s telling of the death of John the Baptist and the circumstances surrounding this death are written to jar us a bit in recalling how, for many, life is cheap and a simple commodity to be bought, sold, or destroyed at will. Perhaps these deaths are a call to us to be shocked and find ways to no longer numb ourselves against tragedy. Of course, speaking out for faith and true freedom come at some price, as St. Agatha, Paul Miki, and John the Baptist will tell you.