Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

Today in the Gospel lesson, we read of the beheading of John the Baptist.

Read Mark 6:13-29 here.

It is a mark of John’s importance in the Church’s tradition that in the Eastern calendar, John has no less than six feast days: his Conception, Nativity, Commemoration, The Second Finding of John’s Head, the Third Finding of John’s Head, and his Beheading. Indeed, Jesus himself said that John was the greatest prophet ‘among those born of women’ – indeed, Jesus was himself born, not of a married woman, but of a virgin.

In addition to being considered a prophet and ‘forerunner’, John is the first Martyr during the time of Christ’s teaching. This helps to explain the traditional emphasis put on John’s head as a first-class relic.

John is also called the first Monk, because he exhibited characteristics highly valued by monastic communities. In the first place, he preached repentance – that most fundamental of Christian activities characterized as a ‘mark of truth, a mark of sobriety, the absence of exaltation, the sense of reality’, to quote Andrew Philips.

In addition to this preparatory message, John also demonstrated obedience by his prayer and fasting in the wilderness, and by submitting to Jesus’ request to be baptized. John also embraced poverty, both in the sense of having no money, and of being powerless – and denouncing power wrongly used. Also, John’s denunciation of Herod’s behavior and his own austere lifestyle suggest the monastic teaching that the body should not reign over the spirit, but rather that the whole person should live in a spirit of chastity.

Even today, John's message and example continue to convict, to inspire, and to point us all to Christ.

‘Holy Forerunner, Prophet and Baptist John, pray to God for us!’

Yours in Christ,
Justin