Lessons from the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

INDEED, precious lessons can be learned from the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist whose liturgical memorial is celebrated on August 29. One is that we should expect suffering and possible martyrdom if we truly seek to follow Christ, the very embodiment of truth and love, which we should pursue and defend without let up in our life.

Thus, we should lose the fear of suffering and death. If we are faithful to Christ, whom St. John the Baptist served all the way to his death, there is really nothing to be afraid of suffering and death, and the other negative things that can mark our life.

With the passion and death of Christ, which St. John the Baptist anticipatedly experienced, the curse of suffering and death has been removed. As St. Paul described it beautifully, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15,54-55)

So, we just have to be sport and cool about the whole reality of suffering and death. What we need to do is to follow Christ and St. John the Baptist in their attitude toward them. For Christ and St. John the Baptist, embracing suffering and ultimately death, is the expression of their greatest love for us. We have to enter into the dynamic of this divine logic and wisdom so we can lose that fear of suffering and death.

Thus, we have to understand this very well. Unless we love the cross, we can never say that we are loving enough. Of course, we have to qualify that assertion. It’s when we love the cross the way God wills it—the way Christ and St. John the Baptist love it—that we can really say that we are loving as we should, or loving with the fullness of love.

The other lesson we learn from the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist is that we should learn how to proclaim and defend the truth of our faith with both holy intransigence and holy tolerance. We have to learn how to blend the exclusivity of truth and the inclusivity of charity.

We should never compromise the truth of our faith. But in doing so, we should give due consideration to the concrete conditions of the people we are dealing with. We may have to do things gradually, just like what Christ did when he preached the ultimate truths about ourselves through parables and other literary devices that would lead the people to the ultimate truths of our faith.

This will definitely require the gift of discernment which we can have if we are receptive and responsive enough to the constant promptings of the Holy Spirit and the abiding interventions of God in our life.

To be able to discern things properly, we need to exert extreme prudence. We have to be sensitive to what would comprise as essential that should not change in a certain issue, and what are incidental that could change and vary depending on the circumstances and other relevant factors. It’s important that we be clear about this, so we would not get lost especially during these very dynamic, technology-driven times.

Prudence, of course, presumes a certain hierarchy of values that we should respect, uphold and defend. It should be vitally connected with wisdom that in the end connects us with God and all others, as well as all things in the world, through love and truth.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com