Yahweh Est Gratiosus

Birth of John the Baptist

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

There is no daily Mass today at Our Lady of Grace, however, I do have a few thoughts on today's Scripture readings for the Friday in the Fourth Week of Advent. The readings include the following:

• The Prophecy of Malachi concerning John the Baptist in Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24
• The Praise of the Psalmist in Redemption Being Near at Hand in Psalms 25
• The Birth of John the Baptist in Luke 1:57-66

As the reader can see, these passages all related to John the Baptist. And the name John is noteworthy in the context of this Advent season. In Latin it is Ioannes and in Greek Ιωαννης. The name derives from the Hebrew יוֹחָנָן or Yochanan meaning Yahweh is gracious, hence the title of this blog post. This then is a continuation of the theme of grace - Mary full of grace (Luke 1:28) and Hannah or Grace, the mother of Samuel in 1st Samuel 1.

Marriage and Divorce
NIV Archaeological Study Bible

Now on a different tangent, I have never liked the practice of seeing readings taken out of the context in which they were written, or divided up with important text between verses being deleted. Thus, for that reason I reviewed the text in Malachi chapter 2 immediately preceding today's Old Testament reading. Imagine therefore my surprise when I read in verses 10 through 17 what the prophet Malachi wrote, then considering it in light of what John the Baptist told King Herod regarding the sanctity of marriage:

10 Have we not all one father?
Has not one God created us?
Why, then, do we break faith with each other,
profaning the covenant of our ancestors?
11 Judah has broken faith; an abominable thing
has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem.
Judah has profaned the LORD’s holy place, which he loves,
and has married a daughter of a foreign god.
12 May the LORD cut off from the man who does this
both witness and advocate from the tents of Jacob,
and anyone to bring an offering to the LORD of hosts!
13 This also you do: the altar of the LORD you cover
with tears, weeping, and groaning,
Because the Lord no longer takes note of your offering
or accepts it favorably from your hand.
14 And you say, “Why?”—
Because the LORD is witness
between you and the wife of your youth
With whom you have broken faith,
though she is your companion, your covenanted wife.
15 Did he not make them one, with flesh and spirit?
And what does the One require? Godly offspring!
You should be on guard, then, for your life,
and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.
16 For I hate divorce,
says the LORD, the God of Israel,
And the one who covers his garment with violence,
says the LORD of hosts.
You should be on guard, then, for your life,
and you must not break faith.
17 You have wearied the LORD with your words,
yet you say, “How have we wearied him?”
By saying, “All evildoers
are good in the sight of the LORD,
And he is pleased with them,”
or “Where is the just God?”

Marriage and Divorce
NIV New Interpreter's Study Bible

Immediately following this admonition in marriage comes the prophecy in verse 1 of chapter 3, "Now I am sending my messenger—he will prepare the way before me." And what message did that messenger proclaim? Matthew 14:3-4 tells us:

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.”

Herodias had apparently divorced (or had been divorced by) Philip who was Herod's half-brother, and then married Herod, Leviticus 18:16 forbade that with these words:

You shall not have intercourse with your brother’s wife; that would be a disgrace to your brother.

Because John the Baptist upheld the never changing principle of the sanctity of marriage (a principle reiterated and clarified by Christ Himself in Matthew 19:1-12), he was imprisoned and then eventually beheaded. Salome, the daughter of Herodias, brought his decapitated head into the party being held by Herod for inspection by Herodias. To this day that reminds me of what happened to another man who dared to tell the truth in public.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Back around 43 BC or so Gaius Octavius (later Augustus Caesar), Marcus Antonius and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate in the wake of the assassination of Gaius Iulius Caesar. Rome's most famous statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero, spoke against the dictatorship which Second Triumvirate threatened to establish. He wrote 14 Philippics in defense of the Res Publica. Because he dared to oppose tyranny, he too was decapitated like his spiritual successor John the Baptist. Luvia, the wife of Marcus Antonius is reputed to have taken his head, extracting the tongue and repeatedly stabbing it with needles. Only her spiritual successor Herodias some 70 years later would be as vicious as she.

The point in all this is clear: grace isn't always "luvy duvy, peace 'n flowers, common good and social justice." Sometimes grace demands that men be manly and stand up against evil women (Luvia and Herodias) who eschew the example of Our Lady of Grace. That is what Cicero did, and that is what John the Baptist did. The Lord is gracious, but beware because His grace demands obedience. In the case of Malachi and John the Baptist, it demanded obedience to the principle of the sanctity of marriage.