Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“’Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the Word of this salvation sent’” (Ac. 13:25-33).

In the Church’s sanctoral cycle and ranks of festivals, there exists a sort of pecking order, if we may call it that, in its best and endearing sense. In this order, our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ ranks num

ero uno for all of the reasons we might suppose: He and He alone is the Son of God, “Light of Light, true God of true God” (Nicene Creed), the one and only God-made-flesh, the King of kings and Lord of lords (Jn.1:1-18; Rv. 19:16). Alongside of Him, then, and to His right, if we were looking upon an icon of the Deesis, stands His Mother, our Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. She occupies that position of honor and distinction due to her nearness to Him as His Mother. It was her holy and blessed womb which bore the eternal God. There will never be nor can there ever be another like her. Lastly, to our Lord’s left in that same icon, stands His relative and Forerunner, John the Baptist, whom our Lord declared to be the greatest born of women (Mt. 11:11). It is this Prophet who brings to fulfillment all the Prophets of old and serves as the boundary, St. Augustine says, between the Old and New Testaments. His ministry of preaching inaugurates our Lord’s own saving and sanctifying ministry, and it heralds the coming of God’s salvation by way of repentance. “’Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!,’” was the message he bellowed – a message as rough and no nonsense as was his manner of dress and diet (Mt. 3:1-12; Mk. 1:1-8; Lk. 3:1-18). None were exempt from his preaching. Repentance was demanded from all – from the elite right down to the pauper. All who repented, that is, all who claim to have turned their backs on their sinful ways to follow the righteous paths of God were ordered to bear fruits worthy of this repentance; fruits worthy of and congruent with the very Kingdom to come whose nearing Presence will be as fire burning up the chaff and stubble of insincere repentance. “’Who warned you to flee?,’” the Baptizer of our Lord demanded of those whose repentance appeared unsupported by their lifestyles. None will escape the Coming One Whose winnowing fan was already doing its work.

It is this message of repentance that our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ takes up, especially in the absence of the Baptist whose death we commemorate today. It should go without saying, but we will say it anyway, that neither the Theotokos nor the Forerunner are co-equals of our Lord despite their standing one on His right hand the other at His left. Both are beneath our Lord in rank and in honor. Yet, the Most Holy Theotokos stands even above John for she is the Queen Mother (Ps. 44 [45]:9) and she alone is “more honorable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim”!

“’Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’” This is precisely what got John into trouble with Herod and his illicit wife, Herodias. In a phrase once made popular in social justice circles, John “spoke truth to power” in a most inconvenient and unequivocal way, “Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife!” – a truth most disturbing to Herodias whose heart had become so embittered that she sought the death of God’s Prophet at any cost, defying God’s commandments. At least Herod, to his credit, “feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and protected him,” that is, up until the liquor, his lips, and, most especially, his lust, got the better of him. Herod may have been a morally weak king, but he became all the more so under the influence of wine and a woman and words he believed he could not retract without losing face. This whole story is a case study in the convoluted power of the passions to wreak havoc upon those who would indulge their passions and upon those innocents who fall victim to those same indulged passions. A prime example would be Herod’s own father, Herod the Great, whose own jealousy, insecurity, pride and hubris, to name but a few, persuaded him to slaughter all the holy innocents in and around Bethlehem all because of the news of a certain newborn Infant sought for by the Magi (Mt. 2:1-18). Like father, like son, in this case. This, too, is the case of our ancestral sin inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve.

So long as repentance exists, there is always hope of our redemption; hope for our reclamation from the jaws of sin, death, and the devil; hope for our restoration and salvation. Repentance has been the prevailing message of the Christian Church from the Day of Pentecost when St. Peter in his Pentecost sermon picked up where our Lord had left off. “’Repent,’” Peter commands the crowds, “’and let every one of you be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Ac. 2:38-39; 3:19). This is all in accordance with what our Lord taught His Apostles prior to His Ascension “’that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem’” (Lk. 24:46-47). The Baptist and Forerunner held out this same hope, even to the likes of Herod and Herodias, even to Salome, who eventually secured John’s death by her sensual dance.

Of course, the Church has often earned the reputation of being negative because of her emphasis upon the necessity of repentance and the need of the penitent to abandon sin and vice and to develop virtue in their place and to grow in God’s holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Hb. 12:14), Sacred Scripture tells us. For this reason, her message has oftentimes been received by the world as the proverbial fly in the ointment, the burr under the saddle, a stone in the shoe, exhibited by Herodias’ great irritation and obsession with the Prophet, both before and even after his death when she abused his corpse, according to Holy Tradition.

In order to repent, however, we must hear and receive God’s Truth as the Truth about ourselves and our fallen condition, and God’s great redemption through His Son, Jesus Christ, Who, like the Good Samaritan, comes to the aid of fallen humanity (Lk. 10:25-37). This Good News – this Gospel – is far from being a wet rag and a kill joy such as how the world, which fights God tooth and nail, wants to hear it. The call to surrender ourselves and our sin to God and to take up the Cross to kill our passions is not an easy one or necessarily a message of comfort per se (Is. 40:1-5; 41:17-18; 45:8; 48:20-21; 54:1), except to those who are sick and tired of that fallen life and mindset much like the prodigal son needed to experience (Lk. 15:11-32).

This is how Herodias received – and rejected – John’s call to repentance while Herod did not have the moral fiber nor spiritual wherewithal to do anything despite knowing John was right. Herod may very well have been sorry, as the Gospel tells us, but he lacked the true sorrow – the godly sorrow – that ultimately leads one to repent and to do the about face called for by the Gospel. “[G]odly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation,” St. Paul says, “not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” The Apostle urges the Corinthian Church to take stock at what godly sorrow produced in them spiritually. “For observe this very thing,” he tells them,

that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves . . . . (2 Cr. 7:10-11).

The Corinthian Christians were struck by the gravity of sin in their lives and they turned away from it back to God, that is, they repented and bore fruit worthy of their repentance, expressive of their sorrow as well as their newfound joy of redemption in the spirit of the penitent king, David (Ps. 50 [51]:1-19). True repentance is hard – very hard – to be sure, even painful, but it does not bring us regret, but rather freedom and deliverance. It attracts the grace of God that makes possible our repentance! Said in a slightly different way, “[T]he preaching of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (Rm. 1:16; 1 Cr. 1:18).

We stand assured by the Apostle and the Prophets, especially the holy glorious Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John: “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth” (Ek. 18:33; 33:11; WS 11:21-12:3; 1 Tm. 2:3-4). “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness,” St. Peter assures us, “but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pe. 3:9).

“’Repent,’” beloved, “’for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’” in this holy Temple. Let none of us regret God’s awesome compassion!

Through the prayers of the holy glorious Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist, John, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

VIGIL PROPERS: PROPERS:

Is. 40:1-5; 41:17-18; 45:8; 48:20-21; 54:1 Ac. 13:25-33

Ma. 3:1-3, 5-7, 12, 18; 4:4-6 Mk. 6:14-30

WS 4:7, 16-17, 19-20; 5:1-7