A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 6:17-29)
The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request, “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her. So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison.
In today’s Gospel, Mark relates the story of John the Baptist’s execution by Herod. The forerunner, the herald of Jesus’ ministry, is beheaded for preaching repentance and baptism. As Herod throws a party for himself on his birthday, Herodias’s daughter dances for him and his guests. “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you,” Herod tells her after she dances. “I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom.” Prompted by her mother, Herodias’s daughter asks for the head of John the Baptist, and she and Herodias get what they ask for. As the one who prepares the way of Jesus, John suffers in prison and dies a martyr’s death in a baptism of blood.
God, help me be ready when courage is needed to uphold my faith and commit to proclaiming the truth. John’s life and death were marked by decreasing so that your Son might increase, a precursor to Jesus who prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah. Help me recognize in John’s martyrdom the absolute dedication of his mission, and give me the grace to put aside my own sense of propriety and be a bold witness to Christ, who is truth itself.
From the responsorial psalm: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” Saint John the Baptist, pray for us!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.