WEDNESDAY, March 11
Mark 6:13-29

The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb. — Mark 6:26-29

In the Gospel of Mark, the story of John the Baptist is told as a flashback to explain King Herod’s extreme reaction to the ministry of Jesus. We see the conflict within Herod as he tries to appease his subjects and his family while fighting his desire to tolerate John because he “feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him.” Herod caves in to the pressures around him, though, and orders John to be beheaded.

Our Community specifically chose John the Baptist as our patron because of his call to repent. The Community of St. John Baptist was formed in 1852 within an existing ministry that helped poor women transform their lives by gaining an education and acquiring valuable job skills. When John called the people to repent, he was not asking them to cower and await punishment. Instead, this call for repentance comes from the Greek word metanoia, which roughly translates into a change of thinking or a turning around to a different point of view. John, our founders believed, was calling the world to change its thinking and to care for the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed. I appreciate that Episcopal Relief & Development’s approach focuses not on a top-down rescue but on strengthening the existing gifts and resources of local communities.

In earlier times, both foreign and domestic missionary efforts sometimes imposed their own ideas rather than hearing the people’s needs. Superficial top-down rescue cannot heal deeply, but collaborative empowerment sparks real transformation. Herod silenced the voice of John the Baptist, but he did not silence the message. John pointed the way to Jesus Christ, who continued to call on the world to turn away from greed and violence and embrace compassion and justice.