Beheading of John the Baptist
ONE
Today is the Feast of the Beheading, the Martyrdom of John the Baptist
John the Baptist appeared; he preached in the wilderness…and this was his message: 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand'… He said, therefore, to the crowds who came to be baptized by him, 'Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming? But if you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruits, and do not think of telling yourselves, "We have Abraham for our father" because, I tell you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones. Yes, even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees, so that any tree which fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire.'
John was put to death because when King Herod and his illegitimate wife, Herodias, heard the truth proclaimed, they responded not with humility and repentance but with pride anger and murder.
The voice of God from Psalm 95 should echo in our soul every day: If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Do I want to know the reality about myself? The good and those dark things that need to change? Am I willing to beg God to bring to my sin into the light, to be confronted with it, and to make the choice to change? Or will I hide in the dark and reject the Light as Herod and Herodias?
TWO
Mary begin to appear at Medjugorje on the Feast of the Birthday of John the Baptist, June 24, 1981. The date is not by accident. Our Lady comes with the same message as the John the Baptist who prepared for the coming of Jesus Christ: Repent and be converted.
On April 25th 1983 Our Lady gave this message at Medjugorje
Be converted! It will be too late when the sign comes. Beforehand, several warnings will be given to the world. Have people hurry to be converted. I need your prayers and your penance. My heart is burning with love for you. It suffices for you to be converted. To ask questions is unimportant. Be converted. Hurry to proclaim it. Tell everyone that it is my wish, and that I do not cease repeating it. Be converted, be converted…I beg you to be converted. I will pray to my Son to spare you the punishment. Be converted without delay.
THREE
I don’t know about you but I have been confessing the same four root or dominant deadly sins for 30 years. On one hand this is good. The number has not gone up to seven. But it couldn’t go higher because there are only 7: Pride, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony and lust. Its also good that I continue with the grace of God to persevere in the fight. However, when I went to confession yesterday, after 30 years of confessing the same things, I felt a strong impulse from God, as I was looking at those four words, as if He were saying: Michael, are you tired of them? Do they make you happy? Do they make others happy? Are you at peace with these vices? Have you become the man I made you to be? The only answer I could give to all these questions was No. No and still No. And then his inspiration came back again asking: “Michael, when are you going to take a stand, be the man I know you can be and make the choice to stop committing these vices?”
FOUR
The message from Jesus, John the Baptist, and Our Lady is simple but clear: Be Converted and do not delay. But why would we want to delay?
Yesterday we reflected on Gratitude. After all the gifts and blessings God our Father has given us – would we not want to make a return by loving Him and being the best person we could be for the love of Him – just out of Gratitude. Or am I such an ingrate that I insist on justifying my sin and irresponsibility – for that is what sin is – immaturity and irresponsibility.
FIVE
We can become attached to good things in a disordered way, meaning, this thing blocks from receiving others necessary goods and the greatest good God himself. For example, a theologian could become so obsessed with studying and teaching people about God to the neglect of his relationship with God. I could become so obsessed with writing and recording these Rosary meditations that I neglect my relationship with God, with Sandy and I kill Teresa in the process – working her to death. Even good things can become disordered attachments because they are means and not ends and the ultimate end is God.
A very good questions was posed to me based on yesterday’s meditation in which I said: When we see our identity and self-worth in some thing, then we have an idol. The idol then becomes an addiction to which we are enslaved and prevents us from receiving God. Good things can become addictions and idols: health, a profession, a human relationship – even a ministry that does good for others.
I should have made this more clear.
The things of this world are good, very good, but nothing is perfect, it is not lasting and can never be enough to satisfy our hunger for infinite, perfect and everlasting happiness – only a relationship with God can satisfy this desire. And we all know that a relationship takes time spent with the other person - talking, listening and just being together. This is prayer.
When we speak of will power we are really just talking about forming routines. The routines we form consciously or unconsciously we can carry out. And these routines over time become so powerful they become addictions. There is an old saying, make good habits and become slaves of them. Well, we become slaves to all habits, good or bad. The sub-conscious is powerful. The subconscious is simply habits we have formed into routines of thinking and living. We have built routines in our lives and those routines are powerful
Virtues are good actions we turn into habits or addictions that bring happiness and peace
Vices are bad habits we turn into habits/addictions that ruin happiness and take away our peace.
There are healthy addictions and unhealthy addictions
Healthy addictions bring the fruit of the Spirit,
If we want to make some change, then we must make a break in our ritual, in our routine. We need to make a new strategy to make one change in our daily routine so that we can spend more time in friendship with God in prayer or more time with our spouse, or kids, or exercise or whatever.
Don’t try to change many things in your routine, change one thing. That one change will unlock your routine to make other necessary changes. For example, analyze the way you spend the last hour of your night. Is what you are doing with that last hour positively fulfilling and good for you or have you just given into an unhealthy routine like watching useless tv, news, sports center or eating before you go to bed when you’re not really in need of extra nourishment? Maybe change one thing in your routine before you go to bed which might enable you to get up 15 or 20 minutes earlier in the morning that breaks your whole routine, introduces new found time that you can choose to do whatever you want with.
Will-power is just a routine or habit of thinking and acting we have built over time. Make a break in the routine or ritual of your life, then insert a new strategy to form a new routine and you will have the will power to do what you had always wished for but could never find the strength to do.
I recently heard that a defining feature of an addict is the inability to formulate long-term goals. Addictions cause us to lose sight of long-term goals and make us incapable or reaching them. Everyone is addicted to the routines of their lives. Living these routines moment after moment, day after day is like walking with your head down, looking at the ground. It is proven that a human who is blindfolded or never looks up will eventually walk in a circle, never reaching a destination. In some ways this describes our lives. We are living with our nose to the grindstone, our heads down; we never look up and see where we want to go, to transforming union with God, heaven, our desired destination and we end up wandering in circles not growing any closer to God. When was the last time you looked up and look to see if you are heading closer to union with God or just walking in circles?