Lavishly praise John the Baptist

With the Church’s observance this year of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Memorial of the Passion of John the Baptist, Fridays have recently been wonderful days! Since all of the above observances are fixed dates, they are a week apart every year. While I am always aware of these liturgical celebrations because of my diaconal obligation to the Liturgy of the Hours, these occasions seem amplified this year because of our Friday traditio.

Today is the Memorial of the Passion of John the Baptist. It is fitting that we observe his passion, his execution on Herod Antipas’ orders because of Salomé’s request (made at the behest of her mother Herodias and after getting Herod, uhm, worked up with an erotic dance), a week after two great Marian celebrations. Along with the Blessed Virgin, John the Baptist occupies a unique place in what we technically call “the economy of salvation.”

On the whole, Eastern Christians still venerate the Baptist very highly. Among Latin Catholics, his veneration has faded more than a bit. In addition to being the “seal” of the Hebrew prophets, John was the singular forerunner of the Messiah, foretold by Isaiah and Malachi.

While his birth was not miraculous, like Christ’s, and while he was not “immaculate,” like Mary, his life came about in an amazing way. His conception would be more a long the lines of that of Isaac- born to a barren mature couple. Let’s not forget his leaping in Elizabeth’s womb when, at the approach of the Blessed Virgin, who was then pregnant with our Lord, the Baptist’s mother was filled with the Holy Spirit. Even in utero, it seems, John the Baptist was something of a charismatic! (What brings that up? Fair question. Last night I watched a great interview with Dr. Mary Healy- it's a bit of a reconnection for me).

More to the point of his passion, his execution, his martyrdom, according to the Synoptics, John the Baptist was a defender of marriage. While there is some dispute among historians and New Testament scholars about the accuracy of the Synoptic accounts, according to the Gospels, what landed him jail and led to his death was his insistence that Herod could not validly be married to his half-brother’s wife, Herodias. According to canon law, even today the impediment of affinity must be dispensed before one can marry the spouse of a dead sibling.

To mark today’s memorial, I usually watch the 1988 film Salomé’s Last Dance, a verbatim performance of Oscar Wilde’s play of the same name that takes place within a framing narrative composed by Ken Russell, who directed the film. It features an amazing and intense performance by Imogen Millais-Scott as Salomé. Millais-Scott’s acting career was far too short.

Ut Queant Laxis, also called Hymnus in Ioannem, a Latin hymn to Saint John the Baptist, is our Friday traditio this week. Cecile Gertken, OSB, did an English paraphrase translation of this hymn. She paraphrased it to preserve, as best she could, its original meter:

Do let our voices
resonate most purely,
miracles telling,
far greater than many;
so let our tongues be
lavish in your praises,
Saint John the Baptist