Your dead buddy

In combat, one of the greatest shocks that can happen is when your best friend and comrade is suddenly blown away. Your buddy, the one you had relied on for emotional support and encouragement in the thick of battle, is gone and the feeling of danger builds inside you with painful intensity.

In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist has just been arrested. Not only has our Lord lost his greatest earthly ally, it is also a brutal reminder of the great peril closing around him.

Our Lord’s reaction is not to hunker down in fear, but to go forth even more boldly and proclaim the Kingdom of God.

As people of faith, we often rely emotionally on others for support and encouragement as we struggle within a faithless world. Sometimes these people are taken from us: sometimes by natural death, but also sometimes (as in the case of John the Baptist) by unjust imprisonment or even martyrdom.

We must always look to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for our example; we must always look to Christ for our support and our encouragement, so that we may never shut ourselves down in fear or despair, but that we may boldly go forward as he did and proclaim the Kingdom of God.