Pints With Aquinas - On The Beheading of the John Baptist | Mthr. Natalia

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

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Glory to Jesus Christ. I'm Mother Natalia, a Byzantine Catholic nun from Christ the Bridegroom Monastery, and this is Pines with Aquinas. The day that this episode is being released should be September 1st, and if so, that means that today is, for Byzantine Catholics, the liturgical new year.

So we start our liturgical calendar on September 1st. I don't actually know when Roman Catholics start their liturgical calendar on September 1st. I don't actually know when Roman Catholics start their liturgical calendar. I should be more well-versed and better at breathing with both lungs, but I know that ours starts today. As a fun fact, that means that the first of the, we have 12 major feasts of the year, and since the liturgical year starts on September 1st,

that means the first major feast of the year. And since the liturgical year starts on September 1st, that means the first major feast of the year is September 8th, which is the Nativity, the birth of the Theotokos, the Mother of God, Mary. And then the last of the 12 feasts of the year would be August 15th, the Dormition, the falling asleep of the Mother of God, or her Ass her assumption. And so I just think it's really beautiful that our liturgical year starts with her birth and ends with her death, her assumption. But that's not what this episode is about. So this episode is about new beginnings.

I think that it's a good time of year for that because people are starting maybe new school years and fall is starting in a few weeks. And so we're entering into a new season. But I also was thinking of new beginnings as it relates to a feast that we had just a few days ago. And this feast I know is celebrated in the East and the West. On August 29th, we commemorate the beheading

of St. John the Baptist. As another fun fact, just a piece of Byzantine trivia that some of you surely know, but some of you surely do not. There is a tradition in some of the Byzantine churches that on the day that we commemorate the beheading of John the Baptist, because of the beheading, we don't eat anything round, i.e. shaped like a head, or anything off of a platter,

anything off of a plate. So we eat, if you're following this tradition, we eat only, yeah, not round things and out of bowls or something like that. So that's fun. All right, two things about beginnings having to do with this feast of the beheading of John the Baptist.

The first came about, actually you know even before those two things, this is another, I guess this is just an aside, an interesting note about John the Baptist. So we call him John the forerunner because he proclaims the coming of the Lord, right? The coming of the Lord Jesus, and he prepares the way for him. But I think something that a lot of times we don't really think about when we call him the forerunner is that he's also the forerunner on this day, on the day of his beheading,

because John the Baptist did not just prepare the way of the Lord here on earth. He even entered into Hades before the crucifixion. So he prepared the way for those in Hades as well, proclaiming the coming of the Lord. We have some really beautiful hymnography about this, about John the Baptist preaching to those in Hades and saying that the Savior is coming

and talking to Adam and Eve and all of these things. It's really beautiful. But okay, so two things. As I was praying with some different parts of this commemoration. The first was that at Vespers preparing for the feast at evening prayer, we had this stikira, this verse at Vespers that really jumped out to me.

at Vespers that really jumped out to me. We sing, would that you had not made that vow, O sinful Herod, offspring of a lie, since you did make it, would that you had not carried it out. For it would have been better to have gone back on your oath and received life than remaining true to your oath to have cut off the head of the forerunner. So what I was thinking about with this particular stikira, what struck me is that we even name What I was thinking about with this particular stikira, what struck me is that we even name in this hymn,

okay, it would have been better if you had not made the oath, but because you made it, it would have been better if you had gone back on it. So there's kind of this progression of action that happens in the life of Herod. And it's like, okay, ideally he wouldn't have committed adultery, right? He wouldn't have taken his brother's wife. Having done that though, what if he hadn't imprisoned John the Baptist? But even having done that, what if he hadn't made the oath? But even having made the

oath, if he had only not followed through on the oath. So I guess my point is that Herod has, he had so many opportunities to start again, to fix what he had done wrong, to yeah, to really embrace conversion. But I also can sympathize, But I also can sympathize, not justifying, not justifying, but I can sympathize with some of the struggle of Herod because I know that from my own experience that we often can just feel trapped when we've started down a particular path, whether that be some habitual action, and it's like, well, I just don't know any other way.

Or if it's in sin, you know, especially when I first came back to the church, I remember often having the experience where I'd commit some mortal sin, and so I'm like, okay, well, I can't go to confession, or sorry, I can't receive communion until I go to confession. And knowing that just kind of, like it was such an unhealthy way to look at it, and I see that now, but that just opened the door for like,

well, why not commit all these other sins? Because I can't receive communion anyways. And I wasn't looking at the sin as, I wasn't looking at sin as wounding me and wounding my relationship with the Lord. It was just kind of like this impediment to receiving communion or something like that. So anyways, it can be very easy I think for us to feel trapped and to be like,

well, I can't get out of this and so I'm just going to keep moving in this direction because I don't know how to stop, I don't know how to turn back, I don't know how to stop, I don't know how to turn back, I don't know how to be any different than I am. And I think, yeah, a way that I really experience this in my life now is falling into that downward spiral now is falling into that downward spiral of lies that the devil attacks me with. You know, I'm sure some of you have experienced this, all of you if you're maybe aware of what's happening inside of your heart, of like the devil just throws lie after lie after lie at us. And once we've started to even listen,

it's like we just feel stuck and we just keep going down that path. And it's just this slippery slope. And what I want to remind you of in this episode, I guess, is just as Herod had so many opportunities for conversion, so many opportunities to choose differently at each intersection. In every moment we are given the chance to break that cycle, to cry out to the Lord to say I need help I'm lost It doesn't matter how deep you're in the lies in this moment it doesn't matter How much you're listening to the devil

It matters what I mean is How deep you are in it is not stopping you from crying out to the Lord, to reaching out to a friend, to sharing what's going on inside of your heart, to say I don't want to keep choosing this. I don't want to get further and further into this and more and more miserable. And the second aspect was, as I was praying with the gospel that we have at Matins, that morning prayer for the feast, the passage is from Matthew 14, it's verses one to 13. And when Salome, when Herodias' daughter asks for the head of John the Baptist on a platter, it says, the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given. Because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given.

Because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given. He was sorry. He didn't want to do this. At least some part of him didn't want to do this. And again, how often are we in that same position where it's like, I don't really want to do this. I want to choose rightly.

I want to get out of this. But at this point, I'm so deep in it and all of these people will think poorly of me and all of these people will judge me. And how often does our own pride keep us from conversion? I don't want to admit that I was wrong. I don't want to admit that I was wrong. I don't want to admit that I had a problem. And you know, sometimes it's like,

we're okay with admitting that kind of after the problem is resolved, right? This is even a huge temptation in podcasting. I fall into this trap of, well, it's not just a trap. There's also things that are appropriate and not appropriate and whatever, but it's much easier for me to share my struggles, to be vulnerable once I'm kind of on the other side of the struggle. Once I can share it in a nicely tied up package with a bow on top and and say all of

this was so wrong but now I'm in this place and this was the journey and whatever and this is this is the conclusion of it. But we can't usually get to that place on our own. I mean not even usually, we certainly can't without the Lord and so at the very least we need him. without the Lord. And so at the very least we need him. But usually we need other people in our life as well to help us out of these traps and to help us break the cycle. The cycle of sin, the cycle of the lies that we're believing.

And I just, if there's a place in your life right now that you feel trapped, that you want to change, but you don't know how, I would encourage you to ask yourself, I would encourage you to ask yourself, is part of the obstacle to change that I'm afraid to ask for help, that I'm worried what others will think. what others will think. And if so, just ask the Lord to give you courage to be able to reach out to the people that you need and of course to cry out to Him.

In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you for the gift of this technology, for the gift of those who are listening. I ask that you grant all of those who are listening a spirit of discernment, that they may hold fast to anything that I've said that is from you and to discard anything else. Please grant myself and my listeners the courage that we need to really embrace conversion. the courage that we need to really embrace conversion,

to see the opportunities that you give us for new beginnings, to live our life more fully than we've lived it in the past, more fully than we've lived it in the past. To choose you, to choose relationship with you and your son and your spirit. We need you, Father. Help us. I ask for these things and thank you for these things through the intercession of Saint Nathaniel, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint John the Baptist,

Saint Elizabeth and Zechariah, Saint Matthew the Evangelist, the Most Holy Theotokos and all the Saints. And through the prayers for our holy fathers, oh Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.