Friday, August 27, 2004
Venerable-Confessor Hosios, Bishop of Cordoba
1st Vespers of Beheading of John: Selections from Isaiah Epistle: 2 Corinthians 11:5-21
Gospel: St. Mark 4:1-9
1-3, 9; 41:17-18; 45:8; 48:20-21; 54:1 LXX, especially vs. 3: "A
voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway
for our God." We Christian people have every reason to "crown with songs of praise the
Forerunner, known to be greater than the Prophets, and become foremost of the Apostles; for his
head was cut off for the law of the Lord." Indeed, John was a martyr for God's law commanding
purity of life for all, a man who rebuked the immorality of a king and queen, a man whom they
sought to silence "by adding murder to adultery, and affecting a frown" (see Mk. 6:17-28).
More deeply, who is this John we call the Forerunner of Christ and the Baptizer of our Lord?
Christ Jesus Himself teaches us that "among those born of women, there has not risen one greater
than John the Baptist" (Mt. 11:11). The same Lord Jesus, through His Church, presents us with
this selection of verses from Isaiah and commands us to read them on the Eve of the Feast in
which we commemorate John's beheading. Focusing on these verses, what do they teach us
concerning John? Plainly, they declare that he is a priest - one who ministers to God's People (Is.
40:2 LXX). They describe him as a voice in the wilderness of this fallen, cruel, and sinful world
(vs.40:3). They say he is a messenger of "glad tidings to Zion," the Church of God (vs. 40:9),
and God's Prophet who looks at Christ Jesus and says, "Behold your God!" (vs. 40:9).
In pointing us toward the Lord Jesus, the Prophet John reveals the Anointed Man Who is God
and Who will cause "the poor and the needy [to] exult; for when they shall seek water, and there
shall be none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord God, I the God of Israel will
hear, and will not forsake them" (vs. 41:17). Our Lord Himself confirmed John's revelation
when He said, "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst" (Jn. 4:14).
Thus St. John uniquely prepares the human heart to see Christ Jesus as the One Who transforms
the landscape of men's lives by opening "rivers on the mountains, and fountains in the midst of
plains" and by turning deserts into "pools of water, and a thirsty land watercourses" (Is. 41:18).
He teaches us to look to Jesus to find the answer to all of our mad, frenzied efforts to make over
this world, to unite ourselves to Him Who truly quenches thirsting hearts.
Who among us does not know that what our world lacks and needs, the transformation for which
it is thirsting, is true righteousness and an outpouring of mercy?! Surely we have had enough of
immorality, self-serving, deceit, and perversity. What a service St. John performs for our
benighted race by pointing us toward the Lord Jesus Christ, for in the Lord Jesus the heaven
rejoices from above because He, and none other, rains righteousness on the world and causes the
earth to "bring forth and blossom with mercy, and bring forth righteousness likewise" (vs. 45:8).
We men have been slaves in the Babylons of this world so long that we accept bondage as normal
and natural. Not the Forerunner! He urges us to "Go forth of Babylon" and "flee from the
Chaldeans: utter aloud a voice of joy, and let this be made known, proclaim it to the end of the
earth; say you, The Lord has delivered His servant" (vs. 48:20). He shows us the One who can
lead us through the desert and "bring forth water...out of the rock: the rock shall be cloven, and
the water shall flow forth" (vs. 48:21). We have Savior and Deliverer, as St. John shows us.
Let each one of us examine himself. Let each one ask, Why do I not rejoice? Why am I barren
and do not bear? Listen to St. John: "break forth and cry, you who do not travail: for [in Christ
the Lord] more are the children of the desolate, than of her who has a husband" (vs. 54:1).
Since thou art a practical teacher of purity, and a saving guide to repentance, O Baptizer,
implore thou Christ, to deliver us from the humiliation of passions.
