Feb 4: One Life Given to All

Sandro Botticelli: Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist (detail)
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, c. 1488

Friday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mk 6:14-29

King Herod heard about Jesus, for his fame had become widespread, and people were saying, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him". . . When Herod learned of it, he said, "It is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised up (NAB, Mk 6:14,16)."

Father, how long it has taken us to recognize that there is one power at work in all of us. There is one life that animates our being. According to Mark’s gospel, the people, and indeed Herod Antipas himself, witnessing the power of Jesus’ ministry, were confident that John the Baptist had been raised from dead. We realize, quite to the contrary, it is the same power that filled Jesus, the power of the Word, your power, Father, that strengthened John.

Father, all of us who are human live by your life and power. It is shared with us through your begotten but uncreated Word, through whom we are all created, and through whom, in the Spirit, we receive the gift of your life. This is true of every human being who has ever lived. We are all divine beings called to share in your life. Even those of us who later reject the gift of your life, Father, accepted in the womb in the beginning, who succumb to the sin of the world which ensnares us all and to our own self-gratification; remain, through the Same Word pressing in upon us, forever in your presence, shared divinity gone wrong. We speak of Lucifer and his cohorts, in their sinfulness, as having fallen from such a great height. We who are human beings, who later reject our initial commitment to divine life, suffer the same denigrating condition of having denied who we are and who we are called to be. How gracious you are, Lord, in response to our sins, always to pour out your Spirit of forgiveness upon us if only we will accept.

Yes, Lord, it was the life and power of your Word, made flesh in Jesus Christ, that enlivened, and continues to enliven, John the Baptist. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are one in your being, one in intellect and will, distinct but not separate in three persons. We who are human are, on the other hand, created, distinct and separate one from the other and from you, Lord, each with their own intellect and will, but still by your gracious favor, Lord, called, all of us, to share and to grow in your divinity. Continue to strengthen us, Lord, that in response to your Spirit given to us through your Word, we may be as faithful to our one calling as was John the Baptist.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.