The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-12-14
FATHER M'INERNEY
Priest in Charge, Church of the
Assumption.
A thought for the day?

Well, the passage from the Gospel
of Christ which the church from
time immemoria1 has required her
priests to read for their people on the
third Sunday of Advent is concerned
with John the Baptist, the precursor of
our Lord. John, who was preparing the
world for the coming of our Redeemer
had been living in the wilderness eat
ing the wild locust and wearing the
skins of animals. So wonderful was
his life that some thought he might
be the Messiah himself and they sent
priests and Levites to ask him who he
was. He answered that he was not
Christ nor Elias nor the prophet but
that he was the voice of one crying
in the wilderness: Prepare the way of
the Lord. There was no hesitation in
his reply, no equivocation in his words.
His answer was clear and direct and
easy to understand. st. John the
Baptist showed then as he proved to
the end of his life that he was a plain,
honest, humble man who despised the
world, that has ever been the arch
enemy of Christ and his followers.
His candor and zeal and earnestness
cost him his life. When teaching the
doctrines of Christ he was no re-
specter of persons.
Herod, the tetrarch of Gali1ee, was
living with the wife of his half brother
Philip. Seeking to stifle remorse and
to secure a standing in the community
which should have Stunned them for
their lechery, they lived in great
splendor entertaining the society folk
of the countryside at frequent social
functions in the mansion in which
they dwelt, spending vast sums of
money to obtain a popularity they by
no means deserved. st. John the Bap-
fist had been much talked about, his
manner of life had been much COM
mented upon. 1t would be a novel
sensation to see this rude man and
to hear one of his sermons in the
golden house Of Herod. 1t would be
a new thrill for the guests on whom
the continual feasting and pleasures
were beginning to pail. And SO John
was invited to preach before Herod
and Herodias and their guests.
When all was ready for the sermon,
when the hosts were present in the
great hall, when the guests were
seated and many jest and many a
sneer had been passed around, St
John the Baptist prepared and point
ing his finger at Herod, cried out: at
is not lawful for you to have your
brothers wife" If an earthquake had
shaken the foundations of the city, if
a sudden eclipse of the sun had turned
day into night, the assembled throng
could not have received. a greater
shock. Nothing like this had been
expected. 1t had been taken for
granted that the Baptist would in
dulge in high sounding nonsense or
would rebuke the evil lives or refute
the false teachings Of some hypotheti-
cal or even real people. No one had
dreamed that he would enter the very
house Of Herod and Herodias and de-
nounce their adulterous lives in their
own presence. A wild commotion
arose and before 1t subsidized, St. John
the Baptist was hurried off to a
prison where Herod would have had
him murdered had he not feared the
people.
Some time after this Herod's birth
day came around and Herodias re-
solved to celebrate it with unusual
pomp. A great banquet was prepared
and partaken of, and when Herod and
his guests had drunk freely of the
wine that flowed in abundance, hang
ing curtains were drawn from a plat
form at the end of a hall to disclose
| the figure of Salome, the daughter OF
Herodias, ready to dance for the de.
location of all present. With such