John knew no fear where right was concerned. His duty was to make the
paths straight for Him who was coming and it mattered little to him
whether he rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees at the Jordan or Herod in
his palace. Herod, however, could not brook such plain speaking and he
had (at first) a mind to put him to death (but) "he feared the people,
because they esteemed him as a prophet" (St. Matt. XIV. 5). Herodias
also had "laid snares for him and was desirous to put him to death and
could not" because of Herod who knowing that John was "a just and holy
man" (afterwards) protected his life (St. Mark VI. 19, 20). So John was
shut up in prison; Josephus tells us that it was at a place called
Machaerus on the east of the Dead Sea where Herod had a castle.
Let us go and visit John in that lonely prison, where he was cast quite
at the beginning of Christ's ministry. His long years of preparation in
the desert, his fearless, outspoken preaching, his generosity and
humility in giving place to his Master, his important office of
Forerunner of the Messias, his vision of the Blessed Trinity--are they
all to end thus? Is this how God treats His friends? Is this the reward
for fidelity and loyalty? Yes, St. John would be the first to answer,
these are ever God's ways, "He must increase, I must decrease." John had
indeed been specially favoured and he was specially favoured in prison
too. It is not everybody whom God can trust with a trial such as this.
John was still preparing the ways of the Lord, no longer by an active
life, but by a life of suffering, solitude and privation. His patience
and his perfect submission to God's Will no doubt prepared the ways of
Christ in the hearts of many.
If He is to increase, I _must_ decrease, it is only natural. Yes, it is
natural for the saints to reason like this, but what about me? I want to
be a saint. I often perhaps ask God to make me one, perhaps I even tell
Him to use any means He likes, not to spare me. Does not this solve many
a problem? God is only taking me at my word; the beginning, the middle
and the end of the process of saint-making is _humility_. "I must
decrease," and if I ask to be a saint, He will give me the humiliations
and the sufferings which alone can teach me humility and unite me to
Himself. What then does it matter, if I have to suffer physically or
morally, if a career of usefulness in His service is suddenly cut short,
if I have to stand on one side and see the work I love and for which my
whole life has been a preparation, being done by another, if those I
have taught do not seem to understand, if my life is full of little
things I dislike and which seem made to annoy me--all these and
everything else that can possibly happen to me are the direct result of
my God-given wish to be a saint. Let me ask St. John the Baptist for
courage to continue my prayer this Advent and to accept joyfully for Him
Who is coming all that it entails, saying, to myself when something
seems to happen on purpose to annoy me: "This is to help to make me a
saint," and then seeing to it that it does.