During his homily at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis reflected on the martyrdom of John the Baptist, saying both he and Jesus died in humiliating ways.
The pope warned against the danger of following the worldly path of wanting to be recognized by others.
POPE FRANCIS
It's not Jesus' path. Even priests can fall into this temptation of wanting to climb. This is an injustice. This is a humiliation. I cannot tolerate it. FLASH There is no humility without humiliation.
Pope Francis said shepherds who don't follow the path of humility are not disciples of Jesus. He called them “climbers in cassocks.”
EXTRACTS FROM POPE'S HOMILY
Source: Vatican
Reflecting on the day’s Gospel of Mark on the beheading of St. John the Baptist, the pope explained how he was sent by God to show “the way of Jesus.” The “last of the prophets,” the pope said, had the grace to say, “This is the Messiah.”
The pope said bearing witness to the path chosen by God for our salvation is the path of humiliation. St. Paul explains this very clearly in his Letter to the Philippians: “Jesus annihilated himself to death, death on a cross.” This death on the cross, this way of annihilation, of humiliation, the pope said, is also the way forward that God indicates for Christians.
The Holy Father pointed out that both John the Baptist and Jesus had the “temptation of vanity, of pride.” After His fast, Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert, and John was tested before the doctors of the law who asked him if he was the Messiah. He could have answered that he was “His minister,” and yet he “humbled himself.”
The pope said that both had authority over the people and their preaching was “authoritative.” Yet both had “moments of lowliness,” sort of “human and spiritual depression.” Jesus had his moment in the Garden of Olives, and John in prison was tempted by the “woodworm of doubt” whether Jesus was really the Messiah.
Both “end in the most humiliating way.” Jesus dies on the cross, “the death of the worst criminals, terrible physically and morally,” “naked before the people” and “before His mother.” John the Baptist is beheaded in the prison by a guard on the orders of a king who was “weakened by vices,” “corrupted by the whim of a dancer and the hatred of an adulteress,” the pope said, referring to Herodias and her daughter.
Pope Francis explained that when we try to draw attention to ourselves in the Church and in the community in order to have a position or something, it is the way of the world, a worldly way, which is not the way of Jesus. He said this “temptation to climb” can also happen to pastors. This, the pope said, is an injustice he cannot tolerate. “If a shepherd does not follow this humble path, he is not a disciple of Jesus,” Pope Francis said, adding, “he is a climber in a cassock.” “There is no humility without humiliation.”
