About the dance of Herodias and the cutting off of the head of the Forerunner and

1. A lover of solitude, in some secluded corner of the forest, in the shade of trees, enjoying the lovely music of a babbling spring and the singing of sweet-voiced birds, is touched by his soul and heart, and in such a mood makes a pleasant impression on everyone. Likewise, in the previous days, called by the gentle breath of the Spirit, we talked with you about various works of mercy. But now, when the Gospel has just told us about the madness of Herod and the debauchery of women, about the feast of mad men and about the cursed meal, about the lawless gift and the unjust deed, and about the burial of the most honorable body, now I am in a completely different mood. My lips become numb, beloved, when these Herodian deeds pass before my eyes: my tongue does not dare to speak about these deeds, or rather about the wounds of the one who committed such deeds. “At that time,” it is said, “Herod the tetrarch heard a rumor about Jesus and said to those serving with him: this is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead, and therefore miracles are being done by him” (Matthew 14: 1–2). Herod confesses that he killed the prophet, whom he could not deceive; confesses that he knew about the one he killed, that he was a prophet and a righteous man. After all, if he had not known this then, he would not have said now that it was John who rose from the dead and therefore works such miracles. Oh, evil conscience! What a crime are you convicting yourself of! Oh, evil conscience, dwelling in a dirty soul, executing during life and inexorably condemning after death! And why did he kill the prophet? Because he proclaimed the truth and wanted to correct his lawless act through reproof. The one who was supposed to be the guardian of God's commandments himself violated the laws with disorderly intemperance in pleasures. After all, the king, when issuing fair laws, must be the first to fulfill them, and not trample them. And how could he maintain good order among his subjects if he did not hold the unbridled human race in obedience with just laws? And Herod, reigning not over the people, but over pleasures, or rather, being a slave of pleasures (“for whoever is conquered by someone is his slave” - 2 Peter 2:19), not only violated the law of God, but also dared to commit unjust murder. And who did he kill? A righteous man, more than whom no one stood up among those born of women, according to the testimony of the Lord himself - a man who lived in an uninhabited, waterless, barren, inaccessible desert, where there was not a tree, a blade of grass, or a flower. John lived in the desert, not running away from his fellow tribes and kindred people, but avoiding seeing and hearing about the evil deeds of men. He neither sowed nor reaped; he had neither bread, nor wine, nor meals, nor a bed that gives people so much pleasure, nor soft feather beds that relax and pamper the bodies of effeminate men; He had no candle, no candlestick, no table, no footstool, no cup, no dish. In a word, having retired from worldly life, he did not use anything worldly. He lived not under the roof of a house with a gilded ceiling, but under the roof of rocks untouched by human hands. The earth was his table, his foot, and his bed; locusts replaced his meat, and wild honey replaced his cakes; his cup was a handful of his own hand, and instead of wine he drank the purest spring water. Such and such a man was captured by Herod and held in bonds. “For Herod, having taken John, bound him and put him in prison for Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip” (Matthew 14:3). Oh, what an unnatural thing! John wanted to loosen his soul, bound by the bonds of sin, by reproof, but he imposed bonds on his liberator! But even in prison John spoke, and he denounced those in custody. “Speak l...before kings and not...be ashamed” (Ps. 119:46). John was not afraid of death, but was afraid to remain silent about the truth. Herod killed him, and having killed him, he committed not just one murder, but many. Having killed the teacher and healer of souls, he killed with him all those whom he could have revived with his word during his lifetime. And when did he kill him? It’s a shame to say, not for the speaker. shameful, but for the one who committed the murder. When Herod's birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced in front of the feasters and pleased him to such an extent that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. And she, at the instigation of her mother, said: “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter” (Matthew 14:8). Oh, evil festival, breathing the murder of the prophet! Oh, that righteous people would be treated to that meal! Communication with them would have benefited Herod’s corrupt soul: maybe he would have reformed. “You will be reverent with the venerable,” it is said, “and with the obstinate and corrupt” (Ps. 17:26-27). But instead of having care for widows and compassion for the orphans, so that with the help of their fervent and persistent prayers before God to preserve his life unshakable, he was complacent with dissolute people and dishonest women, and in shameful society, burdened by abundant drinking and seduced by intemperate women, he took the life of John. The forerunner of the day, the wonderful lamp of faith, the lamp of the whole world - he attempted to destroy John by murder. And by destroying this lamp, Herod only plunged himself into darkness. Of course, he destroyed its outer - meager - shell, but John's soul continued to shine and from it the message of faith shone. those in hell. (Even during his life), as a prophet, knowing that he must warn his Lord in hell, John sends some of his disciples to Him with the question: “Are you the one who should come, or should we expect another” (Matthew 11:3). This question is not caused by ignorance. How could he not know the Lord when, pointing to Him, he said: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)? How could he not know the Lord - the spectator of the descent of the Spirit from heaven and the hearer of the voice of the Father about Him, saying: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17)? What does his question mean in this case: “Are you the One who is to come, or should we expect something else?” Didn’t say: Are you the one who will come? - because He had already come to earth, but asked: “Are you the One who is to come” (obviously, we are talking about hell), or should we wait for someone else? 2. John could reason with himself like this: maybe the Lord will send an angel to hell in his place, investing him with power? Or, perhaps, He will resurrect everyone with one word, as He did with Lazarus? In view of this, not knowing the will of his Master, he sends to ask Him: “Are you the one who should come, or should we expect someone else” in hell? Herod killed him! And how did you kill? Herod's birthday was celebrated and Herodias' daughter danced. The most suitable entertainment for such a meal! In fact, where drunkenness and debauchery are intertwined with each other, there is nothing solid, but everything staggers, wavers, like the madness of Herod. Listen, lovers of dance spectacles, following with your eyes the flexible legs of relaxed young men and spreading your hearts along with their pampered bodies; Listen to what kind of murder this refined pleasure led to. Taught by her mother, the daughter said: “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter” (Matthew 14:8). Oh, the malicious spawn of the wicked lioness! She asked neither gold, nor silver, nor precious stones, but the head of John! And if faith had inspired this request in her, then, of course, the head of John would have been more precious to her than all gold and silver and expensive stones. But she asked not out of faith, in order to honor him, but in order to kill this living reproach, to save her mother from the shame that her sin brought upon her. Hearing such a request, “the king was saddened” (Matthew 14:9). However, it was not the murder of the prophet that embarrassed him, but the fear of the people who revered John as a prophet. This is what embarrassed him, and not at all a feeling of reverence: if he had had this latter, he would not have put John in prison before. Herod's soul was then like a ship caught in the sea by excitement and rocked on both sides: to commit murder - he was afraid of the people, and not to commit - he did not dare “for the sake of the oath and those who recline with him” (Matthew 14:9). But in the end, a shameful passion for women took over in him and, hiding behind the sanctity of an oath, as a plausible pretext, the unfortunate “sent to cut off John’s head in prison” (Matthew 14:10). What an evil it is to swear - remember now you, who are always ready to swear! Remember what the Lord says: “Do not swear at all” (Matthew 5:34)! After all, if unfortunate Herod had not sworn then, he would not have decided to commit murder. It would be better for him not to swear at all, and once the oath was pronounced, it should have been broken, because when choosing between two evils, the lesser should have been preferred. “He sent to cut off John’s head in prison.” What hand, beloved, dared to lift a sword on the holy neck of John, whom the beasts in the desert feared, whom the lions trembled, whom the snakes and dragons and scorpions feared, whom the wild bees fed on their honeycombs, as a holy man? He extracted honey from various flowers and herbs, as if collecting golden-shaped drops of dew in the desert, they brought him the fruits of their labors. It was he who was beheaded by the executioner’s hand, which did not flinch before his angel-like face, not ashamed of the face on which the divine radiance was reflected. One can only think that the executioner sent by Herod became clouded in his head from the wine he drank at the feast, and he, holding the sword in his hands, did not see anything with his eyes. The head of John was beheaded (it did not bleed because he never drank wine) and was brought on a platter to the feast - and then she cried out to Herod: “You must not have... a wife... your brother” (Matthew 14:3-4)! After all, even after the death of the righteous man he lived, and his voice sounded when his head was already cut off. Oh, the cruelty of man. On what he ate the meat on, he placed the man’s head on the same platter. O lawless tyrant! It was not enough for you to exterminate the infants carried out by that former Herod in Bethlehem, when the cries of fathers and mothers, merging together, seemed sharper than knives, when the streams of tears poured out from the eyes were more abundant than the springs, when fathers struck themselves in the chest, when grief took everyone’s breath away, mothers mourned the untimely death of their babies, these tender shoots of their own loins, when mothers had milk, overflowing the nipples, it poured out onto the earth and made it white, since the babies who fed on it were suddenly exterminated, when the children broke away from the embraces of their fathers and the nipples of their mothers vainly longed for the gentle tickling of their infant teeth. What animal would not then shed tears at the sight of innocent infants being unjustly beaten, whose souls were alien to any treachery, whose spiritual kindness was fully consistent with the tenderness of their members, characteristic of infants? Did those innocent children denounce your predecessor Herod, who did not yet speak their tongues and did not yet have teeth in their mouths, so that words of reproof could be feared from their lips? But no, few of those babies appeared: such is the ferocity of Herod! And now you, competing with that Herod in inhumanity, beheaded John, of whom you were not worthy even of one hair. He destroyed the children of Rachel, and you beheaded John, the teacher of the church. To which of them should I be more merciful? - says the Lord. Oh, the city of blood, in which Herod reigned and his descendant of the same name, similar to him in character. Alas, those who should be guardians of order are the leaders of unrest! Following in their footsteps, using their lessons, the Jews went as far as killing Christ: they sawed Isaiah, killed Jeremiah, stoned Naboth, killed Zechariah, crucified Christ. But let us leave them to mourn the evil they have committed, and let us hasten to the holy radiance of the sacrament in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria.