OFF   WITH  THEIR  HEADS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Off With Their Heads.”

Today - August 29^th - we look at the beheading of St. John the Baptist.

Oooooh,  Messy.  Horrible.

Shakespeare in several of his plays has someone say, “Off With Their Heads.”

Shakespeare  was historically accurate - because that’s what happened many times in British history. Many people had their heads chopped off and stuck on bridge spikes for all to see.

Two of Henry the Eight’s six wives  were beheaded: Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard.

So too many other people in many other places. 

So too in France - especially with the French Revolution when many were guillitoned. King Louie XVI lost his head on January 21^st, 1793 and Marie Antoinette faced down at the guillotine on October 16, 1793.  The number I read last night who were killed in the French Revolution was 40,000.

Off with their heads.

Capital Punishment is the phrase for all kinds of official killings by those in charge - for all kinds of reasons. Capital has that Latin word “caput” in it.  It’s the word for “head”.  And the slang word  “Kaput” - means finished, worn out, dead, broken, the end.  It’s often pronounced with a hand to the                       neck as if a knife is cutting one’s head off.

SILENCED

The idea is to silence - put an end to what we don’t like - especially if it’s another. Want silence: cut off the voice box - mouth and all.

“Beheading”: how did that word evolve.

“Off with their head” and that means their mouth - their words - that means to silence another.

Alice in Wonderland in Lewis Carrol’s famous book screams out: “Off with their heads.”

We read it here in our scriptures - with John the Baptist being silenced - because Herodius harbored a grudge -  as Mark 6: 17-29 - tells us in the gospel for this Mass.

Grudges - held onto bad moments and memories from another seems to be one of the main reasons people are beheaded.

Silence - shut them up - off with their heads.

MODERN TIMES

Horror continues.

Terrorists use television and video clips of beheadings to horrify us.

I think of the horrible silencing that took place in the Bosnia-Herzagovina’s war - when libraries were burned - when town records of birth certificates and property ownership  were destroyed.

The Serbs and then those who reacted and retaliated in kind knew that if you want to destroy a people - if you want to silence a people   -  burn their birth certificates. Burn their deeds.  Destroy their books. Make them non-existant.

HOW DO WE SILENCE THOSE WHO’S VOICES WE DON’T WANT TO HEAR.

We look at our watches.

We yawn.

We cut them out of our conversations.

We cut them with stabbing comments.

We ignore them.

We destroy their capital.

CONCLUSION: THE OPPOSITE

How do we build relationships? How do we build community? How do we receive communion with Christ and each other? It’s with our heads - our capital - our brain center. It’s through our mouth and our   words and our ears with our eyes - all processed in our skull. 

So instead of beheading - hopefully we behold each other - will big time respect for one’s head. Hopefully we spend time seeing each other eye to eye -  and hearing each other All part of our heads - eye to eye - talking heads.