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<table class="m_-4717887275803452221gmail-m_-6085934657539509229layout m_-4717887275803452221gmail-m_-6085934657539509229layout-table m_-4717887275803452221gmail-m_-6085934657539509229root-table" style="font-size:13px;min-width:100%;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" width="650" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><td id="m_-4717887275803452221gmail-m_-6085934657539509229layout-row-margin27128" style="padding:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" valign="top"><table style="font-size:13px;min-width:100%;border-collapse:initial" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr id="m_-4717887275803452221gmail-m_-6085934657539509229layout-row27128" class="m_-4717887275803452221gmail-m_-6085934657539509229layout m_-4717887275803452221gmail-m_-6085934657539509229layout-row m_-4717887275803452221gmail-m_-6085934657539509229widget m_-4717887275803452221gmail-m_-6085934657539509229_widget_html m_-4717887275803452221gmail-m_-6085934657539509229style27128" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><td id="m_-4717887275803452221gmail-m_-6085934657539509229layout-row-padding27128" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);padding:30px 30px 0px" valign="top"><table style="font-size:13px;min-width:100%" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td id="m_-4717887275803452221gmail-m_-6085934657539509229html_div26649" width="590" align="left"><p style="color:black;font-family:Avenir Next;font-size:20px;font-weight:500;line-height:1.25;text-align:center;text-transform:uppercase">Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist</p>
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 <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>today’s Gospel tells of the death of John the Baptist. Herod had 
arrested John, from whom Jesus had sought baptism, and put him to death.</b></span>
<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> The arrest and death o</b></span>f <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>John the Baptist were signals for Jesus.</b></span></span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"> </span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">Immediately
 after the arrest, Jesus withdraws to Galilee and commences his own 
ministry of preaching and healing. Are these two events just 
coincidentally related? Hardly. Jesus read the arrest of John as a kind 
of signal that he was to begin.</span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"> </span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">We
 must remember that <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Jesus, like any Jew of his time, would have read the
 world through the lens of the Sacred
Scriptures. They were the interpretive framework for everything. It was a
 commonplace of the Prophets and the Psalms and parts of the Torah that 
the era of the Messiah <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">would be preceded by a time of tribulation, when 
the opponents of</span> God <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">would rise up to counter </span>God’s purposes.</b></span></span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"> </span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Jesus
 saw</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>this in the arrest of </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>John.</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>This great national figure, this 
prophet to Israel, was arrested and eventually killed by the enemies of 
God—<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">and he took it as a signal that his own Messianic work should begin.</span></b></span></span></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b><br></div>
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