08/29/2024
This is a strong explanation of not only the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, but of thousands and thousands of martyrs who died for their faith. Thank you Knights of the Immaculata for posting.
"At the dawn of the new testament, John the Baptist, unable to refrain from speaking of the law of the Lord and rejecting any compromise with evil, gave his life as witness to truth and justice and thus became the forerunner of the Messiah in the way he died. The Church proposes the example of numerous saints who bore witness to and defended moral truth even to the point of enduring martyrdom, or who preferred death to a single mortal sin. In raising them to the honor of the altars, the Church has canonized their witness and declared the truth of their judgement. Martyrdom, accepted as an affirmation of the inviolability of the moral order, bears splendid witness to both the holiness of God's law and the inviolability of the personal dignity of man, created in God's image and likeness."
St. John Paul II