Today, when the Serbian Orthodox Church and its believers celebrate the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, His Eminence the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Archbishop of Cetinje and Exarch of the Holy Throne of Peć Mr. Joanikije, served the Holy Liturgy in the Cetinje Monastery, with the concelebration of monks and priests from several sister churches.

After the reading of the Gospel, the Most Reverend Archimandrite Paisius, the Bishop-elect of Diocletian, addressed the gathered believers with an instructive sermon.

"We have just heard, dear brothers and sisters, a rather concise Gospel about the execution of St. John the prophet and the Baptist." Namely, as it is said in the Gospel, his execution was preceded by his imprisonment. After the Emperor Herod Antipas, the son of that Herod who killed 14,000 Bethlehem children during the birth of Christ according to tradition and after he started life with his own brother's wife, St. John disfigured him and was imprisoned for that. And of course Herod wanted to silence the word that spoke from Saint John the Baptist by imprisoning him. And not only did he not do that, but as can be seen from the entire Gospel story, at the end and after the death of St. John, he himself confesses that this righteous man of God was resurrected even though he executed him, Father Paisius pointed out.

The Gospel embraces every man, wanting to save him from this road of King Herod

"Even though St. John was isolated from people and society in prison, his very presence burned the conscience of Herodias and Emperor Herod. And that's why at this feast that was arranged, where Herodias' daughter Salome danced and pleased Emperor Herod, even though that dance was not befitting of any of the emperor's members, let alone the emperor's daughter, Herod promised to give whatever they wanted, even if it was half of his empire. Without any hesitation, Herodias persuaded her daughter to ask for the head of Saint John the Baptist. Of course he fulfilled his promise and as it is said in the church song: It was more shameful that he fulfilled his word than that he trampled on the given word.

And he orders the soldiers who kill St. John, who bring his head to that feast. The bottom line is that there are only two roads in this life: The road taken by St. John the Baptist and the road taken by King Herod. And the path of St. John is well known to all of us.

That he led a desert and ascetic life from his earliest childhood. That he loved the word of God so much that there was no room for anything else in him, and that in the end he suffered for that word until death. And on the other hand, we have the path of the so-called Emperor Herod, who spent his life in revelry and immorality. The Gospel embraces every man, wanting to save him from this path of Emperor Herod, even though he himself was embraced by the word of God through St. John the Baptist in order to save himself from the path he was on, he still refused that embrace. We see that this word of St. John, that is, the word of God that spoke through him, is heard to this day. And the one who tried to silence that word, neither his word nor Herodias' nor Salome's can be heard anymore. Let us focus all our attention and mind on this path of salvation which leads to suffering, to renunciation of our will, to humiliation even to death. However, that death is not inglorious and dishonorable, but glorious and honorable, and above all, after that death, eternal life continues, which God may grant us through the prayers of the Holy Father Jovan," Father Paisje concluded.

The right hand of Saint John the Baptist was sent to the Cetinje Monastery by the merits of our Holy Fathers

After the dismissal, Metropolitan Ioannikije reminded the congregation that we have a great blessing from God, because in that shrine rests the right hand of St. John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord, which, after his head was beheaded, reached Constantinople after a long time.

"And later she was also in Turkish slavery to be handed over to the Christians in Rhodes in the 16th century." Then it passed to Malta together with a particle of the Holy Cross and with the miraculous icon of the Holy Virgin Philermosa. Thank God, the hand of St. John the Baptist is still in this sanctuary today, together with a particle of the holy cross, and also in the city of Cetinje there is a miraculous icon of the Virgin of Filerimska, which is in the museum, because our authorities still do not understand that this icon cannot possibly reside in museum because that is not her place. There it does not have the role it would have in the Temple of God. It is intended, just as these shrines are here, to sanctify the people of God in the temples at the Holy services of God. And that prayers and obeisances be offered to them from the faithful people. The time will come for those who decide on it to understand it.

But we should all be thankful that these three shrines visited us and that we have the honor to pray to God in front of them and to take revenge through them. And today, on the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, we gathered here from various sides from east to west, around the right hand of St. John the Baptist. And we thank God for His unspeakable gift and unfathomable providence. If we ask ourselves what we did to deserve that the right hand of St. John the Baptist rests here in this sanctuary, we could not start from ourselves. But it is possible that our blessed and Holy ancestors deserved it. That Saint Peter the Cetinje miracle worker deserved it. She was sent to this shrine because of them, but also to bring us to repentance and closeness to God, because we have alienated ourselves a lot from God, the Holy Orthodox faith, humanity and honesty", said the reverend bishop.

"Unfortunately, we are witnessing a complete lack of understanding and disrespect for this holy place, so we have experienced roars, provocations and the absence of the fear of God here for the last thirty years or so." We understand people who are alienated from God because they think they are doing good, but they do not know that they are destroying themselves and that by such behavior they can bring a curse on themselves. We do not wish that to anyone, but we pray to St. John and the Lord God that the Lord enlightens them all and that they turn to the path of salvation because they, like all of us, need salvation and they need God's closeness and grace to refine and enlighten them. God grant that the Lord enlightens us all together and gives us reason to follow the right, true path of God. And we have to remind people when they come to the sanctuary, that they should come properly, for the blessing. That they come to confess their sins, to be freed from them and to be participants in this holy place of God in order to obtain the blessing and mercy of God for themselves and their families. And not to bring evil upon themselves and their families with malice, slander and hatred. Unfortunately, this is often paid for by accidents and lives. We don't wish that on anyone, but we want togetherness, peace, good, joy and eternal life.

May the Lord grant that St. John will bring us all to our Lord with his right hand," Metropolitan Ioannikije thanked.

Ljubica Vukićević

Photo: Vuk Bakić