21 November 2017

‘Listen! I am standing
at the door, knocking’

‘I am standing at the door, knocking’ (Revelation 3: 20) … the south door of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick

21 November 2017

10.30 a.m., The Eucharist.


Readings: Revelation 3: 1-16, 14-22; Psalm 11; Luke 19: 1-10.

May I speak to you in the name of + the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Some years ago, I was visiting a city China that was larger in size than Dublin but that I had never heard of previously. When I went to the church there on a Sunday, there were hundreds of people there to receive Holy Communion that morning.

Back in Dublin, when I shared that experience with some clerical colleagues, I asked how they would respond to such numbers turning up unexpectedly in their churches on a Sunday morning.

They all said they would be delighted, thrilled.

No, we would not.

We would be shocked, discommoded, uncomfortable, unprepared. We would not have enough prepared enough bread or wine for the Communion; we would not have enough seating, even standing space; those who did squeeze in, would be resented for sitting in someone’s preferred pew.

The many, the rest, would be left out outside, knocking, wanting to come in and eat with us, like Christ in our New Testament reading this morning.

Yet, Christ has come for ‘the many’ … indeed, for the masses, for ‘the all.’

Many of the popular phrases we associate with Christ are not in the Gospels, but in other parts of the New Testament, including Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (see I Corinthians 11: 23-26), and especially in the Book of Revelation.

This image of Christ knocking at the door in this morning’s reading from the Book of Revelation was popularised in the 19th century by Holman Hunt’s painting, ‘The Light of the World.’ This is the first image of Christ I remember seeing as a small child, sitting on my grandmother’s knee. It is reproduced in a window in Saint Mary’s Church, Killarney.

Christ is knocking at the door, and he wants to eat and drink … to eat and drink with those in darkness, out there, the masses and the marginalised. When, at this morning’s Eucharist, we repeat his words ‘shed for you and many,’ the ‘you’ refers to us, in the Church, but ‘the many,’ οἱ πολλοί (hoi polloi), refers to the rest, those outside, the masses.

This is what he tells Zacchaeus in our Gospel reading this morning (Luke 19: 1-10). The many, the marginalised, the rejected, the despised are the ones Christ chooses to dine with.

Zacchaeus is an object lesson in this Gospel of the maxim that ‘small is beautiful.’

The reference to the sycamore is deliberate here. Why did Saint Luke not choose an apple tree, a palm tree, an oak tree, any old tree? Because, in Middle Eastern culture at the time, the sycamore tree represented the tree of life.

In climbing the tree of life, Zacchaeus claims the place he is denied by society around him. The Greek form of his name indicates he may have been a Greek-speaking Jew from Alexandria, a member of the diaspora who has come to Jericho to work as a tax collector, to work with the empire, the oppressors.

He is an outsider in every way.

But Zacchaeus hears the same call that is issued to the Church in Laodicea. He hears Christ knocking at his door, he hurries down, and opens the door to Christ.

Jesus becomes the guest, and Zacchaeus is the host.

Who is knocking at the door of the Church today?

If we welcome them in, invite them to the banquet, we may find that we are dining with Christ.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Holman Hunt’s ‘The Light of the World’ …the first image of Christ I remember seeing as a child

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is priest-in-Charge of the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes and Canon Precentor of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick. This reflection was shared at the Eucharist before a meeting of the cathedral chapter.

The Basilica of San Domenico
holds the saint’s shrine and
800 years of Dominican history

The Basilica of San Domenico, seen from the cloisters, is one of the major churches in Bologna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

Bologna has a rich collection of churches and basilicas, and one of the major churches in the city is the Basilica of San Domenico, which dates back to the arrival of Saint Dominic 800 years ago in the year 1218.

The basilica is visited regularly by pilgrims and tourists who come to visit this church because Saint Dominic is buried inside the church in the exquisite shrine of the Arca di San Domenico. As I walked around the church last week, there was a constant stream of schoolchildren being brought around by teachers and Dominican friars, and a stream of pilgrims constantly flowed in to see the shrine of Saint Dominic.

The shrine is the work of Nicola Pisano and his workshop and of Arnolfo di Cambio, and there are later additions by Niccolò dell’Arca and the young Michelangelo.

When Saint Dominic, Dominic Guzman, first arrived in Bologna in January 1218, he was impressed by the vitality of the city and recognised the importance of the university city.

The first house for Dominicans was established at the Mascarella church by Reginald of Orleans. But this house soon became too small for the growing number of friars, and in 1219 the brothers of Dominic’s Order of Preachers moved to the small church of San Nicolò of the Vineyards at the outskirts of Bologna.

Saint Dominic also moved to this church and the first two General Chapters of the Order of Preachers or Dominicans were held here in 1220 and 1221. Saint Dominic died in that church on 6 August 1221, and was buried behind the altar of San Nicolò.

Between 1219 and 1243, the Dominicans bought all the plots of land surrounding the church. After the death of Saint Dominic, the church of San Nicolò was expanded and a new monastic complex was built between 1228 and 1240.

The church was then extended and grew into the Basilica of Saint Dominic, which would become the prototype of many other Dominican churches throughout the world.

The basilica was divided in two parts divided by a ramp: the front part, or ‘internal church,’ was the church of the brothers, and the church for the faithful, or the ‘external church.’ The church was consecrated by Pope Innocent IV in 1251.

The shrine of Saint Dominic in Saint Dominic’s chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The remains of Saint Dominic were moved in 1233 from a place behind the altar to a simple marble sarcophagus. But most of the pilgrims could not see the new shrine, which was hidden by many people standing in front of it.

The need for a new shrine was identified, and in 1267 the remains of Saint Dominic were moved from the simple sarcophagus into a new shrine, decorated with episodes from the life of the saint by Nicola Pisano.

Saint Dominic’s chapel is the main chapel of the church. It has a square plan and a semi-circular apse, where the remains of the saint rest in the splendid Arca di San Domenico under the cupola which contains three sculptures by Michelangelo: Angel, Saint Proclus and Saint Petronius.

The chapel was built by the Bolognese architect Floriano Ambrosini, replacing the old gothic chapel from 1413, to match the splendour of the other existing chapels. It was decorated between 1614 and 1616 by important painters of the Bolognese school.

The relics of Saint Dominic in the richly-decorated shrine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

In the course of the next centuries, the church was enlarged, modified and rebuilt. New side chapels were built, a bell tower was added, the dividing wall between the two churches was demolished, and the choir was moved behind the altar. Then, in 1728-1732, the interior of the church was completely rebuilt in the Baroque style by the architect Carlo Francesco Dotti (1678–1759) under the patronage of Pope Benedict XIII, who was a Dominican.

The square in front of the church, now paved with pebbles, was also the original cemetery. In the middle of the square, a bronze statue of Saint Dominic (1627) stands on the top of a brickwork column.

Close-by are two unique Byzantine-Venetian-style tombs of the celebrated jurists of Rolandino de’ Passeggeri and Egidio Foscarari.

Inside the Basilica of Saint Dominic (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)