Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 4, Monday 4 November 2024

Preparing for a banquet in the Boot and Flogger restaurant in Southwark (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints and Advent. In the Church Calendar, we have celebrated All Saints’ Day (1 November) and commemorated All Souls’ Day (2 November). Yesterday was the Fourth Sunday before Advent (3 November 2024), although many churches and parishes marked it as All Saints’ Day.

Before today begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

Are all our celebrations of the Eucharist, all our meals, a foretaste of the Heavenly Banquet? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 14: 12-14 (NRSVA):

12 He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’

Waiting for dinner at sunset on the beach in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

November is a month traditionally associated with remembering the dead. So, it is interesting that this morning’s Gospel reading links ‘the resurrection of the righteous’ with how I treat those who cannot repay any kindness I show them.

There are three different meals being discussed here. There are two meals in verse 12, which is complete in itself. There are two meals here that I might invite people to: ἄριστον (ariston) originally referred to the first meal of the day, breakfast, but by the time of Christ it had come to mean the mid-day meal, lunch; δεῖπνον (deipnon) was the most important meal of the day, which was dinner in the evening.

It is good to meet family members and friends for lunch and to invite neighbours around for dinner. We do it constantly and without any expectations of return invitations. Good company makes any meal enjoyable at any time of the day.

In recent weeks in Kuching, we have been invited to morning coffee and lunch with friends in local hotels and the Sarawak Club, and we have had dinner in the evenings with friends and family members. Many of them cannot expect reciprocal hospitality on our behalf. Hospitality is a virtue to be valued without any expectation of return invitations.

What we are warned against in verse 12 in today’s reading is inviting friends, family members or rich neighbours to lunch or dinner in the hope that ‘they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.’ If hospitality is offered with an expectation of even more generous hospitality in return, then in it is not true hospitality at all. We ought to invite friends, family members or neighbours to lunch or dinner, but only because we appreciate them as they are.

The third meal mentioned in this reading is the banquet in verse 13, the δοχὴν (dokhin), a reception with guests. Saint Luke also uses this word for the banquet that Levi arranges after being invited to follow Jesus (Luke 5: 27-32); and for the heavenly banquet or feast (see Luke 14: 15-24).

It was a common in Jewish thinking and imagery at the time to speak of banquets as a foretaste of God’s heavenly promises. The Mishnah says: ‘This world is like a lobby before the World-to-Come. Prepare yourself in the lobby so that you may enter the banquet hall.’

Th guests who are invited to Levi’s banquet are seen as thieves, unbelievers, open sinners and social pariahs. Now we are told that the guests at the banquet should include the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Why? ‘And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous’ (verse 14).

When I was about to be ordained, I rabbi told me that I would enjoy baptisms and weddings. I would enjoy the occasions themselves, the preparations before, the celebrations after, and I would enjoy the parties or banquets I was invited to afterwards. And how right he was.

But he also advised me to put as much time into preparing and emotional and spiritual energy into funerals as I did for baptisms and weddings.

Jewish tradition holds that the mitzvot (commandments) that are performed out of pure altruism are the ones that are most significant. The mitzvah of leviyat hamet, burying the dead, is considered one of the greatest in Judaism in that it is a last act of kindness that cannot be repaid by the dead person.

Judaism teaches that honour, respect and caring for a person who has died is one of the greatest mitzvot. The only way we can know if one is being truly unselfish in doing a mitzvah is if it is an act of loving kindness performed for the dead, who have no way of reciprocating. Without the potential for trading or returning favours, we can be assured of one’s true intentions in performing the mitzvah.

For 1,000 years and more, Jewish communities have followed biblical and Talmudic injunctions to bury their dead expeditiously and without extravagance, whether poor or rich, in simple white clothing and buried in a plain, unadorned wooden coffin.

The Hebrew word for coffin, aron (אָרוֹן), is the same used for the ark in a synagogue. In fact, a body from which a soul has departed is considered akin to and treated with the same reverence as a Torah scroll that can no longer be used as part of communal worship and learning, emptied of the divine spark yet deserving of the utmost honour.

A dead body has been a vessel crafted in God’s image and likeness, and any effort to alter its essence, whether with cosmetics, physical intrusion – for example, breaking bones or sewing shut mouths for a particular effect or presentation), embalming, done to slow down the natural ‘return to dust’ that Jews and Muslims welcome with open arms, has been interpreted as an affront to the Creator and the person who has died.

The body is washed with a continual stream of water, from head to toe, and clothed in a simple, white burial cloth, tying knots that symbolise the Hebrew name of God, as if he or she were the High Priest about to enter the Holy of Holies. If the dead person wore their own white kittel on Yom Kippur, is used as the final piece of burial clothing, they are wrapped in their own tallit or prayer shawl, and placed in a verysimple, plain, unadorned coffin.

In the past, Jewish communities had a chevra kadisha or ‘holy fellowship,’ entrusted with these end-of-life responsibilities for all, including those who were too poor to afford a funeral.

The sages say that there is no greater mitzvah than to help bury someone, because it is a favour that cannot be returned. It is even greater than hospitality, and applies to all, for all are invited to the banquet.

Gravestones in the Old Jewish Cemetery beside the Klausen Synagogue in Prague date back to the 15th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 4 November 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Conflict, Confluence and Creativity’. This theme was introduced yesterday with reflections by Rebecca Boardman, former Operations Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 4 November 2024) invites us to pray:

Almighty God, you are the source of all wisdom and truth. Nourish us by your Living Word and fill us with your Holy Spirit, so that we may love and serve you faithfully this day, and always.

The Collect:

Almighty and eternal God,
you have kindled the flame of love
in the hearts of the saints:
grant to us the same faith and power of love,
that, as we rejoice in their triumphs,
we may be sustained by their example and fellowship;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Lord of heaven,
in this eucharist you have brought us near
to an innumerable company of angels
and to the spirits of the saints made perfect:
as in this food of our earthly pilgrimage
we have shared their fellowship,
so may we come to share their joy in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of glory,
touch our lips with the fire of your Spirit,
that we with all creation
may rejoice to sing your praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Jewish Ceremonial Hall at the entrance to the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Saint Joseph’s Cathedral and the missionaries who built Catholic churches and schools in Kuching

Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching, the Roman Catholic cathedral in the state capital of Sarawak, was built as parish church in 1969 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching, is the Roman Catholic cathedral of the Archdiocese of Kuching, the state capital of Sarawak. Kuching became as archdiocese in 1976 during the Papacy of Pope Paul VI, and Archbishop Simon Poh Hoon Seng has been the Archbishop of Kuching since 2017.

The first Saint Joseph’s hurch in Kuching was built in 1891 as a wooden structure in a Neo-Gothic style during the Brooke era in Sarawak. The cathedral’s large, sloping rooftop resembles a typical family home in Sarawak.

The Brooke family, who ruled Sarawak as the ‘White Rajahs’ for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, encouraged Christian missionaries, both Anglican and Roman Catholic, to come to Sarawak and to build churches.

These missionary activities began in the time of first British Rajah, Sir James Brooke, who ruled from 1841 to 1868, and the first Saint Joseph’s Church was built in 1891 with the approval of his successor Sir Charles Johnson Brooke (1829-1917), the Second Rajah (1868-1917).

Inside Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching, on a Sunday morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The first group of missionary priests of Saint Joseph’s Missionaries, or the Mill Hill Fathers, came to Sarawak in 1881. On the Feast of Saint Joseph, 19 March 1881, Father Edmund Dunn from Dublin, Father Aloysius Goossens and Father David Kilty set out from London for Singapore. They arrived in May and waited the arrival of their superior, Monsignor Thomas Jackson, who had until then been an army chaplain in Afghanistan.

Eventually Jackson arrived in Singapore and he and David Kilty then sailed to Labuan, while Dunn and Goossens took a steamer to Kuching, arriving on 16 July 1881. They were the first Catholic priests to set foot on Sarawak, and were welcomed by the Second Rajah, Sir Charles Brooke, who offered them temporary accommodation in an empty house opposite the District Court.

Jackson joined them on 24 August, and as Monsignor Thomas Jackson he would become the second Apostolic Prefect of Borneo.

Saint Joseph depicted in a stained-glass window in Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Later, the Rajah offered the Mill Hill missionaries a permanent site of 10 acres for their mission house, now the site of Saint Joseph’s Secondary School (SMK Saint Joseph). Saint Joseph’s School was started by the Mill Hill Fathers in 1882. The all-girls school, Saint Teresa’s, was established in 1885, and the school's first principal was Sister Teresa Cheetham (1885-1902).

When these Catholic priests arrived in Sarawak there were very few formal educational facilities, apart from a few Chinese-medium schools and Saint Thomas’ Anglican School, founded in Kuching in 1848.

Saint Joseph’s School was named after the patron of the Mill Hill Fathers. The school was to cater for children irrespective of race, religion or social-economic status.

The original Saint Joseph’s Church, built in Kuching in 1891, was in a ‘neo-gothic’ or ‘semi-gothic’ style

A simple wooden church, separate from the school building, was built nearby in 1883. It marked the humble beginnings of what is Saint Joseph’s Cathedral today.

More Mill Hill missionary priests arrived, and the simple wooden church was replaced by a new and larger Saint Joseph’s Church. It was built in a ‘neo-gothic’ style by Chinese labourers and it opened on 1 November 1891.

The Sarawak Gazette described Saint Joseph’s Church as ‘semi-gothic’ architecturally. It was 92 ft long with an altar recess or apse of 8 ft, the central nave was 24 ft wide, each aisle was 19 ft wide, and the belfry was 80 ft high.

Saint Joseph’s School was named after Saint Joseph, the patron of the Mill Hill Fathers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Two years after Jackson’s resignation, Father Edmund Dunn was appointed the third Prefect Apostolic of Labuan and Borneo in 1897. He was born in Dolphin’s Barn, Dublin, on 22 November 1857 and was ordained in Hammersmith in 1880.

Dunn gradually widened the influence of the mission throughout Sarawak. With additional priests from Mill Hill, mission stations were established during his time in Labuan, Papar, Kinuta, Jesselton, Inobong, Putatan, Penampang, Sandakan, Bundu Kuala Penyu, Kudat and Tawau.

Rome divided the prefecture in 1927 into the Prefecture of Kuching and the Prefecture of North Borneo. The Prefecture of North Borneo covered North Borneo, Labuan and Brunei, and Dunn was appointed Prefect Apostolic of Kuching. He died on 30 December 1933.

During the Japanese occupation of Sarawak, the priests who were British and Dutch were detained at the Batu Lintang concentration camp. The school building was taken over by the Japanese who paid rental to the Catholic Mission for use by the navy and army.

Saint Joseph’s statue in front of Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The original Saint Joseph’s Church remained in use until it was replaced by a new Saint Joseph’s Church in 1969. The original Saint Joseph’s was later demolished and the bell tower stands on its site.

Saint Joseph’s Church was consecrated in 1969 and became a cathedral in 1976 when the Archdiocese of Kuching was established, with Peter Chung Hoan Ting as the first Archbishop of Kuching.

The cathedral has an unusual roof structure, similar to that of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Singapore. The roof is made up of very dense belian wood. At night, the cathedral is illuminated with colourful halogen lights. The church hall has a seating capacity for 700, offering ample space for social events.

The neighbouring cemetery is of significance, with the graves of 21 Iban warriors who died during the Malayan emergency (1948-1960) or war of independence.

Saint Joseph’s Cathedral has an unusual roof structure (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today, Catholics number about 15 per cent of the population of the Borneo states in Malaysia. They make up an ecclesiastical province, with an archdiocese, three suffragan sees and a Vicariate Apostolic.

The schools established by Catholic missionaries in Sarawak include Saint Joseph’s and Saint Theresa’s schools in Kuching, the Sacred Heart and Catholic High Schools in Sibu, Saint Anthony’s School in Sarikei, Saint Patrick’s School in Mukah and Saint Joseph’s School in Miri.

The first brick school building was three storeys high, and was opened in 1894 by Rajah Charles Brooke. It is now known as the Mill Hill Block. The Sarawak Gazette described the new Saint Joseph’s building in 1895 as ‘the largest private work carried out in 1894 and indeed the largest building in Kuching.’

Five loaves and two fish in a motif on the cathedral railings (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Saint Joseph’s School started again in 1945 after Sarawak’s liberation from the Japanese. The De La Salle Brothers, mainly from Ireland, started arriving in Sarawak in the early 1950s,and took over the management of Saint Joseph’s School and other schools in Sarawak.

A substantial number of past and present leaders of Sarawak and Malaysia are graduates of Saint Joseph’s School.

Meanwhile, the original Saint Joseph’s Church, built in Kuching in 1891 in a ‘neo-gothic’ or ‘semi-gothic’ style, is not forgotten: it is said to have inspired the design of the Saint Peter’s Church being built in Padungan in Kuching and expected to open early next year.

• Weekend Masses at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral are: Saturday Sunset, 6 pm (English); Sunday, 5 pm (English), 7 am (English), 9 am (Mandarin), 11 am (BM). Weekday Masses, Monday to Friday, are at 5:30 pm (English).

Preparing for Sunday Mass in Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)