Patrick Comerford
Lent began last week on Ash Wednesday, and tomorrow is the Second Sunday in Lent (Lent II).
The Six Nations championship comes to a climax this weekend, and I hope to find somewhere appropriate in Stony Stratford this afternoon and this evening to watch the matches between Ireland and Italy (14:15), Wales and England (16:15) and France and Scotland (20:00), each promising to be nail-biting decider in its own way.
Meanwhile this morning, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read 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.
Matthew 5: 43-48 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’
Today’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 5: 43-48) continues our readings from the Sermon on the Mount. This is one of the passages chosen by the Revd Bonnie Evans-Hills, now a priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church, for a Bible study at the annual residential conference of USPG conference in High Leigh back in 2018.
In an earlier Bible study that week, she had brought us through the Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 1-12) with reflections on her own experiences in international peace work and interfaith dialogue. Having challenged us with the significance of the Beatitudes, her reflections on the closing day of the conference were based on two passages in the Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5: 17-19 and 43-48.
Bonnie reminded us that the command to love is the summary of the law and the prophets and that not one tiny little bit of that commandment will be lost. The law and the prophets are summed up in that one tiny word, Love. Every other commandment depends on this.
She pointed out that other than verse 43 here there is nowhere in the Bible that it is said to ‘hate your enemy’.
Returning to her idea the previous day that peace-making needs to engage both the perpetrators and the victims, she recalled a story told by Ruth Scott of a US soldier in Vietnam who came across an ‘enemy soldier’ in a hammock. The other soldier smiled, reached into his pocket, and the American shot him immediately, only to find the Vietnamese soldier had not been reaching into his pocket for a gun but was gripping a photograph of his family that he wished to share.
There is nothing that cannot be forgiven, and there is no-one who is not worth forgiving, she said, commenting on The Book of Forgiving by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter, the Revd Mpho Tutu.
There are times when each and every one of us has needed to forgive, and when we have needed to be forgiven, and there will be many times like these in the future too. We are all broken and in need of being on the path to wholeness.
She told of a young Israeli who was a peace activist but who accepted conscription believing he could make a difference. But he was killed almost immediately. His mother’s immediate response was to tell his fellow soldiers: ‘Do not take revenge in the name of my son.’ His death was a test of the family’s commitment to building peace. ‘The worst has happened to us. The only thing we have left is to reach our hand out to offer to help build peace.’
‘Forgiveness is the radical act of a freedom fighter,’ she said. And she urged us to let go of the pain and the need to punish, and to hate, and to have revenge.
‘For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good …’ (Matthew 5: 45) … five minutes at sunset on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 15 March 2025):
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), has been ‘The Church and Unity.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday with reflections by the Right Revd Dr Royce M Victor, Bishop in the Diocese of Malabar, Church of South India.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 15 March 2025) invites us to pray:
I will lean in, retreat from the pressures I face, and move closer and deeper into your love. I will breathe out, refrain from the distractions I seek, and become open and receiving of your grace. I will linger, encircled by the depth of your care, and receive the endless nature of your mercy.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:
give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness,
so may we know your power to save;
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.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Lord God,
you have renewed us with the living bread from heaven;
by it you nourish our faith,
increase our hope,
and strengthen our love:
teach us always to hunger for him who is the true and living bread,
and enable us to live by every word
that proceeds from out of your mouth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Heavenly Father,
your Son battled with the powers of darkness,
and grew closer to you in the desert:
help us to use these days to grow in wisdom and prayer
that we may witness to your saving love
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of Lent II:
Almighty God,
you show to those who are in error the light of your truth,
that they may return to the way of righteousness:
grant to all those who are admitted
into the fellowship of Christ’s religion,
that they may reject those things
that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
‘For he … sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous’ (Matthew 5: 45) … three minutes watching tropical rain on the rooftops of Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
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
No comments:
Post a Comment