Patrick Comerford
The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). Tomorrow is the Third Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany III, 25 January 2026), and is also the Festival of the Conversion of Saint Paul, although this may be transferred to Monday (26 January).
The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Bishop of Geneva and Teacher of the Faith. Today too is the seventh day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, from 18 to 25 January. This year’s theme is ‘One Body, One Spirit’ – from Ephesians 4: 1-13 – which was prepared by the Armenian Apostolic Church, along with the Armenian Catholic and Evangelical Churches.
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning 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.
Mark 3: 20-21 (NRSVA):
[Then Jesus went home;] 20 and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21 When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’
Today’s Reflections:
The first tempter offers Becket the prospect of physical safety. The second offers him power, riches and fame in serving the king so that he can disarm the powerful and help the poor. The third suggests the archbishop should form an alliance with the barons and seize a chance to resist the king. Finally, the fourth tempter urges Thomas to look to the glory of martyrdom.
Becket responds to all four tempters and specifically addresses the immoral suggestions of the fourth tempter at the end of the first act:
Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain:
Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
Saint Mark’s Gospel is sparse in its account of the story of Christ’s temptations in the wilderness – just two verses (see Mark 1: 12-13). In the much fuller accounts (see Matthew 4: 1-11, Luke 4: 1-13), Christ is tempted to do the right things for the wrong reasons.
What would be wrong with Christ turning stones into bread (see Matthew 4: 3; Luke 4: 3-4) to feed the hungry?
What would be wrong with Christ showing miraculous powers (see Matthew 4: 3; Luke 4: 9) to point to the majesty of God (see Matthew 4: 4; Luke 4: 10-11)?
What would be wrong with Christ taking command of the kingdoms of this world (see Matthew 4: 9; Luke 4: 5-7) to usher in justice, mercy and peace?
Let me not deceive myself, these are real temptations. For all who are morally driven there is always a real temptation to do the right thing but to do it for the wrong reason.
In today’s reading in Saint Mark’s Gospel, we are at the point where Christ is about to be challenged in two fundamental ways: about whether his work is the work of God or the work of the Devil (Mark 3: 22), and to think about what his family thinks about what he is doing (Mark 3: 32). In today’s short reading of two verses, immediately before these challenges the family of Jesus came to one of his gatherings and try to distract him and prevent him from teaching, perhaps hoping to preserve their own reputation.
Christ brings hope and the boundless goodness of God into people’s lives. For that to happen, a certain degree of openness is needed on the part of the onlookers. Without that sincerity, growth in body, mind and spirit is unlikely to occur. But those who know Jesus well seem to be surprised by how he lives and acts. I pray for the freedom that I need not to be hemmed in by my habits or by the expectations of others.
To live freely is to challenge those who accept constraints and it needs courage to be led by the spirit of God.
The family members ask whether Jesus ‘has gone out of his mind.’ The melée around Jesus embarrasses them, they feel he is making a show of them, and they want to take control of him.
Can you think of those times in your life when you are drawing aware of your family’s embarrassment, disapproval or concern?
His family does not like what is happening to Jesus and seem to be embarrassed. He is breaking conventions, both religious and cultural. Perhaps they feel they are in danger or under suspicion because of him. People like Jesus who dare to be different cause suspicion, embarrassment and general unease for those who are close to them.
It is true to say that wounds from a friend can be trusted but it is true too that insults from close family members can bite bitterly.
How often do parents compare siblings with one another in a way that becomes belittling rather than encouraging?
How many children hear that their goodness, instead of being in-born, innate and God-given, is defined by their parents’ assent and approval?
How often has a child who says s/he is doing her/his best hears the critical response of a parental figure: ‘But your best is simply not good enough!’
It is heart-breakingly sad but so often true, as I have come to know, that too many adults who had a sibling die realise that one or both parents have thought it would have been preferable that a surviving child had died instead.
Sweet words bring gentle healing but insults from those closest sting hardest.
Some things in life are irretrievable, such as the opportunity to do another good being let go because it is inconvenient or because of fear that a close family member would express bewilderment or question your motivations.
Growing up without appropriate affirmation and independent decision-making can leave some people, when they are offered the opportunity to do the right thing or to make a difference in this society in this world, asking instead: ‘What’s in this for me?’ or: ‘What would my parents think of me?’
When I am asked to speak up for those who are marginalised or oppressed, this should be good enough reason in itself. But then I wonder how others are going to react – react not to the marginalised or the oppressed, but to me.
How often do I see what is the right thing to do, but find an excuse that I pretend is not of my own making?
How often do I think of doing the right thing only if it is going to please my family members – perhaps even a dead parent – or to please the neighbours?
How often do I use the Bible to justify not caring about the pain of others or ignoring or devaluing justice for others?
How often do I use obscure Bible texts to prop up my own prejudices, forgetting that any text in the Bible, however clear or obscure it may be, depends, in Christ’s own words, on the two greatest commandments, to love God and to love one another.
We can convince ourselves that we are doing the right thing when we are doing it for the wrong reason. A wrong decision taken once, thinking it is doing the right thing, but for the wrong reason, is not just an action in the present moment – it forms habits and it shapes who we are, within time and eternity.
Sophia Scholl (1921-1943), a German student who was active in the White Rose nonviolent resistance to the Nazis, was first arrested by the Gestapo when she was 16, and was beheaded in prison in Munich on 22 February 1943 at 21. She once wrote:
The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive.’ The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonising their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves – or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you. But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.’
How many protesters on the streets of Minneapolis and other cities across the US are thinking bravely in similar ways today?
What we do today or refuse to do today, even if we think it is the right thing to do but we do it for the wrong reasons, reflects how we have formed ourselves habitually in the past, is an image of our inner being in the present, and has consequences for the future we wish to shape.
As TS Eliot writes in ‘Burnt Norton’:
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past
How is the Church to recover its voice and speak up for the oppressed and the marginalised, not because it is fashionable or politically correct today, but because it is the right thing to do today and for the future?
Surely all our actions ought to depend on those two great commandments – to love God and to love one another.
As the Post-Communion Prayer today asks, ‘help us to lay aside all foolishness and to live and walk in the way of insight, that we may come … to the eternal feast of heaven.’
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 24 January 2026):
The theme this week (18-24 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Freedom Theologies’ (pp 20-21). This theme was introduced last Sunday with Reflections from Dr Thandi Gamedze, poet, theologian, and senior researcher at the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 24 January 2026) invites us to pray:
Gracious God, we thank you for the power of education. We pray especially for those who face barriers to education – open doors, remove obstacles, and give every child and young person the chance to grow, flourish, and contribute to a more just world.
The Collect:
Holy God,
who called your bishop Francis de Sales
to bring many to Christ through his devout life
and to renew your Church with patience and understanding:
grant that we may, by word and example,
reflect your gentleness and love to all we meet;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Francis de Sales to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Collect on the Eve of the Conversion of Saint Paul:
Almighty God,
who caused the light of the gospel
to shine throughout the world
through the preaching of your servant Saint Paul:
grant that we who celebrate his wonderful conversion may follow him in bearing witness your truth;
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 Collect on the Eve of Epiphany III:
Almighty God,
whose Son revealed in signs and miracles
the wonder of your saving presence:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your mighty power;
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.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
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
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