Reading Saint Luke’s Gospel in Advent 2019: Luke 11

‘Give us each day our daily bread’ (Luke 11: 3) … bread in the rectory kitchen in Askeaton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

During the Season of Advent this year, I am joining many people in reading a chapter from Saint Luke’s Gospel each morning. In all, there are 24 chapters in Saint Luke’s Gospel, so this means being able to read through the full Gospel, reaching the last chapter on Christmas Eve [24 December 2019].

Why not join me as I read through Saint Luke’s Gospel each morning this Advent?

Luke 11 (NRSVA):

1 He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ 2 He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.’

5 And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” 7 And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

9 ‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit[f] to those who ask him!’

14 Now he was casting out a demon that was mute; when the demon had gone out, the one who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. 15 But some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.’ 16 Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. 17 But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. 18 If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? – for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul. 19 Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists[g] cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. 22 But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armour in which he trusted and divides his plunder. 23 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

24 ‘When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting-place, but not finding any, it says, “I will return to my house from which I came.” 25 When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first.’

27 While he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!’ 28 But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!’

29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ‘This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. 31 The queen of the South will rise at the judgement with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! 32 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!

33 ‘No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar, but on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.’

37 While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table. 38 The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.

42 ‘But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practised, without neglecting the others. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honour in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the market-places. 44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.’

45 One of the lawyers answered him, ‘Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too.’ 46 And he said, ‘Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them. 47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. 48 So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your ancestors; for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, “I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute”, 50 so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation. 52 Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.’

53 When he went outside, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile towards him and to cross-examine him about many things, 54 lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

A prayer for today:

A prayer today (International Mountain Day) from the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG, United Society Partners in the Gospel:

Let us give thanks to God for the gift of natural resources such as the mountainous regions of our world that play critical roles for food, water, ecosystems and recreation.

Tomorrow: Luke 12.

Yesterday: Luke 10.

‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread’ … (Luke 11: 5) … bread in a shop in St Ives, Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

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

Tales of the Viennese Jews: 12, Salomon Mayer von Rothschild and the railways in Vienna

Salomon Mayer von Rothschild (1774-1855) … his statue in the Nordbahnof station was the first sight to greet immigrants arriving in Vienna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

The Tales from the Vienna Woods is a waltz by the composer Johann Strauss II (1825-1899), written just over a century and a half ago, in 1868. Although Strauss was baptised in the Roman Catholic Church, he was born into a prominent Jewish family. Because the Nazis had a particular penchant for Strauss’s music, they tried to conceal and even deny the Jewish identity of the Strauss family.

However, the stories of Vienna’s Jews cannot be hidden, and many of those stories from Vienna are told in the exhibits in the Jewish Museum in its two locations, at the Palais Eskeles on Dorotheergasse and in the Misrachi-Haus in Judenplatz.

Rather than describe both museums in detail in one or two blog postings, I decided after my visit to Vienna last month to post occasional blog postings that re-tell some of these stories, celebrating a culture and a community whose stories should never be forgotten.

In my teens I was surprised to come across a Rothschild family in Dublin, at rugby matches in the Clontarf/Raheny area. The Rothschild family in Ireland came to Dublin from Altona in Germany in 1839. At first, they were involved in the cigar and tobacco business, and many of the early generations are buried in the Jewish cemetery in Ballybough.

The late Asher Benson, in his Jewish Dublin, says there is no known connection between this Rothschild family and the famous Rothschild banking family that has spread across Europe.

The Rothschild banking family traces its ancestry back to 1577 and to Izaak Elchanan Rothschild, who took his name from the German for the red shield that was a sign outside his family home for many generations. The name Rothschild means ‘Red Coat,’ as in an heraldic coat of arms. His grandchildren and descendants used this as their family name, and kept it even after they moved house in 1664.

A statue in the Jewish Museum in at the Palais Eskeles on Dorotheergasse in Vienna depicts Salomon Mayer von Rothschild (1774-1855), the German-born banker and founder of the Austrian branch of the Rothschild banking family.

Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) of Frankfurt had built the family banking business in Germany. In recognition of the Rothschild family’s services to the Habsburg Empire, the Emperor Francis I posthumously made Mayer Amschel Rothschild a member of the Austrian nobility. This privilege was inherited by his sons, although Nathan Meyer Rothschild, ancestor of the English branch of the family, declined the honour.

Mayer Amschel Rothschild’s third child and second son, Salomon Mayer von Rothschild, was born in Frankfurt-am-Main on 9 September 1774 and was the ancestor of the Austrian branch of the banking family.

As the family business expanded across Europe, the eldest Rothschild son remained in Frankfurt, while each of the other four sons were sent to different European cities to establish a banking branch.

Salomon von Rothschild became a shareholder of the de Rothschild Frères bank in Paris when it was opened by his brother James Mayer de Rothschild in 1817. Salomon was sent to Austria in 1820 to engage in financing Austrian government projects and established SM von Rothschild in Vienna.

Salomon von Rothschild and his brothers were further honoured in 1822, when the Emperor gave them the hereditary title of freiherr or baron. In 1843, Salomon became the first Jew to ever be given honorary Austrian citizenship. He made connections with the Austrian aristocracy and political elite through Prince Klemens Metternich and Friedrich von Gentz.

The Viennese bank was highly successful under the direction of Salomon von Rothschild, and played an integral role in the development of the Austrian economy. The bank in Vienna financed the Nordbahn rail transport network, Austria’s first steam railway, and funded many government undertakings.

Salomon von Rothschild’s personal wealth was enormous. But by the time of the revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas, anti-Rothschild sentiments increased. With the fall of Metternich, Salomon von Rothschild lost some of his political influence and his bank lost a considerable amount of money.

At the age of 74, he handed over the bank to his son Anselm Salomon von Rothschild (1803-1874), left Vienna and retired in Paris. He died there on 28 July 1855.

The marble statue of Salomon von Rothschild in the current exhibition in the Jewish Museum on Dorotheergasse is the work of the Austrian sculptor Johann Meixner (1819-1872) in 1869/1870. Meixner was one of the founding members of the Vienna Künstlerhaus in 1861, and this statue originally stood in the hall of Nordbahnof station in Vienna.

The Nordbahnof station was built in 1865, ten years after Salomon’s death. In the second half of the 19th century, this station became the means of transport for Viennese transport, and its terminus became their point of entry. When they arrived in Vienna, the first thing they saw on their arrival was this statue of Rothschild, with its optimistic promise of unending possibilities.

The statue was removed in 1938 at the time of the German-Austrian Anschluss and the Nazi seizure of power, and was given to the Historisches Museum. It was transferred to the Railway Museum, later incorporated in the Technical Museum, and is on loan to the current exhibition in the Jewish Museum.

The crown of a Torah scroll in the Jewish Museum on Dorotheergasse in Vienna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Other postings in this series:

1, the chief rabbi and a French artist’s ‘pogrom’

2, a ‘positively rabbinic’ portrait of an Anglican dean

3, portraits of two imperial court financiers

4, portrait of Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis

5, Lily Renée, from Holocaust Survivor to Escape Artist

6, Sir Moses Montefiore and a decorative Torah Mantle

7, Theodor Herzl and the cycle of contradictions

8, Simon Wiesenthal and the café in Mauthausen

9, Leonard Cohen and ‘The Spice-Box of Earth’

10, Ludwig Wittgenstein and his Jewish grandparents

11, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his Jewish librettist

12, Salomon Mayer von Rothschild and the railways in Vienna

13, Gustav Mahler and the ‘thrice homeless’ Jew

14, Beethoven at 250 and his Jewish connections in Vienna

15, Martin Buber and the idea of the ‘I-Thou’ relationship

16, Three Holocaust survivors who lived in Northern Ireland.

17, Schubert’s setting of Psalm 92 for the synagogue.

18, Bert Linder and his campaign against the Swiss banks.

19, Adele Bloch-Bauer and Gustav Klimt’s ‘Lady in Gold’.

20, Max Perutz, Nobel laureate and ‘the godfather of molecular biology’.