Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 166, Thursday 24 October 2024

‘I have a baptism with which to be baptized’ (Luke 12: 50) … the font in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XXI).

The Jewish festival of Simchat Torah begins at sunset this evening (24 October 2024), and ends after nightfall tomorrow (25 October 2024).

The Simchat Torah festivities begin with the evening service, when all the synagogue’s Torah scrolls are taken from the ark and carried around the sanctuary in a series of seven hakafot or circuits, accompanied by dancing and singing that in some places overflows out onto the street. Each circuit is announced by a few melodious invocations imploring God to Hoshiah Na (‘Save us’) and ending with the refrain, Aneinu v’Yom Kor’einu (‘God answer us on the day we call’).

Before the day 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.

‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?’ (Luk 12: 51) … a sculpture beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 49-53 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 49 ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided:

father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

‘And you yourself a sword shall pierce’ … Station IV of Ken Thompson’s Stations of the Cross in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Once again we are confronted with a Gospel reading this morning that is difficult, with its images of division and strife, shattering all our expectations of Gospel values that emphasise domestic bliss and harmony.

I cannot resist finding irony in the coincidence that on a day that is marked as United Nations Day and the beginning of UN Disarmament Week, the Gospel reading is a passage in which Jesus says: ‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! (verse 51)

In today’s Gospel reading, we hear warnings of fire on earth (verse 49), and of families and households divided and fighting each other to the death (verses 52-53). The verses that follow include images of people being blown about by the storms and tempests of the day (verses 54-56).

They are images that might have inspired ‘hellfire and brimstone’ sermons. But they have inspired too great creative and literary minds in the English language, from William Shakespeare and William Blake to TS Eliot in the Four Quartets:

This is the death of earth.

Water and fire succeed
The town, the pasture and the weed.
Water and fire deride
The sacrifice that we denied.
Water and fire shall rot
The marred foundations we forgot,
Of sanctuary and choir.
This is the death of water and fire. ( – Little Gidding)

If we dismiss these apocalyptic images because they have been hijacked by fundamentalist extremists for their own religious and political ideals, then we miss an opportunity to allow our values to challenge those ways we may be allowing our lives to drift along without questioning or examination.

Fire and water were a challenge for me a few years ago during a visit to Longford. One afternoon, as part of a church history ‘field trip’, three of us went to see the restoration work at Saint Mel’s Cathedral in Longford.

The cathedral was destroyed in a blazing fire early on Christmas morning in 2009, but was restored and rebuilt so beautifully that it has been voted Ireland’s favourite building.

Outside, it still looks like a grey, classical revival, fortress-style cathedral. But inside it is filled with light and joy. It has risen from the ashes, and its restoration is truly a story of redemption and resurrection.

As we walked into the cathedral, I was overwhelmed by the beautiful baptismal font that has been placed at the main entrance door to the cathedral.

The font was sculpted by Tom Glendon and the blue mosaic work by Laura O’Hagan is a creative representation of the Water of Life.

This font is a challenge to all who enter the church and is placed exactly where it should be, for Baptism is entry to the Church.

Baptism is not a naming ceremony, it is not about my individual experience, it is never a private event. It is a public event, and it incorporates me into the unity, the community of the Body of Christ.

In our Gospel reading today, Christ challenges us with three themes: Fire, Baptism and Division.

In the Bible, fire can represent the presence of God – think of the pillar of fire in the wilderness (Exodus 13: 17-22) or the tongues of flame at Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-4).

It can represent judgment (see Revelation 20: 7-10), and it can represent purification – the prophets Zachariah (13: 9) and Malachi (3: 2-3) speak of the refiner’s fire in which God purifies his people, as a refiner purifies silver by fire.

At the Presentation in the Temple (Luke 2: 22-38), old Simeon foresees how the Christ Child ‘is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inward thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too’ (verses 34-35).

The sword that pierces the soul of the Virgin Mary, the sword that has killed the prophets, the sword the divides families, is a reminder that Christ, who embodies the presence of God, simultaneously judges and purifies.

In the New Testament, Baptism represents both judgment and purification and Saint John the Baptist connects it with fire (Luke 3: 16-17).

In this Gospel reading, however, Christ is referring not to the baptism he brings but to the baptism he receives. He not only brings the fire of judgment and purification, but he bears it himself also.

The Kingdom of God he proclaims is governed:

• not by might but by forgiveness (think of forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer, Luke 11: 4);
• not by fear but by courage (‘be not afraid’ in Luke 1: 13, 30, 2: 10, 5: 11, 8: 50, 12: 4, 7, 32);
• not by power but by humility (see Magnificat, Luke 1: 46-55).

But it is easy to be lured by the temptations of wealth, status, and power rather than the promises that come with our Baptism.

‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!’ (Luke 12: 51) … Luke Perry’s sculpture of Æthelflæd in Tamworth points from the train station to Saint Editha’s Church and Tamworth Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 24 October 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 ‘Persistence in Prayer’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by Ella Sibley, Regional Manager Europe & Oceania, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 24 October 2024, United Nations Day) invites us to pray:

We give thanks to the United Nations and the work it does to foster international cooperation on complex issues such as trade and conflict.

The Collect:

Grant, we beseech you, merciful Lord,
to your faithful people pardon and peace,
that they may be cleansed from all their sins
and serve you with a quiet mind;
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:

Father of light,
in whom is no change or shadow of turning,
you give us every good and perfect gift
and have brought us to birth by your word of truth:
may we be a living sign of that kingdom
where your whole creation will be made perfect in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
in whose service lies perfect freedom:
teach us to obey you
with loving hearts and steadfast wills;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The United Nations Peace Garden near the West Door of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick … today is United Nations Day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

The ‘Floating Mosque’ by the Waterfront in Kuching dates back to the Indian mosque founded in 1834

The ‘Floating Mosque’ on the Waterfront and the banks of the Sarawak River in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Kuching is an interesting city when it comes to cultural diversity and religious pluralism. We have moved back into the flat on Upper China Street, but we are within sight of Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, and are woken each morning with the mixed sound of cathedral bells, the call to prayer from the neighbouring mosques and a variety of sounds from the local Chinese Taoist temples.

Kuching’s sights include the ‘floating mosque’ on the Waterfront and the banks of the Sarawak River. Kuching’s ‘floating mosque’ attracts many tourists in the evening, when the golden lights of the sunset flood the majestic architecture of the building.

The Masjid India Bandar Kuching, with a capacity of 1,600 people, was to replace the Masjid India, across the street, which was close to 200 years old and almost hidden in a narrow alley behind the spice stalls on Gambier Street and the boutique clothes shops on India Street.

The original Masjid Bandar Kuching or Masjid India was hidden behind the shops and stalls of India Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The original Masjid Bandar Kuching or Masjid India (Indian Mosque) was the oldest and only Indian mosque in Sarawak. Discreet but distinctive archways between the shopfronts and stalls on Gambier Street and India Street lead into the old wooden mosque and the alleyways that link the two streets.

It was the oldest and only Indian mosque in Kuching, but is so well hidden in the laneways and alleyways that few outsiders notice the original building until it is pointed out to them by local people.

The Masjid India, also known as the Masjid Tambi, to some local people was first built in 1834 as a simple hut on vacant by Indian traders who had migrated from south India, mainly Tamil Nadu and who needed a place to worship. Its walls and roof were made of nipah palms, and soon after it was established, the traders gathered enough funds to turn the hut into a surau in 1856.

The Indian Muslim Community bought a piece of land from the Brooke administration in 1871. The first early building was replaced by a modest structure built of belian (ironwood) and became an oasis of peace and cooling shade in the heart of Kuching’s busy commercial life.

Belian wood planks replaced the nipah palms walls in 1876, the floor was cemented later, and the mosque covered an area of 16,004 sq ft.

The discreet entrance to the original India Mosque between the shops on Gambier Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The name was changed to Masjid Bandar Kuching in the 1960s, but it was still known locally known as Masjid India and sometimes Masjid Tambi.

Malay Muslims also came to the mosque to pray and rest, when they would berth their sampans by the Sarawak River, near the Gambir Street wet market.

On Fridays, the congregation could swell to about 1,500, and on other days, up to 400 people would gather for prayers. The first Islamic religious school in Sarawak, the Madrasah Islamiah, was founded in the mosque in the 1940s.

The mosque was maintained by rent from 23 neighbouring shops. They were owned mainly by Indian Muslims who sold groceries, spices, cloth and books, but there were Chinese shopkeepers too. These were family-run businesses, handed down through the generations.

The old mosque had no minaret, and for over half a century he time for prayers was marked by the sounding of a drum, known locally as the bedok.

The name was changed to Masjid Bandar Kuching in 1960. By then, the building had become an important heritage site.

Inside The new Masjid India Kuching or ‘floating mosque’, built on the Waterfront in Kuching in 1 March 2019 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The new Masjid India Kuching or ‘floating mosque’ was built on the opposite side of Gambier Street, on the Waterfront, at a cost of RM21 million. It was officially opened on 1 March 2019, has a capacity for 1,600 people at prayer, and extends majestically out onto the Sarawak River.

The ‘floating mosque’ combines modern and Moorish architecture, incorporating the use of marble, ceramics, mosaic works and bomanite paving. Although it is known as the ‘floating mosque’, it is actually built on stilts, and it is only at high tide that it has the appearance of floating on the water.

But the old mosque continued to be known as Masjid Bandar Kuching too and for some years continued to be used as a religious school and to provide religious education programmes.

The 190-year-old Masjid Bandar Kuching awaits a transformation programme (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

After the new mosque was built, the old mosque was faced with demolition. But the local business community and local Muslims signed a petition and the plan was abandoned.

The 190-year-old original Masjid Bandar Kuching looks empty and abandoned today, hidden in the narrow lanes and alleyways, awaits a transformation programme that would return it to its former splendour. There are proposals to revamp the wooden building, turning it into a tourist attraction with an historical library, and giving it a continuing role in religious education.

Malaysia has at least four other ‘floating mosques’: the Tengku Tengah Zaharah Mosque, the first floating mosque in Malaysia, was built in 1993-1995 in Kuala Ibai Lagoon, near Kuala Terengganu; the Putra Mosque is an imposing pink granite mosque built in Putrajaya in 1999; the Kota Kinabalu City Mosque (2000) in the city of Kota Kinabalu in Sabah; and the Penang Floating Mosque or Tanjong Bungah Floating Mosque (2005) in the city of George Town in Penang.

The dome and minaret of Masjid Bandar Kuching framed by the entrance arches on Gambier Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)