Patrick Comerford
Lent began last week on Ash Wednesday, and this week began with the First Sunday in Lent (Lent I).
The Jewish holiday of Purim begins this evening (13 March) and ends at nightfall tomorrow (14 March). But more about that this evening, hopefully. 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 7: 7-12 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 7 ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? 10 Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!’
Today’s Reflection:
The image in the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 7: 9) of the guest knocking on the door reminds me too of the image of Christ knocking at the door in the Book of Revelation: ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me’ (Revelation 3: 20).
It is an image that has inspired The Light of the World, a painting in the chapel in Keble College, Oxford, by the Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), depicting Christ about to knock at an overgrown and long-unopened door. It is an image that has echoes too in the poetry of some of the great mystical writers in Anglican history, as in the words of John Donne (Holy Sonnets XIV):
Batter my heart, three-person’d God; for you
As yet but knock; breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
It is the passionate language of love, of passionate love. But then, of course, Christ demands our passion, our commitment, our love.
Christ’s demands are made not just to some inner circle, for some elite group within the Church, for those who are seen as pious and holy. He calls on us to open our hearts, our doors, the doors of the church and the doors of society, to those on the margins, for the sake of those on the margins.
We are to be ever vigilant that we do not keep those on the margins on the outside for too long. When we welcome in those on the outside, we may find we are welcoming Christ himself.
Allow the stranger among you, and the stranger within you, to open that door and discover that it is Christ who is trying to batter our hearts and tear down our old barriers so that we can all feast together at the new banquet:
Batter my heart, three-person’d God; for you
As yet but knock; breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
…
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Today’s Prayers (Thursday 13 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), is ‘The Church and Unity.’ This theme was introduced on 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 (Thursday 13 March 2025) invites us to pray:
We pray for our partner churches in South India – may their work and mission be blessed.
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.
Yesterday’s Reflection
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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