Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Third Sunday after Trinity (Trinity III, 6 July 2025). The Church Calendar today remembers Saint Benedict of Nursia (ca 550), Abbot of Monte Cassino and the father of Western Monasticism.
We have stayed overnight in Oxford in advance of an early-morning medical procedure today, and I am hoping to be well enough to return to Stony Stratford later today. But, before I head off to that procedure, I am taking some quiet time in my hotel room this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading 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 10: 16-23 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 16 ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. 19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.’
Today’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 10: 16-23) continues yesterday’s account of the commission and mission of the Twelve (Matthew 10: 7-15), as the Twelve continue to receive are given their instructions and commission for mission among the ‘lost sheep’: they are going out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so they need to be wise ‘as serpents and innocent as doves’ and to be aware of the threats and dangers they face.
The image of wolves in sheep’s clothing appeared in our reading over two weeks ago (Matthew 7: 15-20, 25 June 2025), when I discussed some keep people in the dystopian world of Trump and Vance – including Allie Beth Stuckey, Paula White-Cain, Mike Huckabee and Vance Luther Boelter – and asked whether they are sheep or wolves, whether they are false prophets.
We are sent out like sheep among wolves. We are, in a way, defenceless, because we renounce any use of violence. There are wolves out there eager to destroy us because, despite our message of love, justice and peace, we are seen as a threat to their activities and ambitions.
We are to be as clever as snakes and innocent as doves. We are to be as inventive and creative as we can be in dealing with the world. But we are to be innocent, not in the sense of being naive, but in the sense of being completely free of even any suspicion of wrongdoing. The ends do not justify the means.
At every Eucharist, we hear that Jesus in his Body is handed over to us: ‘This is my Body, which is given up for you.’
When we are handed over we are not to be anxious about what to say. The enemies of the Gospel have no ultimate answer to truth, love and justice.
Of course, Jesus never calls on us to go out of our way to seek persecution or to be hated, and we are to make Christianity as attractive as possible. But Christianity and the values of the Kingdom are being traduced, supposedly in the name of Christ, by key people at the very heart of political life in the US today.
Has the time come when true Christians can run no further, or when it is clear we have to take a stand and cannot compromise? We need to know the sheep from the wolves, serpents and innocent as doves, to be assured also of the promise that those who endure to the end will be saved.
Today’s Prayers (Friday 11 July 2025):
The theme this week (6 to 12 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Following in the Footsteps of Saint Thomas.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Revd Mark Woodrow, USPG Bishop’s Nominee for St Edmundsbury and Ipswich and Parish Priest and Rural Dean in Suffolk.
The USPG prayer diary today (Friday 11 July 2025) invites us to pray:
Compassionate Lord, bless all who offer care and support to those facing challenges with alcohol, drugs, or other struggles in India. May your grace break the chains of addiction, bringing hope and restoration.
The Collect:
Eternal God,
who made Benedict a wise master
in the school of your service
and a guide to many called into community
to follow the rule of Christ:
grant that we may put your love before all else
and seek with joy the way of your commandments;
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:
Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Benedict
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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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