Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, which changes to Kingdom-time or the Kingdom Season tomorrow with All Saints’ Day. In the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship and Exciting Holiness, today is not marked as Hallowe’en but, instead, remembers Martin Luther.
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.
Luke 14:1-6 (NRSVA)
1 On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. 2 Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?’ 4 But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away. 5 Then he said to them, ‘If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a sabbath day?’ 6 And they could not reply to this.
Today’s Reflections:
Tomorrow is All Saints’ Day, although this may be celebrated in many parishes and churches on Sunday (2 November 2025) as All Saints’ Sunday.
But if All Saints’ Day is not celebrated properly and appropriately in our churches, with a celebration of the Eucharist, whether that is tomorrow or on Sunday, how do we explain to a younger generation what Hallowe’en is truly about?
Hallowe’en is the ‘Night of the Living Dead’ ... for the saints are alive, and we are part of the Communion of Saints, the Church Triumphant (Ecclesia Triumphans) and the Church Militant (Ecclesia Militans), which are part of the one Church, and we are together.
Hallowe’en, or the Eve of All Hallows, is the evening before celebrating All the Saints, All the Holy Ones in Glory, the Saints of every time and place. This is the Eve of a Great Feast of Light – the Solemnity of All Saints, the saints in glory who have ‘inherited the light’ (Colossians 1: 12-13), whether we are alive or dead, whether we have been canonised or faded into obscurity, whether they have given heroic examples in their lives or are unsung and unknown. We are all with God in endless joy.
When he became Dean of Liverpool in 2007, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, found himself in one of England’s largest and most deprived cathedrals. He doubled attendances, abseiled from the roof, and allowed John Lennon’s Imagine to be played on the cathedral bells – despite the line ‘imagine there is no heaven.’
He also encouraged a ‘Night of the Living Dead’ service on Hallowe’en, when a coffin was carried into the cathedral and a man rose from a coffin to represent the Resurrection.
If we cannot explain Hallowe’en and All Saints’ Day, how can we hope to explain the greater truths of Christmas and Easter?
In today’s Gospel reading (Luke 14:1-6), we are faced with a ‘trick or treat’ conundrum. It is the sabbath and Jesus is going to eat dinner at the home of a local religious leader: if he ignores the sick man’s plight, does he ignore that love and compassion are the core of true religion? Or, if heals this man, is he going to be accused of breaching religious rules, regulations traditions.
The discussion this prompts is not about whether Christ has the duty or responsibility, he legal right or power, the appropriate qualifications or the authority, to heal the man with dropsy, but whether doing this on the Sabbath shows disdain for the law of God.
This is the sole, lone and only Gospel incident in n which the Greek word ὑδρωπικός (hydropikos) is used to describe a person suffering from dropsy. It is a pathological retention of fluid that causes abnormal swelling. Although it is a medical term, its single New Testament appearance here becomes theologically rich when placed within the Gospel narrative.
In the world of the Biblical Mediterranean, dropsy was seen as incurable and associated with other systemic illnesses. Swelling of the limbs and abdomen visibly marked the sufferer, making him ritually unclean by religious understanding of the ay and socially marginalised.
Physicians such as Hippocrates discussed the malady, yet effective treatment was scarce. A hydropic person embodied chronic suffering and exclusion, providing a stark contrast to the wholeness of life envisioned in God’s covenant promises.
Should this man be left, as it were, among the living dead?
By asking whether it is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not (verse 3), Jesus exposes the discrepancy between the Law’s intent and the tradition-bound application of it. When he heals the man and sends him away whole, he affirms the Sabbath as a day ‘for doing good’.
Of course, the man is not dying. Although he has dropsy, his healing could take place on any other day, indeed at any other venue. But, even before they speak, Christ’s response to his potential protagonists is to ask a question: ‘Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?’ (verse 4).
If they say no, they show their ignorance of the law and the rabbinical tradition; if they say yes, how could they possibly disagree with what they know he is about to do?
After this healing miracle, Christ goes on to share two parables about humility and the heavenly banquet (Luke 14: 7-24). The hydropic man’s restoration anticipates the inclusive feast of the Kingdom, where the physically and spiritually bloated pride of the self-righteous is contrasted with the humble who accept the invitation.
If mercy towards animals or family members is permitted, how much more should mercy for a suffering image-bearer of God be celebrated?
What better day is there than the Sabbath, a day meant to promote God’s commitment to humanity’s well-being, for the restoration of a man with a debilitating illness?
Trick or Treat?
In his response, Christ allows this man to return to work with dignity, and restores him to his full and rightful place in the community of faith that may have been denied to him by the very people who are present that Sabbath.
The man who must once have thought he might as well have been dead is given new life, and is assured he is a Child of God.
Later this evening, as children go knocking on doors in this town, under the watchful and loving eyes of parents or older siblins, I shall remind myself that in Christ there is no trick, there is only treat. And it would be reflective and approopriate to return to a prayer attributed to Saint Ambrose of Milana has become part of Anglican tradition as part of the office of Compline in the Book of Common Prayer:
Before the ending of the day,
Creator of the world, we pray
That thou with wonted love wouldst keep
Thy watch around us while we sleep.
O let no evil dreams be near,
Or phantoms of the night appear;
Our ghostly enemy restrain,
Lest aught of sin our bodies stain.
Almighty Father, hear our cry
Through Jesus Christ our Lord most high,
Who with the Holy Ghost and thee
Doth live and reign eternally. Amen.
Today’s Prayers (Friday 31 October 2025):
The theme this week (26 October to 1 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Bonds of Affection’ (pp 50-51). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 31 October 2025) invites us to pray:
Father, we pray that one day the group may get to meet in person in order that the bonds of affection might be strengthened.
The Collect:
Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
help us so to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast
the hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
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 all grace,
your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry
with the bread of his life
and the word of his kingdom:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your true and living bread;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
Merciful God,
teach us to be faithful in change and uncertainty,
that trusting in your word
and obeying your will
we may enter the unfailing joy of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of All Saints’ Day:
Almighty God,
you have knit together your elect
in one communion and fellowship
in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord:
grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints
in all virtuous and godly living
that we may come to those inexpressible joys
that you have prepared for those who truly love you;
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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