Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XI, 16 August 2026).
In my prayers this morning I am also remembering my friend and colleague, Father Kieran O’Mahony, who died earlier this week (Tuesdy 18 August 2026). His Funeral Mass takes place in the Augustinian Church of Saint Augustine and Saint John (John’s Lane Church), Thomas Street, Dublin, at 11 am this morning (21 August).
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Matthew 22: 34-40 (NRSVA):
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37 He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’
Today’s Reflections:
Charles Gore (1853-1932) was one of the great – almost formidable – Anglican theologians at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. He was the editor of Lux Mundi (1881), an influential collection of essays; the founder of the Community of the Resurrection (1892); and the first Bishop of Birmingham (1905). He was also from a well-known Irish family: his brother was born in Dublin Castle, his father, Charles Alexander Gore, was brought up in the Vice-Regal Lodge, now Arás an Uachtaráin, and his mother was from Bessborough, Co Kilkenny.
But formidable theologians are also allowed to have a sense of humour and to play pranks on the unsuspecting. And it is told that Charles Gore loved to play a particular prank on his friends and acquaintances when he was a canon of Westminster Abbey.
He would enjoy showing visitors the tomb of one of his collateral ancestors, the 3rd Earl of Kerry, who was descended from the Fitzmaurice family, once famous throughout Limerick and North Kerry.
He would point to an inscription that ends with the words, highlighted in black letters and in double quotation marks: ‘hang all the law and the prophets.’
But when you look closer at this monument, those words are preceded by ‘… ever studious to fulfil those two great commandments on which he had been taught by his divine Master …’ ‘… hang all the law and the prophets.’
A more recent Irish-born theologian of international standing, Professor David Ford, sees these two commandments as the key, foundational Scripture passage for all our hermeneutical exercises.
He was born in Dublin and is the Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus in the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge and was the founding Director of the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme (2002-2015). Speaking at the Dublin and Glendalough Clergy Conference in Kilkenny 14 years ago [2012], he was asked about some of the hermeneutical approaches he outlines in his book, The Future of Christian Theology (2011). He said that if the two great commandments are about love, and God is love, then no interpretation is to be trusted that goes against love.
And he reminded us of Augustine’s great regula caritatis, the rule of love: if love is the rule, then the ‘how’ of reading scripture together is as important as the ‘what.’
In The Future of Christian Theology, he says: ‘Anything that goes against love of God and love of neighbour is, for Christian theology, unsound biblical interpretation.’
In other words, this passage, and its parallels in the other synoptic Gospels, provides for David Ford the hermeneutical key to understanding all Biblical passages.
Some years ago, I was preaching on this morning's Gospel reading (Matthew 22: 34-40) in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick. I asked the children (and adults) playfully how we might hang all the law and the prophets.
I began by hanging up two inter-linked wire hangers. One wire hanger carried a card saying, ‘Love God’, the other a card saying, ‘Love one another.’ They were held onto a line by string against the pulpit.
The children were then invited to bring wire hangers to hang from these first two wire hangers. This second group of hangers carried cards with markings such as ‘Remember God’s goodness,’ ‘Don’t make a god of money,’ ‘Tell the truth,’ ‘Listen to Mom and Dad,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Be faithful,’ ‘Don’t rob,’ ‘Don’t tell lies,’ ‘Don’t envy others,’ ‘Don’t be jealous’ …
Then the string holding the first two wire hangers was cut. All the wire hangers fell to the floor.
The lesson, of course, was: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22: 37-40).
Kerry Crescent in Calne, Wiltshire, recalls a FitzMaurice family title and a story told by Charles Gore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)Today’s Prayers (Friday 21 August 2026):
In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 16 to 22 August 2026 (pp 30-31), is ‘Hope in the Making’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by Grace Murray, a USPG volunteer. The prayers this week come courtesy of passersby at Greenbelt Festival 2025.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 21 August 2026) invites us to pray:
Lord, bring your creation the flourishing it was made to show. Give us the courage to imagine our world differently, and give us the strength to change it for the better.
The Collect of the Day:
O God, you declare your almighty power
most chiefly in showing mercy and pity:
mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace,
that we, running the way of your commandments,
may receive your gracious promises,
and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure;
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 of all mercy,
we your faithful people have celebrated that one true sacrifice
which takes away our sins and brings pardon and peace:
by our communion
keep us firm on the foundation of the gospel
and preserve us from all sin;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
God of glory,
the end of our searching,
help us to lay aside
all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom,
and to give all that we have
to gain the pearl beyond all price,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ.
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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