Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and tomorrow is the both the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XX) and the Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist (18 October 2026).
The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Ignatius (ca 107), Bishop of Antioch and Martyr. The AGM and conference of Christian CND is taking place online today. Later today, I hope to attend the unveiling of the Mapstone, a new sculpture by Broadbent Studios in the Market Square in Stony Stratford. The sculpture was commissioned by Stony Stratford Town Council and I was involved in this project from the beginning through the Town Centre Working Group, including the choice of location, the community engagement meetings, the commissioning and the tendering process.
Meanwhile, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time 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 12: 8-12 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 8 ‘And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; 9 but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you are to defend yourselves or what you are to say; 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.’
Today’s Reflections:
In this morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Luke 12: 8-12), Jesus warns sternly that ‘whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.’
I have long had a problem with how ‘the sin against the Holy Spirit’ is explained in some evangelical thinking. But I also have a problem in thinking about and discussing what can and cannot be forgiven.
Throughout Saint Luke’s Gospel, forgiveness has a significance that is impossible to ignore. Forgive. Forgive it all. Forgive it now. Forgive it for any reason you want. Forgive for the right reason. Forgive for the wrong reason. Forgive for no reason at all. Just forgive.
Remember, Saint Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer includes the helpful confusion: καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν, καὶ γὰρ αὐτοὶ ἀφίομεν παντὶ ὀφείλοντι ἡμῖν: καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ‘and forgive us our sins for indeed we ourselves are forgiving everyone who is [monetarily] indebted to us’ (Luke 11: 4) – the monetary indebtedness is obvious in the original Greek.
We pray it, but do we put it into practice?
The arrival of the Kingdom of God is no occasion for score-keeping of any kind, whether monetary or moral.
Why should I forgive someone who has sinned against me, or against my sense of what is obviously right? I don’t have to do it out of love for the other person.
I could forgive the other person because of what I pray in the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday if not every morning.
I could forgive because I know I would like to be forgiven myself.
I could forgive because I know what it is like to be me when I am unforgiving.
I could forgive because I am, or I want to be, deeply in touch with a sense of Christ’s power to forgive and free someone just like me.
Or I could forgive because I think it will improve my life and sense of wellbeing.
It boils down to the same thing: deluded or sane, selfish or unselfish, there is no bad reason to forgive.
Extending the kind of grace God shows me in every possible arena – financial and moral – can only put me more deeply in touch with God’s grace.
We who have the experience of real grace, we who have been invited to the Heavenly Banquet, we who pray in the words of the Psalm, ‘Remember not our past sins; let your compassion be swift to meet us’ (Psalm 79: 8), we who believe, as the Apostle Paul says, that Christ ‘gave himself a ransom for all’ (I Timothy 2: 6) – we have a better reason than most people to forgive.
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 17 October 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, 11-17 October 2026 (pp 46-47), is ‘The Lord Has Done Great Things’. This theme was introduced last Sunday with a programme update by Guilherme Moura Bejo, candidate for Holy Orders in the Anglican Diocese of São Paulo, and co-ordinator of the Diocesan Youth Group.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 17 October 2026, International Day for the Eradication of Poverty) invites us to pray:
Father, we bring before you the harsh reality of poverty and the pain it continues to cause. We lament the injustice and suffering that persist, and ask for your mercy, that through faithful presence, practical support, and enduring hope, lives may be restored.
The Collect of the Day:
Feed us, O Lord, with the living bread
and make us drink deep of the cup of salvation
that, following the teaching of your bishop Ignatius
and rejoicing in the faith
with which he embraced a martyr’s death,
we may be nourished for that eternal life
for which he longed;
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:
Eternal God,
who gave us this holy meal
in which we have celebrated the glory of the cross
and the victory of your martyr Ignatius:
by our communion with Christ
in his saving death and resurrection,
give us with all your saints the courage to conquer evil
and so to share the fruit of the tree of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of Saint Luke:
Almighty God,
you called Luke the physician,
whose praise is in the gospel,
to be an evangelist and physician of the soul:
by the grace of the Spirit
and through the wholesome medicine of the gospel,
give your Church the same love and power to heal;
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.
Collect on the Eve of Trinity XX:
God, the giver of life,
whose Holy Spirit wells up within your Church:
by the Spirit’s gifts equip us to live the gospel of Christ
and make us eager to do your will,
that we may share with the whole creation
the joys of eternal life;
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
The Coliseum in Rome seen from the Basilica of San Clemente … Saint Ignatius of Antioch (17 October) was martyred in the Coliseum and his relics were moved to San Clemente in the year 637 (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
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