Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 17, Wednesday 19 February 2025

‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking’ (Mark 8: 24) … ‘The Spirit of Night’ carved into a tree by Will Fogarty in the Forge Park, Tarbert, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent are just two weeks away (5 March 2025). I have further medical tests later today, checking on my bone density.

Before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning 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.

‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking’ (Mark 8: 24) … a tree carving above the beach in Matala on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 8: 22-26 (NRSVA):

22 They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’ 24 And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.’ 25 Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Then he sent him away to his home, saying, ‘Do not even go into the village.’

Can physical sight contradict and weaken our inner or spiritual sight?

Today’s Reflection:

Today’s Gospel reading (Mark 8: 22-26) is set in Bethsaida, which is the hometown of Peter, Andrew and Philip (see John 1 : 44), and the place where, according to Saint Luke’s Gospel, is close to the place where Jesus miraculously feeds 5,000 people (see Luke 9: 10-11). It was about 6 miles (9.7 km) from Capernaum and close to the north shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Later in this Gospel, Saint Mark tells the story set in Jericho of the healing of the blind beggar Bartimaeus, a story told in all three Synoptic Gospels (see Matthew 20: 29-34; Mark 10: 46-52; Luke 18: 35-43). But Saint Mark is alone in telling the story of an unnamed blind man who is healed gradually at Bethsaida (Mark 8: 22-26).

In this healing story, Jesus once again is very tactile in his actions: he takes the blind man by the hand, leads him out of the village, puts saliva on his eyes, and lays hands on him, not once but twice.

The man has to look, and look again, to realise that his sight has been restored. It is as though he cannot believe his eyes the first time, and needs to close his eyes and squeeze them tight before he can focus them and have a second look.

Have you ever noticed that when you are trying really hard to concentrate, you sometimes close your eyes to help you to focus?

Throughout the Talmud, the blind are called sagi nahor – ‘enough of light’ or ‘full of light.’ Jewish tradition says this is so because one’s physical sight, which gazes out at the mundane and materialistic world, often contradicts and weakens one’s inner or spiritual sight.

There is a story about Rabbi Yosef Kahaneman (1886-1969), a prominent Lithuanian rabbi. After the Holocaust, he tried to find Jewish children whose parents had hid them during World War II.

Rabbi Kahaneman would walk through orphanages in Europe, reciting the beginning of the Shema. Instinctively, some of the children would cover their eyes, and cry out, ‘Mama, Mama!’

It is a universal Jewish custom to cover the eyes with the right hand when saying the first six words of the Shema. It is said that in doing this, the person who is praying is then able to concentrate properly without visual distractions.

It is also said it is even more important to have the proper intention when reciting the first verse of the Shema than when reciting other parts of prayer. As the words are said, the focus is not just on the meaning of the words, but also on accepting the yoke of heaven.

The person saying the Shema is expected to concentrate on the idea that God is the one and only true reality. This intention is so important that one who recites the words of this verse but does not think about its meaning is expected to recite it again … a second take on praying.

This custom of covering the eyes is traced back to the times of the Mishnah, when Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi (Judah the Prince) covered his eyes while reciting the first verse of the Shema.

Some early commentators, however, explain that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi covered his eyes while reciting the Shema because some other people had the custom of looking in all directions in order to accept God’s sovereignty throughout the world. Rabbi Yehuda covered his eyes, wishing to conceal his precise eye movements while reciting the Shema.

The kabbalists, especially Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, known as the Arizal, say that one is meant to use the right hand to close one’s eyes while reciting the first verse of the Shema. He connected this with an enigmatic riddle found in the Zohar.

The Zohar tells of an old man who appeared as a donkey driver met Rabbi Yossi during his travels and asked several questions. Rabbi Yossi failed to appreciate the true significance of the old man’s question.

However, his colleague Rabbi Chiya sensed that there was more to the questions than met the eye. After some reflection, they realised the old man was in fact teaching them deep mystical secrets.

The riddle that gave them the hardest time in understanding asked: ‘Who is the beautiful maiden without eyes, whose body is concealed and revealed, who comes out in the morning and disappears during the day, who is adorned with ornaments that never were?’

The Arizal offers an explanation that relates to the reading of the Shema. The ‘Maiden’ refers to the divine attribute of malchut (‘kingship’), sometimes referred to as the Shechinah, the feminine aspect of the divine. In this context, it is also referred to as ‘Rachel.’

There are four spiritual worlds in the kabbalistic formulation of the cosmos, and the world of Atzilut (‘Emanation’) is the highest of the four. In this realm, nothing has physical form or colour, and sight is non-existent.

The Kabbalists say that whoever recites the Shema is elevating the Mayin Nukvin (‘Feminine Waters’) to the world of Atzilut, setting the stage for the unification of the feminine and masculine, or the unification of the soul and the Shechinah. Since the Mayin Nukvin are entering Atzilut, a world that is higher than sight, the eyes must be closed during the first line of the Shema.

The right hand is used to do this, even when someone is left-handed. This is said to symbolise the attribute of chessed or kindness, as well as the Mayin Dechurin (‘Male Waters’), also connected to this riddle.

Our physical senses often seem to contradict the idea of God’s oneness, that God is the only true reality. We see, smell, taste and feel the world around us, while God can remain an abstract and spiritual reality.

Therefore, when the Shema is said and the oneness of God is proclaimed, this becomes an affirmation that true reality is neither what the eye sees nor what is experienced naturally and intuitively. By covering the eyes when praying, a person indicates the desire to disconnect from the physical and connect to the spiritual.

It is said that when a person recites the Shema and accepts the yoke of heaven, the Shechinah or Divine Presence rests upon his/her face. The face is covered out of respect for the Divine Presence, for, as God told Moses: ‘See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen’ (Exodus 33: 21-23, NRSVA).

The first verse of the Shema proclaims that ‘the Lord is our God; the Lord is one.’ This statement affirms belief that both God’s attribute of strength and judgment and God’s attribute of mercy are really one. Covering the eyes symbolises acceptance that what is seen with physical eyes as negative is, in truth, positive.

Christ healing the man born blind, depicted in a window in Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church, Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 19 February 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 Struggle for Indigenous Land Rights in Brazil.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Rodrigo Espiúca dos Anjos Siqueira, Coordinator of the Department of Advocacy, Human, Environmental and Territorial Rights of the Anglican Diocese of Brasília. Pastor of Espírito Santo Parish, Novo Gama, Goiás.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 19 February 2025) invites us to pray:

May God, in his infinite mercy, give courage, hope and strength to the activists in favour of human, environmental and territorial rights in Brazil.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who alone can bring order
to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity:
give your people grace
so to love what you command
and to desire what you promise,
that, among the many changes of this world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed
where true joys are to be found;
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 Father,
who gave Jesus Christ to be for us the bread of life,
that those who come to him should never hunger:
draw us to the Lord in faith and love,
that we may eat and drink with him
at his table in the kingdom,
where he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Eternal God,
whose Son went among the crowds
and brought healing with his touch:
help us to show his love,
in your Church as we gather together,
and by our lives as they are transformed
into the image of Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

An inscription above the Hope Street entrance of the former Royal School for the Blind, Liverpool (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

Listening for the ‘still small voice’ with people and in places on the margins

‘At that place he came to a cave and spent the night there’ (I Kings 19: 9) … the once-inhabited caves at Matala on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 23 June 2019, the First Sunday after Trinity

11.30 a.m.: The Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick.

Readings: I Kings 19: 1-4 (5-7), 8-15a; Psalms 42, 43; Galatians 3: 23-29; Luke 8: 26-39.

‘For a long time … he did not live in a house but in the tombs’ (Luke 8: 27) … the Lycian rock tombs in the cliff faces above Fethiye in Turkey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen

This week, with prayer and thanks, I remember that I was ordained priest 18 years ago tomorrow (24 June 2001), and that I was ordained deacon 19 years ago on Tuesday (25 June 2000).

The path to ordination began almost 50 years ago, on a late summer afternoon in 1971, when I lifted the latch, pushed open the door, walked into the chapel at Saint John’s Hospital in Lichfield, and as I stood in ‘a sound of sheer silence,’ felt filled with the light and love of God.

I shall remember and celebrate these events this week while I am at the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency, USPG (United Society, Partners in the Gospel).

At that conference, I hope I have the grace to shut up enough so that, like Elijah, that as I listen for the voice of God, I may hear it in ‘a sound of sheer silence,’ or in what the King James Version of the Bible calls ‘a still small voice’ (verse 12).

I hope too that the speakers and the people I meet remind me that ordained ministry should never be about me. Indeed, ordained ministry should never even be confined to the limits or the boundaries of the Church … that at the heart of ministry, at the heart of the life of the Church, are love and breaking down the barriers and crossing the boundaries that exclude others.

In our readings this morning, the Prophet Elijah, the Apostle Paul, and Christ and the Disciples find themselves crossing the boundaries, and find that for God, in reality, there are no boundaries that exclude others.

These readings challenge us to think about who is clean and who is unclean, who are the outsiders and who are the insiders.

God is in control of all life, whether it is the storm and fire, the stormy arguments that divide communities, or our own interior storms that are capable of destroying our own thinking and our own minds.

In our Old Testament reading, the Prophet Elijah is fleeing a vengeful and murderous Queen Jezebel. He is forced to flee to the mountains and become an exile, a religious refugee, an outsider.

And just when he is at the point of wanting to give up, even of wanting to die, he climbs the mountain, and in the crag of the rock, instead of encountering the power and might of God in the great wind, the splitting of rocks, the earthquake or the fire, he realises God is present quietly, in ‘a sound of sheer silence,’ in the ‘still small voice.’

The man who has forcibly been made an outsider meets the living God, all his storms are subdued, and he realises he is the true insider.

Saint Paul’s Letter to the Galatians is the one book in the Bible that is addressed to a Celtic people. The central dispute at the heart of this letter is the debate about how Gentiles could convert to Christianity, at a time when the vast majority of Christians were Jewish or Jewish proselytes.

Saint Paul tells these Celts that Baptism in Christ means all the barriers have been broken down. There ‘is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.’

In the Church, there can be no more distinctions based on ethnic, social or gender differences. If we belong to Christ, we are the true, spiritual descendants of Abraham and heirs to God’s promises. There are no outsiders.

Our Gospel story (Luke 8: 26-39) is set by the Sea of Galilee. After Jesus calms a storm on the lake (Luke 8: 22-25), he and the disciples arrive on the other side and travel deep into Gentile territory, perhaps 30 or 50 km on the other side of the lake. The area is known as the Decapolis, dominated by ten Greek-speaking cities.

Imagine you are among the first group of people in the Early Church who begin to read this story. You would expect the story to unfold with Jesus and Disciples seeking out distant family members, staying with nice, upright people, perhaps visiting the local synagogue maintained by a tiny Jewish minority presence in one of the towns.

But from the very moment they get off the boat, they are in a place and among a people they would have regarded as unclean: these Gentile people are ritually ‘unclean,’ the man has an ‘unclean’ spirit, he is naked or a person of visible and public shame, he lives among the tombs, which are ritually unclean … and the pigs are unclean too.

This episode plays a key role in the theory of the ‘Scapegoat’ put forward by the French literary critic René Girard (1923-2015). The opposition of the entire city to the one man possessed by demons is the typical template for a scapegoat. Girard notes that, in the demoniac’s self-mutilation, he seems to imitate the way the villagers might have tried to stone him and to cast him out of their society.

For their part, the villagers in their reaction to Christ show they are not really concerned with the good of the possessed man. He acts as a scapegoat, and they can project anything they dislike about themselves onto him. Why kill him when he has such a useful function in their enclosed society?

Now, I do not in any way want to diminish or dismiss the real power of evil and the hold that it can have over people.

But in René Girard’s take on this story, the uneasy truce that the Gaderenes and the demoniac have worked out means he serves a ritual purpose for them so long as he is alive and perceived as being possessed.

But when Jesus steps off the boat, he brings with him a stronger spiritual power: love and healing, forgiveness and acceptance, are stronger than stoning, chaining, or scapegoating. And the pigs rushing headlong over the cliffside tell a story that is not so much about cruelty to animals but saying we need to put behind us all that we regard as unclean or sinful in others and need to start accepting ourselves.

After this episode, the man not only sits ‘at the feet of Jesus,’ as disciples did, but he becomes a missionary to other Gentiles. This is a story of dramatic transformation.

Look at the changes in this man’s life: he moves from outside the city to inside it; he moves from living in tombs and being driven into the desert to being alive in a house; he moves from nakedness to being clothed, from being demented to being of sound mind.

He moves from destructive isolation to being part of a nurturing, human community. He moves from being expelled from the religious community to being part of the Church and proclaiming the good news. This is real mission, the sort of mission I hope to hear about this week with USPG.

‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you’ (Luke 8: 39).

Saint Luke here uses the word οἶκος (oikos), which means a house, an inhabited house, even a palace or the house of God, as opposed to δόμος (domos), the word used for a house as a domestic home. Those who live there now form one family or household, and this comes to mean the family of God or the Church (for examples, see I Timothy 3: 15; I Peter 4: 17, and Hebrews 3: 2, 5).

The outsider, the person seen as unclean and defiled, the scapegoat, is restored to a full place in the Church, in God’s household, in God’s family.

Who do you think we see as Scapegoats today, as outsiders to be pushed to the margins, so that we can maintain the purity of our family, church or society?

Who do we expose and shame so that we can maintain the appearance of our own purity?

Are these the very people who might bring the good news to people on the margins, inviting them into the household of God?

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

‘When Elijah heard it, he … stood at the entrance of the cave’ (I Kings 19: 13) … in a cave in Goreme in central Turkey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 8: 26-39:

26 [Jesus and his disciples then] arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me’ – 29 for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered him. 31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

‘Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding’ (Luke 8: 32) ... wooden sculptures of pigs throughout Tamworth celebrate the political achievements of Sir Robert Peel, including ‘bread for the millions’ and ‘religious tolerance’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Liturgical Colour: Green

The Collect:

God,
the strength of all those who put their trust in you:
Mercifully accept our prayers
and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature
we can do no good thing without you, grant us the help of your grace,
that in the keeping of your commandments
we may please you, both in will and deed;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Collect (the Opening of a Synod):

God,
who from old taught the hearts of faithful people
by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit:
Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things
and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort;
through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Eternal Father,
we thank you for nourishing us
with these heavenly gifts.
May our communion strengthen us in faith,
build us up in hope,
and make us grow in love;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Hymns:

325, Be still, for the presence of the Lord, the holy one is here
218, And can it be that I should gain
549, Dear Lord and Father of mankind

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

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

For René Girard and this Gospel reading, see René Girard, The Scapegoat (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), pp 165-183.

‘So he got into the boat and returned’ (Luke 8: 37) ... on the middle lake in Killarney, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you’

‘For a long time … he did not live in a house but in the tombs’ (Luke 8: 27) … the Lycian rock tombs in the cliff faces above Fethiye in Turkey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 23 June 2019, the First Sunday after Trinity

9.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer, Castletown Church, Kilcornan, Co Limerick.

11.30 a.m.: The Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick.

Readings: I Kings 19: 1-4 (5-7), 8-15a; Psalms 42, 43; Galatians 3: 23-29; Luke 8: 26-39.

‘When Elijah heard it, he … stood at the entrance of the cave’ (I Kings 19: 13) … in a cave in Goreme in central Turkey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen

This week, with prayer and thanks, I remember that I was ordained priest 18 years ago tomorrow (24 June 2001), and that I was ordained deacon 19 years ago on Tuesday (25 June 2000).

The path to ordination began almost 50 years ago, on a late summer afternoon in 1971, when I lifted the latch, pushed open the door, walked into the chapel at Saint John’s Hospital in Lichfield, and as I stood in ‘a sound of sheer silence,’ felt filled with the light and love of God.

I shall remember and celebrate these events this week while I am at the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency, USPG (United Society, Partners in the Gospel).

At that conference, I hope I have the grace to shut up enough so that, like Elijah, that as I listen for the voice of God, I may hear it in ‘a sound of sheer silence,’ or in what the King James Version of the Bible calls ‘a still small voice’ (verse 12).

I hope too that the speakers and the people I meet remind me that ordained ministry should never be about me. Indeed, ordained ministry should never even be confined to the limits or the boundaries of the Church … that at the heart of ministry, at the heart of the life of the Church, are love and breaking down the barriers and crossing the boundaries that exclude others.

In our readings this morning, the Prophet Elijah, the Apostle Paul, and Christ and the Disciples find themselves crossing the boundaries, and find that for God, in reality, there are no boundaries that exclude others.

These readings challenge us to think about who is clean and who is unclean, who are the outsiders and who are the insiders.

God is in control of all life, whether it is the storm and fire, the stormy arguments that divide communities, or our own interior storms that are capable of destroying our own thinking and our own minds.

In our Old Testament reading, the Prophet Elijah is fleeing a vengeful and murderous Queen Jezebel. He is forced to flee to the mountains and become an exile, a religious refugee, an outsider.

And just when he is at the point of wanting to give up, even of wanting to die, he climbs the mountain, and in the crag of the rock, instead of encountering the power and might of God in the great wind, the splitting of rocks, the earthquake or the fire, he realises God is present quietly, in ‘a sound of sheer silence,’ in the ‘still small voice.’

The man who has forcibly been made an outsider meets the living God, all his storms are subdued, and he realises he is the true insider.

Saint Paul’s Letter to the Galatians is the one book in the Bible that is addressed to a Celtic people. The central dispute at the heart of this letter is the debate about how Gentiles could convert to Christianity, at a time when the vast majority of Christians were Jewish or Jewish proselytes.

Saint Paul tells these Celts that Baptism in Christ means all the barriers have been broken down. There ‘is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.’

In the Church, there can be no more distinctions based on ethnic, social or gender differences. If we belong to Christ, we are the true, spiritual descendants of Abraham and heirs to God’s promises. There are no outsiders.

Our Gospel story (Luke 8: 26-39) is set by the Sea of Galilee. After Jesus calms a storm on the lake (Luke 8: 22-25), he and the disciples arrive on the other side and travel deep into Gentile territory, perhaps 30 or 50 km on the other side of the lake. The area is known as the Decapolis, dominated by ten Greek-speaking cities.

Imagine you are among the first group of people in the Early Church who begin to read this story. You would expect the story to unfold with Jesus and Disciples seeking out distant family members, staying with nice, upright people, perhaps visiting the local synagogue maintained by a tiny Jewish minority presence in one of the towns.

But from the very moment they get off the boat, they are in a place and among a people they would have regarded as unclean: these Gentile people are ritually ‘unclean,’ the man has an ‘unclean’ spirit, he is naked or a person of visible and public shame, he lives among the tombs, which are ritually unclean … and the pigs are unclean too.

This episode plays a key role in the theory of the ‘Scapegoat’ put forward by the French literary critic René Girard (1923-2015). The opposition of the entire city to the one man possessed by demons is the typical template for a scapegoat. Girard notes that, in the demoniac’s self-mutilation, he seems to imitate the way the villagers might have tried to stone him and to cast him out of their society.

For their part, the villagers in their reaction to Christ show they are not really concerned with the good of the possessed man. He acts as a scapegoat, and they can project anything they dislike about themselves onto him. Why kill him when he has such a useful function in their enclosed society?

Now, I do not in any way want to diminish or dismiss the real power of evil and the hold that it can have over people.

But in René Girard’s take on this story, the uneasy truce that the Gaderenes and the demoniac have worked out means he serves a ritual purpose for them so long as he is alive and perceived as being possessed.

But when Jesus steps off the boat, he brings with him a stronger spiritual power: love and healing, forgiveness and acceptance, are stronger than stoning, chaining, or scapegoating. And the pigs rushing headlong over the cliffside tell a story that is not so much about cruelty to animals but saying we need to put behind us all that we regard as unclean or sinful in others and need to start accepting ourselves.

After this episode, the man not only sits ‘at the feet of Jesus,’ as disciples did, but he becomes a missionary to other Gentiles. This is a story of dramatic transformation.

Look at the changes in this man’s life: he moves from outside the city to inside it; he moves from living in tombs and being driven into the desert to being alive in a house; he moves from nakedness to being clothed, from being demented to being of sound mind.

He moves from destructive isolation to being part of a nurturing, human community. He moves from being expelled from the religious community to being part of the Church and proclaiming the good news. This is real mission, the sort of mission I hope to hear about this week with USPG.

‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you’ (Luke 8: 39).

Saint Luke here uses the word οἶκος (oikos), which means a house, an inhabited house, even a palace or the house of God, as opposed to δόμος (domos), the word used for a house as a domestic home. Those who live there now form one family or household, and this comes to mean the family of God or the Church (for examples, see I Timothy 3: 15; I Peter 4: 17, and Hebrews 3: 2, 5).

The outsider, the person seen as unclean and defiled, the scapegoat, is restored to a full place in the Church, in God’s household, in God’s family.

Who do you think we see as Scapegoats today, as outsiders to be pushed to the margins, so that we can maintain the purity of our family, church or society?

Who do we expose and shame so that we can maintain the appearance of our own purity?

Are these the very people who might bring the good news to people on the margins, inviting them into the household of God?

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

‘Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding’ (Luke 8: 32) … wooden sculptures of pigs throughout Tamworth celebrate the political achievements of Sir Robert Peel, including ‘bread for the millions’ and ‘religious tolerance’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Luke 8: 26-39:

26 [Jesus and his disciples then] arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me’ – 29 for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered him. 31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

‘So he got into the boat and returned’ (Luke 8: 37) … on the middle lake in Killarney, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Liturgical Colour: Green

The Collect:

God,
the strength of all those who put their trust in you:
Mercifully accept our prayers
and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature
we can do no good thing without you, grant us the help of your grace,
that in the keeping of your commandments
we may please you, both in will and deed;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Collect (the Opening of a Synod):

God,
who from old taught the hearts of faithful people
by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit:
Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things
and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort;
through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Hymns:

325, Be still, for the presence of the Lord, the holy one is here
218, And can it be that I should gain
549, Dear Lord and Father of mankind

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

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

For René Girard and this Gospel reading, see René Girard, The Scapegoat (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), pp 165-183.

‘At that place he came to a cave and spent the night there’ (I Kings 19: 9) … the once-inhabited caves at Matala on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Silver Strand in Co Wicklow was a surprising new beach to discover

Inside a cave at Silver Strand in Co Wicklow watching the waves on the beach (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016; click on image for full-screen resolution)

Patrick Comerford

I try to go for a walk on a nearby beach at least once in a weekend, if not twice. It’s good for my lungs and good for my feelings about two conditions, Sarcoidosis and a Vitamin B12 deficiency.

Because I live so close to the M50, places like Bray are often no more than 15 minutes’ drive from home, and it is only little further to get to the beaches at Greystones and Kilcoole, further south in Co Wicklow, or beaches to the north at Malahide, the Velvet Strand at Portmarnock, Balcarrick Beach at Donabate, Portrane, Rush, Loughshinney, the two beach at Skerries, and Laytown, Bettystown and Mornington in Co Meath.

They are all within such easy reach, that I really have few excuses for not getting out for a healthy walk on a beach, taking in the fresh sea air and enjoying the sound of the sea and the waves lapping against the sand and the pebbles.

But I was surprised by the list of “50 Great Irish Beaches” in the ‘Weekend’ Review’ in The Irish Times on Saturday [30 July 2016]. I am familiar with only 20 of the 50 beaches listed by Catherine Murphy.

Few of the beaches I have named in north Co Dublin are included on the list, I am familiar with only one of the beaches on Achill Island, and I was surprised that the list did not include beaches such as Dugort on Achill Island, Brittas Bay in Co Wicklow, or more beaches in Co Wexford, and that the list included none of the beaches on the ‘Gold Coast’ of Co Meath.

Please don’t get me wrong, though. I’m not quibbling. I have long been vocal about the pollution on Bettystown Beach and the refusal of Meath County Council to stop its use as a car park, and the erosion of the beach in Courtown is symptomatic of the problems facing many beaches on the Wexford coast.

The list made me realise how limited I have been in my exploration of Irish beaches. So, after I had presided and preached at the Sung Eucharist in Saint John’s Church, Sandymount, this morning [31 July 2016], two of us decided this afternoon to go for a walk on one of the beaches on the list of ’50 Great Irish Beaches’ that I had not visited previously.

Silver Strand beach and caves in Co Wicklow came in at No 14 on the weekend list in ‘The Irish Times’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016; click on image for full-screen resolution)

Silver Strand beach and caves in Co Wicklow came in at No 14 on the list in The Irish Times. Catherine Murphy wrote: “Caramel sands, fragrant honeysuckle and intriguing waves await those who walk down the steep steps to the beach.”

The beach lies just 3 km south of Wicklow Town, but it is a private beach, and access is through one of two neighbouring caravan parks perched on the cliffs above Silver Strand, in picturesque rural settings.

Silver Strand Caravan Park is also known as Webster’s Caravan Park or Harry’s Place. The park is a family run business with coastal views and private access to Silver Strand Beach and Caves.

The park has been owned and operated by four generations of the Webster family and has been catering for the needs of mobile home owners for over a century. For over 40 years, the park has been run by Harry Webster with his wife Jean and their children.

The park has also been a location in a number of media productions, including TV series such as Love/Hate, Moonfleet, The Vikings, Camelot, George Gently, Fair City and ITV’s Primeval, and several feature films including Frankie Starlight, The Escapist, Driftwood and The Count of Monte Cristo.

A little further south, Wolohan’s Caravan and Camping Park has been run by the Wolohan family for over 70 years. This is a 22-acre site set in rural farmland and with spectacular coastal views.

During the week, both parks charge an entrance fee of €6 a day for a car. But this is a bank holiday weekend in Ireland and we paid €10 for the car and access to the beach and the facilities at the Silver Strand Caravan Park or Webster’s.

I know Irish people object to charges like this, but when you compare this with parking charges in high rise inner city parking lots in Dublin that offer no facilities, the charge seemed reasonable and goes towards maintaining a beach that truly deserves its place on that list of ‘50 Great Irish Beaches.’

From the top of the steps leading down to the beach, Silver Strand looks like a small bay. But as we made our way down, we were surprised how large the bay is, with plenty of space for families to stake out their own place with a degree of privacy.

Silver Strand is a collection of three small beaches, enclosed by a maze of caves that brought me back in my mind’s eye to a visit to Matala on the south coast of Crete almost two years ago [26 August 2014].

The tide and the waves were gentle, the sand was soft, and it seemed possible to walk out safely into the water for quite a distance. Inside, the caves acted as echo chambers, resounding with the sound of the waves on the beach.

Eventually, we climbed back up the steps, turning back every now and again for wistful glances at the beach below, before heading on to a late Sunday lunch in the Avoca Café at the Mount Usher Gardens, in the part of Co Wicklow that is known as the ‘Garden of Ireland.’

Memories of the caves at Matala in a cave at Silver Strand, Co Wicklow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016; click on image for full-screen resolution)

A lesson on the beach on how Ireland has much to learn from Greek tourism

The beach at Matala has been popular with tourists since the late 1960s ... today, tourism is cushioning Crete against the worst effects of the Greek economic crisis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Patrick Comerford

The continuing success of tourism industry and the boost in tourism figures once again this year has cushioned people in many parts of Crete against the continuing problems besetting the Greek economy.

In Rethymnon, business figures told me last week that the town’s economy is cushioned with tourism accounting for almost 80 per cent of the economy, and education through the campus of the University of Crete making up almost 20 per cent of the economy.

Once again, Greece is enjoying a record year for tourism. Popular resorts were booked to capacity this month and last month, with visitor numbers this season expected to have jumped by 30 per cent, according to figures circulated by hoteliers and tour operators.

A leading figure in the tourism industry estimated recently that visitor figures this year would come in at 19 million, up on the record figure of 17.9 million already recorded for last year. More optimistic predictions hope for a record 21 million visitors to Greece this year, nearly double the country’s population.

Greece’s unemployment still stands at 26.7 per cent, the highest in the EU, wages and pensions have been cut by an average of 40 per cent, and in a country that is working hard at building its tourism sector, only one in four Greeks say they canafford to take a holiday this year.

But restaurateurs, hoteliers and shopkeepers were telling me in Crete last week that although many proprietors had invested in Russian-language signs in recent years, there has been a drop-off in the number of tourists from Russia, Ukraine and the Balkan countries, and they fear this may have been partly due to the present crisis involving Russia and Ukraine.

A warm welcome awaiting tourists at a beach-side taverna in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

On the other hand, traditional markets such as Britain and Germany have recovered, and there has been some increase too in the numbers arriving on Greek islands on board cruise ships, although cruise operators continue to have a preference for the US and other destinations rather that Greece and the Mediterranean.

Tourism is Greece’s largest foreign exchange earner. This year, the figures could reach €13.5 billion this year, up from €12 billion, with spending per head up from €650 to €700.

A dolphin-themed yacht at the marina in Rethymnon last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

But political stability and substantial private investment is needed if this growth in the tourism sector is to continue. For example, the season is concentrated on the few months of high summer from June to September, and there are few luxury hotels, high standard marinas or golf courses of the sort that attract high spenders, while the development of the site of the former Athens International Airport at Hellenikon, used for the 2004 summer Olympics, is taking longer than many expected.

Nikos Kazantzakis International Airport near Iraklion is the main airport on Crete, and after Athens International Airport it is Greece’s second busiest airport. The staff at every level, from check-in to security, police and the shops display traditional Greek hospitality, friendliness and courtesy. But the airport is still grotty and shabby and could benefit from investment and a complete makeover.

The transport ministry has plans at the end of this year to offer a concession to build and operate a new international airport on a green-field site in central Crete.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Google is to offer management courses to 3,000 tourism businesses on Crete as part of an initiative to promote the tourism sector in Greece.

The first initiative will begin in early September in southern Crete and could be extended later out to other parts of Greece.

Greeks hopes that Google’s initiative will help to extend the tourist season by improving the visibility on the internet of companies in the tourism sector through greater use of tools such as Google My Business and Google AdWords.

Economists say improving the Greek tourist industry’s presence online could help to create another 100,000 new badly needed jobs.

Sea traffic in the Boyne estuary at Mornington this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

But if the tourist sector in Greece can learn from Google, perhaps the tourist sector in Ireland could learn from Greece. After celebrating the Cathedral Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral this morning, I joined three others in a visit to beaches of Mornington, Bettystown and Laytown on the coast of Co Meath this afternoon.

This is a very short stretch of coastline for an Irish county, and Meath County Council boasts that this is the “Gold Coast” of Ireland. The beaches are beautiful, and have undeniable potential, and the welcome at Relish in Bettystown was as good as the welcome in any restaurant in Rethymnon last week.

But despite its rich golden stretch of sand, the beach at Bettystown was filthy this afternoon, with plastic bags and dirt everywhere.

It is a beautiful experience to walk on and the views are spectacular. But cars are allowed to drive on the beach, and despite sings announcing a 10 kph speed limits and warning about the presence of children, quads were speeding up and down the sands, doing donut turns to cheering onlookers.

On a number of occasions this summer, Meath County Council has advised people not to swim at Bettystown after test results showed an increase in levels of bacteria, including ecoli. Yet Meath County Council and the Environmental Protection Agency did not erect signs at the entrance to the beach after high bacteria levels were found in the water.

This has been a good year for tourism in Ireland too. Restaurateurs like the proprietors of Relish, are providing a high quality service, investing in the local economy and providing secure employment.

But our beaches are important attraction for both home and foreign tourists. The tourist beaches throughout Crete – and I visited more than half a dozen last week – are cleaned regularly throughout the day and carefully managed for the benefit of both tourists and the local economy.

When it comes to tourism, Ireland still has a lot to learn from Greece – and perhaps from Google too.

On the beach at Bettystown, Co Meath, this evening (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

‘The wind was in from Africa’ as I sought out the Mermaid Café and three beaches

The caves above the beach at Matala … used as a Roman cemetery 2,000 years ago, and home to a hippy colony half a century ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Patrick Comerford

To walk along one beach during a weekend back in Ireland is a pleasure I have come to enjoy over the years: it lifts my soul and helps to restore my feelings of good health despite the symptoms that are brought on by sarcoidosis and aggravated by the joint pains caused my B12 deficiency.

To walk along two beaches is an extra delight, lifting both my heart and my spirits.

But to walk on three beaches is a special pleasure indeed.

Yesterday [26 August 2014], I visited three beautiful beaches in southern Crete that I had never been to before.

In the past I have twice visited southern Crete: in the late 1980s, I stayed for a few days in Palaiochora, a small town in the south-west of the island, 77 km south of Chania, and in the 1990s, I briefly visited Ierapetra in south-east, south of Aghios Nikolaos – in the movie Zorba the Greek, the scene in which Anthony Quinn dances the Sirtaki on the beach was filmed on Ierapetra Beach.

So yesterday’s excursion was an opportunity to renew my acquaintances with the southern coast of Crete, and visit three new beaches.

The first stop on the journey was in the Kourtaliotiko Gorge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

After the bus climbed the hills above Rethymnon, we first stopped in the Kourtaliotiko Gorge (Κουρταλιώτικο Φαράγγι), one of the many gorges to be found throughout Crete. There is a point near the northern entrance to the gorge where some “claps” can be heard, like hands coming together. These “claps” or kourtala give the gorge its name, and are created by the sound of the wind being funnelled through the high caves of the gorge and breaking the sound barrier.

According to local legend, five springs made in the gorge by the imprint of the fingers of Saint Nicholas. Not to be confused with Saint Nicholas of Myra (or Santa Claus), this Saint Nicholas was an ascetic who was born in the nearby village Frati and lived on a rock many centuries ago. But he had no water and was about to leave the place, when the miracle is said to have taken place.

This saint is celebrated on 1 September and the local people call the spring evlogia kyriou or the Lord’s Blessing.

There is a small chapel near the spring in the gorge dedicated to Saint Nicholas, but instead we visited a tiny white-washed chapel built into the side of gorge and dedicated to Aghios Kyriakos (“Saint Sunday”).

Our next stop was at the Upper Monastery of Saint John in Preveli, where we received a warm welcome and a blessing from one of the monks. But visit to the monastery at Preveli is worth writing about separately later in the week.

The white beach at Damnoni sits in a long bay of beautiful turquoise water and is fringed with tamarisk trees (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

From the monastery we made our way down to the white beach at Damnoni, about 5 km east of Plakias. We had arrived on the southern coast of Crete, and were about 35 km south of Rethymnon.

The beach of coarse white sand that stretched in front of us sits in a long bay of beautiful turquoise water and is fringed with tamarisk trees. A white goose sat on the warm white sand at the west end of the beach, close to the small river that divides the beach.

Taking the “Ice Bucket” challenge in the cold waters at Preveli Beach

Here we boarded a small boat that took us past the smaller beaches of Amoudi and Schinaria and along the steep and rocky coast to the beach at Preveli. Although the beach is below the monastery, there is no road leading down to beach, and so most people arrive on the small ferries that ply between Plakias, Damnoni and Aghia Galini.

At Preveli Beach, the waters from the Kourtaliotiko Gorge tumble down to the sea in a river that forms a lagoon. Turning back towards the gorge, the river is surrounded by a forest of palm trees.

The Palm grove at Preveli has renewed itself after a disastrous fire four years ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

We walked into the forest hoping to find a waterfall where I could take up the “Ice Bucket” challenge in aid of MND research. Instead, we were amazed by the way the palm trees have regenerated themselves in a natural process of healing following a disastrous fire four years ago, on 22 August 2010, when a large proportion of the Theophrastus palm trees was destroyed in a fire.

We could see for ourselves how both the oldest and youngest trees in the grove have naturally found new life.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Preveli was one of the beaches in Crete favoured by hippies. But today, with its lush palm grove and its lagoon Preveli feels more like a part of Africa than a long forgotten hippy colony.

Although we were on the shores of the Libyan Sea, the cold waters of the lagoon and the river make the sea water off the beach quite cool. It was a good place to accept the “Ice Bucket” challenge, and although the staff at the beach bar could not understand the concept, a bottle of cold water was a good substitute.

A flower power Volkswagen van … a relic from the hippy colony in Matala (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Later, we caught the same boat back to Damnoni and then took the bus to Matala, which for my generation will always be associated with the former hippy colony and Carey, the 1971 hit from Joni Mitchell’s album Blue.

Carey who gave his name to the song was Cary ‘Carrot’ Raditz, who walked a silver cane and had bright red hair. Joni Mitchell met him in Matala in 1970:

The wind is in from Africa
Last night I couldn’t sleep
Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here Carey
But it’s really not my home
My fingernails are filthy, I got beach tar on my feet
And I miss my clean white linen and my fancy French cologne.

Oh Carey get out your cane
And I’ll put on some silver
Oh you’re a mean old Daddy
But I like you fine

Come on down to the Mermaid Café and I will
Buy you a bottle of wine
And we’ll laugh and toast to nothing
and smash our empty glasses down
Let’s have a round for these freaks and these soldiers
A round for these friends of mine
Let’s have another round for the bright red devil
Who keeps me in this tourist town.

Come on Carey get out your cane
I’ll put on some silver
Oh you’re a mean old Daddy
But I like you

Maybe I’ll go to Amsterdam
Maybe I’ll go to Rome
And rent me a grand piano
And put some flowers ’round my room
But let’s not talk about fare-thee-wells now
The night is a starry dome
And they’re playin’ that scratchy rock and roll
Beneath the Matala Moon.

Come on Carey get out your cane
I’ll put on some silver
We’ll go to the Mermaid Café
Have fun tonight.

The wind is in from Africa
Last night I couldn’t sleep
Oh you know it sure is hard to leave here
But it’s really not my home.

Maybe it’s been too long a time
Since I was scramblin’ down in the street
Now they got me used to that clean white linen
And that fancy French cologne.

Oh Carey get out your cane
I'll put on my finest silver
We’ll go to the Mermaid Café
Have fun tonight
I said, Oh, you’re a mean old Daddy but I like you
But you’re out of sight.

The hippy colony was forced out of Matala by the colonels’ junta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The caves in the cliff above the beach at Matala are artificial and were created in the Neolithic Age. In the first and second centuries the caves were used as tombs, and the entrance to the caves is advertised as “Roman Cemetery.”

When the hippies moved into the caves in the 1960s, Matala was still a small fishing village. Joni Mitchell’s song is also a protest against the colonels’ regime, which was then in power in Greece. But the hippies were driven out by the military junta, and Matala is now a thriving tourist resort.

The Mermaid Café is now called the Kymata or Waves Restaurant. But there are still signs of the hippy colony after almost half a century ago, including an old, flower-painted Volkswagen van and a heavily carved olive tree. And the hippies would be happy that there is a protected nesting place for Sea Turtles.

By the time we left, we were singing Carey and heading on to visit the archaeological site at the Minoan palace in Phaestos, and to visit the small village of Spili, before returning late in the evening to Rethymnon.

A safe place for sea turtles on the beach at Matala (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)