Reading ‘Peace’ by Aristophanes and a classical reminder of the traps of waging wars and the need for peace

The Theatre of Dionysus … the site of the great drama competitions in Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

After a few weeks break, the Stony Stratford playreaders resume our readings and rehearsals this evening, and we have gathered in the Library in Stony Stratford, where the play we are reading is Peace (Εἰρήνη Eirḗnē), an Athenian ‘Old Comedy’ written and produced by the Greek playwright Aristophanes.

The play won second prize at the City Dionysia when it was staged just a few days before the validation of the Peace of Nicias, which promised to end the 10-year-old Peloponnesian War in the year 421 BCE.

With the current wars the US is waging in the Gulf against Iran, including Trump’s latest threats this week against Oman, the current war Russia is waging against Ukraine, the continuing and relentless Israeli military actions in Gaza, on the West Bank and in southern Lebanon, Peace seems deeply appropriate as a choice for our reading this evening.

The play is written in joyous anticipation of peace and it is a celebration of a return to an idyllic life in the countryside. However, it also sounds a note of caution, there is a bitter acknowledgment of lost opportunities, and the ending is not happy for everyone.

As in all plays by Aristophanes, the jokes are many, the action is wild and absurd and the satire is savage. Cleon, the pro-war populist leader of Athens, is once again a target of the author's wit, even though he had died in the Battle of Amphipolis just a few months earlier.

The playwright Aristophanes (Ἀριστοφάνης) was known as ‘the Father of Comedy’ and ‘the Prince of Ancient Comedy’ and lived between ca 446 and ca 386 BCE. He wrote 40 plays, although only 11 survive virtually complete. His plays were performed at the religious festivals of Athens, mostly the City Dionysia and the Lenaia, and several of his plays won the first prize in their respective competitions. The majority of his surviving plays belong to the genre known as ‘Old Comedy’ and are among its most valuable examples.

The porch of the Erechtheion … the last of the buildings dating from the time of Pericles … building work finished around 410 BCE (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In his plays, Aristophanes wrote about real-life figures, including Pericles, Euripides and Alcibiades, and contemporary events, such as the Peloponnesian War. He is said to have recreated life in ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author.

His plays are characterised by preposterous premises, explicit language, wordplays, and political satire. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries. Plato singled out the play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates.

His now lost second, now lost play, The Babylonians, was denounced by Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights.

In Peace, Trygaeus, whose part I have been asked to read, is a middle-aged Athenian who miraculously brings about a peaceful end to the Peloponnesian War. He earns the gratitude of farmers while bankrupting various tradesmen who had profited from the hostilities.

Trygaeus boldly summons Greeks everywhere to come and help him set Peace free while there is still time. A Chorus of excited Greeks from various city-states arrives as prompted but they are so excited they cannot stop dancing at first. Eventually they get to work, pulling boulders from the cave’s mouth under the supervision of Trygaeus.

Real progress is only made by the farmers and at last Peace and her companions, Festival and Harvest, are brought to light, appearing as visions of ineffable beauty. Hermes then tells the gathering why Peace had left them many years earlier – she had been driven away by politicians who were profiting from the war.

She had tried to come back several times, but each time the Athenians had voted against her in their Assembly. Trygaeus apologises to Peace on behalf of his fellow Athenians, then he leaves her to enjoy her freedom while he sets off again for Athens, taking Harvest and Festival back with him.

Trygaeus celebrates his triumph by marrying Harvest, a companion of Festival and Peace, all of whom he has liberated from a celestial prison.

All the early plays by Aristophanes were written and acted against a background of war. The war between Athens and Sparta began in 431 BCE. Under Archidamus II in Sparta and Pericles in Athens, it developed into a war of slow attrition in which Athens was unchallenged at sea and Sparta was undisputed master of the Greek mainland.

The Monument of the Unknown Soldier outside Parliament in Athens … the quotations are from the Funeral Oration by Pericles, recounted by Thucydides in ‘The History of the Peloponnesian War’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Every year, the Spartans and their allies invaded Attica and wreaked havoc on Athenian farms. As soon as they retreated, the Athenians marched out from their city walls to avenge themselves on the farms of their neighbours, the Megarians and Boeotians, allies of Sparta. Till then, most Athenians had lived in rural settlements but now they congregated within the safety of the city walls.

A plague in 430 BCE, decimated the over-crowded population of Athens and also claimed the life of Pericles, leaving Athens in the control of a more radical leadership, epitomised by Cleon.

Cleon was determined to gain absolute victory in the war with Sparta and his aggressive policies seemed to be vindicated in 425 at the Battle of Sphacteria, with the capture of Spartan hostages and the establishment of a permanent garrison at Pylos, from where the Athenians and their allies could harass Spartan territory.

The Spartans then made repeated appeals for peace but these were dismissed by the Athenian Assembly under guidance by Cleon, who wished instead to broaden the war with ambitious campaigns against Megara and Boeotia. The Athenians suffered a major defeat in Boeotia at the Battle of Delion and this was followed by an armistice in 423 BCE.

When the armistice ended, Cleon led a force of Athenians to Chalcidice to repress the revolts. But he and his men were surprised and defeated by a Spartan force. Both Cleon and Brasidas died in the battle and their removal opened the way for new peace talks in the winter of 422-421. The Peace of Nicias was ratified soon after in the City Dionysia, where Peace was performed, early in the spring of 421 BCE.

Cleon, the populist leader of the pro-war faction in Athens, is mentioned by name only once in this play, and he receives several indirect mentions. At one point, the Chorus describe Cleon as a disgusting gorgon-like phenomenon in language that matches sound and sense:

ἑκατὸν δὲ κύκλῳ κεφαλαὶ κολάκων οἰμωξομένων ἑλιχμῶντο :περὶ τὴν κεφαλήν

a hundred heads of doomed stooges circled and licked around his head

The sound of something revolting is captured in the original Greek by the repetition of the harsh k sound, including a repetition of the word for ‘head’.

Euripides is a tragic poet renowned for his innovative plays and pathetic heroes. He is ridiculed for his reliance on legalistic quibbling for dialogue and his plays are parodied and deliberately misquoted.

The tragic poet Sophocles is mentioned too because his verses are evocative of the good times that will come with peace.

Homer, the bard of all bards and the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, is mentioned by name twice in this play, there are frequent references to his poetry, and he is fancifully misquoted by Trygaeus.

Places that are named in the play include Mount Etna, the island of Naxos, the Erechtheion, the iconic building on the Acropolis, where work began in 420 BCE during the Peace of Nicias, not long after the performance of Peace at the City Dionysia, and the Pnyx, the hill where the citizens of Athens convened as a democratic assembly.

Masks inspired by classical drama in a shop in Athens … Thalia was the Muse of comedy, the laughing face, while Melpomene was the Muse of tragedy, the weeping face (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In his plays, Aristophanes shows a tender love of rural life and a nostalgia for simpler times, and he develops a vision of peace involving a return to the countryside and its routines.

The association of peace with rural revival is expressed in this play in terms of religious imagery: Peace, imprisoned in a cave guarded by a Cerberus figure, resembles a chthonic fertility goddess in captivity in the underworld, a motif especially familiar to Athenians in the cult of Demeter and her daughter Kore in the Eleusinian Mysteries.

In spite of the play’s mythical and religious contexts, political action emerges as the decisive factor in human affairs. The gods are seen as distant figures, and so mortals must rely on their own initiative, as seen when the Chorus of Greeks work together to release Peace from captivity.

The god Hermes delivers a speech blaming the Peloponnesian War on Pericles and Cleon, an argument that Aristophanes had put forward in earlier plays.

The Chorus has a joyful celebration of peace but also shares bitter reflections on the mistakes of past leaders and Trygaeus expresses anxious fears for the future of the peace since events are remain subject to bad leadership. The bankrupted tradesmen at the end of the play are a reminder that there is still support for war.

The militaristic verses borrowed from Homer are a dramatic reminder that war is deeply rooted in culture and that it still commands the imagination of a new generation. Peace in such circumstances requires not only a miracle but also a combination of good luck and good will on the part of a significant group within the community.

Does any this find parallels with today’s cycle of war and how many world leaders have forgotten Peace, leaving Peace trapped in a dark cave?

Actors promoting a theatrical performance of classical drama in the square at Monastiraki in Athens (Photograph; Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 105, Thursday 20 August 2026

Waiting for guests at the Tai Tai restaurant in Kuching … we are all invited to the heavenly banquet, but are we ready to accept the invitation? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

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). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Bernard (1112-1153), Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher of the Faith; and William Booth (1829-1912) and Catherine Booth (1829-1890), founders of the Salvation Army.

I hope to be involved in a drama group meeting in the library in Stony Stratford this evening, when we are reading the appropriately topical Peace by Aristophanes. This play was first staged just a few days before the validation of Peace of Nicias, which promised to end the ten-year-old Peloponnesian War, in 421 BCE. Earlier in the day, I have a number of tests as my Vitamin B12 deficiency and sarcoidosis continue to be monitored. But, 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.

‘Go therefore into the … streets, and invite everyone you find to the … banquet’ (Matthew 22: 9) … empty tables at restaurants in the side streets in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Matthew 22: 1-14 (NRSVA):

1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” 5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” 10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 ‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.’

‘A Peasant Wedding’ (1620), Peter Brueghel the Younger, the National Gallery of Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

‘For many are called, but few are chosen.’

Sometimes, the ways I can behave as a snob can catch me off-guard and unexpectedly, and I shame myself.

When I was growing up, the snobberies and class distinctions of previous generations were challenged over 60 years ago in an old-fashioned way in the film My Fair Lady (1964), based on George Bernard Shaw’s earlier play, Pygmalion (1913).

But Pygmalion also inspired what I think is a much funnier film, Hoi Polloi (1935), with the Three Stooges, Larry, Curly and Moe.

Two professors are arguing about whether our social behaviour is caused by environment or heredity. It is a very funny take on the old Nature v Nurture argument.

To settle a bet, the two professors take three binmen – Larry, Curly and Moe – train and coach them for three months, dress them up, and send them off to a posh society dinner.

Their behaviour descends into farce, and it looks as if one professor has won his bet: our social behaviour is dictated by inherited class.

But then the tables are turned – literally. Everyone else at the party descends to the same riotous behaviour. At a base level, we are all the same, even if some refuse to accept it.

Nature or nurture? It was an important statement that we all share the same humanity, coming as racism and the Nazis were on the rise in the 1930s.

The title of the film, Hoi Polloi, is a way of expressing class-based social prejudice. It is a Greek phrase, meaning ‘the many’ and it was used in Victorian England by people who had the benefit of a classical education in English public schools and the universities, to describe the masses, who they presumed did not understand the phrase.

Gilbert and Sullivan use the phrase to mock those who used it in their comic opera Iolanthe. Later, it was used by English public schoolboys in the 1950s and the 1960s, when they referred to ‘oips’ and ‘oiks’.

The term hoi polloi also appears in a scene in the film Dead Poets Society (1989). Professor John Keating, played by Robin Williams, speaks negatively about the use of the definite article ‘the’ in front of the phrase.

Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero) raises his hands and speaks: ‘The hoi polloi. Doesn’t it mean the herd?’

Keating replies: ‘Precisely, Meeks. Greek for the herd. However, be warned that, when you say “the hoi polloi” you are actually saying “the the herd.” Indicating that you too are “hoi polloi”.’

This morning’s Gospel reading (Matthew 22: 1-14) begins with a very joyful occasion – a posh nosh, a planned wedding, and generous invitations to a lavish banquet. But, instead of the farce in that film with the Three Stooges, it quickly descends into very difficult images: slaves who are kidnapped, mistreated and killed; cities that are burned down; a man who is bound hand and feet and thrown into outer darkness.

The images of the wedding banquet and the wedding covenant are important ways of describing our relationship with God.

But the parable in this morning’s Gospel reading is particularly difficult.

The king has invited a long list of guests, but even after being repeatedly sought out, none of these guests comes to the banquet.

To refuse to come, to refuse a king’s command, is treason; to kill his slaves amounts to insurrection. So the king sends out troops to put down the rebellion.

The king then sends his slaves into the streets to find enough people to sit at the tables at the wedding banquet. The phrase translated as ‘the main streets’ (διεξόδους τῶν ὁδῶν, verse 9), means not the main fashionable, shopping streets in a chic part of a city centre. It refers to dirty, gritty, street corners and junctions, perhaps the main junctions outside the city gates.

This is the place where those who want to be hired as labour gather, where those who are refused entry wait without hope, this is where those who are on margins are found. Other translations catch these images when they talk about the highways and the byways.

And the king’s invitation, in verse 10, goes out to all people, ‘both good and bad.’

Yet, when the king sees that a man is not dressed appropriately for the event, the king throws him into the outer darkness. In this case, the robe probably symbolises the white robe worn for baptism.

Do we wear that robe all the time? In other words, do we live up to our promises of discipleship made at Baptism – summarised in the call to love God and to love others?

If you were to imagine yourself as one of the characters in this parable, who would you be?

And would you behave that way?

Are you the king, throwing a lavish wedding banquet?

Are you a wedding guest who has denied the generosity of the king?

Are you the bride or groom, sidelined and marginalised at our own wedding, incidental to all the power playing and role playing?

Are you one of the people brought in from the streets, but not prepared for the celebration about to take place?

Where do you find Good News in this parable?

What is meant by the many and the few here?

In our western way of thinking, the word many is a quantity much more than the majority, while few is many less than the majority. But in eastern thought, one less than 100% would be considered few.

We could put the Greek use of ‘few’ and ‘many’ by Christ in this parable in its cultural context. Pericles, in his ‘Funeral Oration’ in Athens, according to Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War, uses ‘the many,’ οἱ πολλοί (hoi polloi), in a positive way when he extols democracy in Athens.

He contrasts ‘the many’ with ‘the few’ (οἱ ὀλίγοι, hoi oligoi), the few who abuse power and create an oligarchy, rule by the few. Pericles demands equal justice for ‘the many’, ‘the all’, before the law, against the selfish interests of the few.

When we celebrate the Eucharist, we remember that Christ is the victim, and that he said his blood is shed ‘for you and for many.’ The word ‘you’ here means us, the Church, the few in this parable. But the phrase ‘the many’ here, οἱ πολλοί (hoi polloi), refers to the masses, the multitude, the great unwashed, who are called to the banquet too.

Christ’s invitation is not just to you and me, who know we are invited to the banquet. It is also for the many, the lumpen masses, all people, the ones who are not usually invited to the posh nosh, the Larry, Curly and Moe in our midst.

The invitation to come in, to celebrate at the banquet, symbolised in the Eucharist this morning, is not just for the few, the oligarchs. The many are invited to this banquet this morning.

Who are we to behave like a tyrannical despot and exclude them? For if we exclude them, we are in danger of excluding Christ himself.

‘Look, I have prepared my dinner … and everything is ready’ (Matthew 22: 3) … waiting for diners at the Black Horse in Great Linford, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 20 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 (Thursday 20 August 2026) invites us to pray:

Dear God, please forgive us for we have been selfish and misused your creation. We are sorry that nature has been hurt by humans. Help us to do better, Lord!

The Collect of the Day:

Merciful redeemer,
who, by the life and preaching of your servant Bernard,
rekindled the radiant light of your Church:
grant us, in our generation,
to be inflamed with the same spirit of discipline and love
and ever to walk before you as children of light;
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:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Bernard to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Those who had been invited to the wedding banquet … would not come’ (Matthew 22: 3) … empty tables at the Moat House, the former Comberford family home on Lichfield Street, Tamworth (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

A grave in Kerameikós, Athens, where Pericles delivered his funeral oration (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 100, Saturday 15 August 2026, the Blessed Virgin Mary

The icon of the Dormition by Alexandra Kaouki in the old town of Rethymnon in Crete

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X), and tomorrow is the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XI). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship lists today simply and plainly as ‘the Blessed Virgin Mary’, without specifying what aspect of her life or death is being commemorated.

The Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford began celebrating the Feast of the Dormition last night (14 August) with Festal Vespers with Artoclasia for the Dormition of the Theotokos at 6:30 pm, and the celebrations continue today with Matins and Divine Liturgy for the Dormition of the Theotokos at 9 am and Vespers at 6 pm.

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.

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 99, Friday 14 August 2026

Potiphar names Joseph administrator … Potiphar is a Biblical example of a married eunuch (Bode Museum, Berlin)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X). The Church Calendar today remembers Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941), Friar and Martyr in Auschwitz. Later this evening, at 6 pm, there are Great Vespers with Artoclasia for the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford.

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.

An icon of Saint Philip the Deacon with the Ethiopian Eunuch, by Ann Chapin (2008)

Matthew 19: 3-12 (NRSVA):

3 Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?’ 4 He answered, ‘Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning “made them male and female”, 5 and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ 7 They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?’ 8 He said to them, ‘It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but at the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.’

10 His disciples said to him, ‘If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.’ 11 But he said to them, ‘Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’

Alessandro Moreschi (1858-1922), the last surviving castrato of the Sistine Chapel’s Choir

Today’s Reflections:

This morning’s Gospel reading comes in two parts that are both difficult and painful to read, to the point that it would be easier to reflect on one of the other appointed readings in the Lectionary (Ezekiel 16: 1-15, 60-63; Psalm 118: 14-18 or the Canticle Song of Deliverance; Isaiah 12: 2-6).

As a priest who is divorced and remarried, I find the first part of the Gospel (Matthew 19: 3-11) is a challenge every time I read it, even though I have dealt with its topics on many occasions in sermons I have preached in a parish and pastoral setting, in preparing couples for marriage, and in my own life. I wish some of my priest colleagues had been as generous to me in the past as I hope they are to their own parishioners when it comes to providing true pastoral care, understanding and support.

The second part of the reading (Matthew 19: 11-12) causes me even greater confusion and all my attempts to understand its context still leave me in search of meaning and understanding. But then even the text itself warns that some readers will not be able to receive what is being said.

Jesus’ words seem to find echoes in Saint Paul’s writings when, for example, he seems to advocate remaining single if someone is called to do so (see I Corinthians 7: 24-28), yet says it is wrong to forbid marriage to anyone (I Timothy 4: 1-3). However, both Jesus and Paul stress that relatively few people were called to a life of celibacy, a lifestyle that was generally unacceptable socially in their time.

I wince and even imagine physical pain when it comes to thinking about the concept of a eunuch, thinking of references to men who had been castrated before puberty, especially the castrati or male singers who, for the sake of retaining their high voices, underwent surgical castration before puberty.

Castration affected boys’ vocal cords, but it also had a profound effect on the rest of their body. By disrupting normal growth hormones, castration could result in a variety of unusual physical attributes, including remarkable height and an abnormally large chest cavity – which, in singing terms, meant powerful thoracic muscles and extra lung capacity. As such, castrati were uniquely equipped to produce the loud, sustained, highly ornamented phrases that Baroque audiences loved.

The earliest records of castrati date from the 1550s. At the time, castrati sang only sacred music. A supposed biblical injunction against women singing in church left a dearth of singers able to sing the high parts in sacred choral works.

When opera became part of the musical scene ca 1600, the castrato’s unusual voice was quickly embraced by composers working in the new genre. Claudio Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo (1607) featured castrati singing the opera’s Prologue as well as two female roles. Yet the castrato’s vocal powers lead them to be cast as the manliest role in opera: the primo uomo, or heroic male lead.

Successful castrati were the rock stars and celebrities of their day. The castrato known as Farinelli, born Carlo Broschi (1705-1782) was knighted by the King of Spain and held a ministerial role at the Spanish court.

By the 19th century, however, changing operatic styles and new conceptions of medical ethics meant the castrato tradition was quickly dying out. The Vatican banned castrati in 1903, and the last known castrato, Alessandro Moreschi, died in 1922. Recordings of Moreschi singing are the only surviving example of this voice type.

The Biblical references to eunuchs include impotent men and men not capable of sexual relations. In this morning’s reading, however, Jesus says that some men were born this way, some were made impotent by men and some made themselves impotent to better serve the kingdom of God.

The terms also described men who were trusted in royal courts to serve as chamberlains and to care for harems (see Esther 2: 15) or men trusted in royal courts with high positions and authority (see Daniel 1: 3-18; Acts 8: 27). Because eunuchs often served in the courts of kings, the words translated as ‘eunuch’ may have come to be used as a label for many senior officials, whether or not we would now regarded them as having been castrated.

The Hebrew word in the Bible is סְרִ֨יס (sarís) and it means ‘to castrate’. But this word is translated ‘officer’ or ‘officers’ 12 times in the Old Testament (see Genesis 37: 36; 39: 1; 40: 2; and 40: 7) and as ‘chamberlain’ or ‘chamberlains’ 13 times (see Esther 1: 10, 12, 15; 2: 21; and 4: 4-5).

In the Septuagint, the Hebrew word סְרִ֨יס is translated into Greek by εὐνοῦχος, and the word also has the meaning ‘eunuch’. However, in its context in the Tanakh, the word almost always refers to ministers or high servants at the court of a king. Not all of them were castrated in order to hold their posts, maybe they were merely bound to practise celibacy; the Bible, in Genesis, mentions at least one married eunuch, Potiphar, who is one of Pharoah’s courtiers in Egypt.

The Greek word εὐνοῦχοι (eunouchoi is usually understood as castrates, but the context speaks for understanding εὐνοῦχοι as ‘single’, and its etymology suggests the Greek word εὐνοῦχος (eunouchos) originally meant either ‘bedroom guard’ or ‘of good mind.’ Later, the word rendered ‘eunuch’ came to refer to a castrated man, to an impotent man and to an unmarried man.

At the time Jesus is speaking, the word ‘eunuch’ may have simply referred to a senior and trusted official in royal courts, a courtier who could be trusted not to take advantage of others, particularly people who depended on royal justice and who must not be exploited for personal financial or sexual advantage.

In the Roman world, the word eunuch was used to refer to a homosexual man. Some translations refer to ‘men who never marry,’ instead of ‘eunuchs’. Both terms were used as euphemisms for homosexual men.

Some commentators suggest that at the time of Jesus the word eunuch was used as a euphemism for people who were seen as being different or even outsiders because of their sexuality, men who were gay but dismissed as being ‘effeminate’, people who were gay and found it difficult to explain why they remained single in a society where marriage was the norm and celibacy was frowned on, individuals whose sexuality was not of their own choice but would have been unacceptable if they admitted to it publicly.

In the any case, in both the Hebrew and Christian texts, eunuchs had the same standing in God’s eyes as anyone else (see Isaiah 56: 3-5; Acts 8: 26-39).

These definitions might mean that those who make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven are simply men who remained unmarried to spend more time seeking the Lord and spreading the Gospel.

This morning’s passage was interpreted so literally in some parts of the early Church that Origen of Alexandria (185-254 CE), in the impetuosity of youth, castrated himself. In later life he knew better. In his commentary on Saint Matthew’s Gospel, Origen rejects the literal interpretation of the words. He acknowledges that he once accepted a literal reading, but came to accept the saying should be understood spiritually and not ‘according to the flesh and the letter.’ But it was too late by then to reverse the process, I imagine, as I wince yet again this morning.

Perhaps, this passage should no more be taken literally than Christ’s words about cutting off my hand or foot, or gouging out my eye. If so, should the preceding verses on divorce be taken literally either? Perhaps they too are hyperbole, raw humour or reminders of the ideals of marriage which some may attain but many cannot live up to.

Both parts of this morning’s Gospel reading may be read more easily if we hear Jesus saying that all Christians, are representatives of the Kingdom of God, courtiers or ambassadors of that kingdom, irrespective of our marital status, our gender, our sexuality or what others may see as inappropriate or unacceptable lifestyles judged only by the cultural standards of the world today. We are called by Christ into the Church and into the kingdom, and some of us are even called to give up everything in order to pursue this calling.

Origen of Alexandria (185-254 CE), in the impetuosity of youth, castrated himself … in later life he knew better (Icon: Eileen McGuckin)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 14 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 (9-15 August 2026, pp 28-29), is ‘Mission to the Mangyans’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Revd Jewel B Tumaliuan, Programme Director, Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 14 August 2026) invites us to pray:

God of mission, we give thanks for our partners, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, and for the growth of the ministry to Mangyans as well as other joint projects. Bless bishops, clergy, and lay leaders, and strengthen shared work in building resilient communities and sustainable futures.

The Collect:

Let your merciful ears, O Lord,
be open to the prayers of your humble servants;
and that they may obtain their petitions
make them to ask such things as shall please 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.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God of our pilgrimage,
you have willed that the gate of mercy
should stand open for those who trust in you:
look upon us with your favour
that we who follow the path of your will
may never wander from the way of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Lord of heaven and earth,
as Jesus taught his disciples to be persistent in prayer,
give us patience and courage never to lose hope,
but always to bring our prayers before you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of The Blessed Virgin Mary:

Almighty God,
who looked upon the lowliness of the Blessed Virgin Mary
and chose her to be the mother of your only Son:
grant that we who are redeemed by his blood
may share with her in the glory of your eternal kingdom;
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.

Joseph and Potiphar’s wife … a ceramic plate produced in Urbino ca 1537 … Potiphar is a Biblical example of a married eunuch (National Museum of Bargello, Florence)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 95, Monday 10 August 2026

A traditional fishing boat by the old Venetian Harbour in Rethymnon … Izaak Walton points out that fishing can teach us patience and discipline (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X, 9 August 2026). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Laurence (258), Deacon at Rome, Martyr.

Later today, I have GP appointments for my regular injections needed because of my severe Vitamin B12 deficiency, for my sarcoidosis symtoms, and to follow up on my stroke four years ago. But, before the day 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.

‘Go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up’ (Matthew 17: 27) … a variety of fish on display in a seafood restaurant at the harbour in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 17: 22-27 (NRSVA):

22 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands, 23 and they will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised.’ And they were greatly distressed.

24 When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, ‘Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?’ 25 He said, ‘Yes, he does.’ And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, ‘What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?’ 26 When Peter said, ‘From others’, Jesus said to him, ‘Then the children are free. 27 However, so that we do not give offence to them, go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.’

‘Fishing Trips’ … fishing boats and tourist trips in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

I have been a vegetarian most of my life, which has contributed to the health issues surrounding my severe B12 deficiency. But I still find the rewards of fishing at the Lake in Capernaum in this morning’s Gospel reading are worth working with. Ernest Hemingway, in The Old Man and The Sea, says ‘Il faut (d’abord) durer … It is necessary, above all else, to endure. It is necessary to endure.’

Over half a century ago, when I hitchhiking in the Peaks on the borders of Staffordshire and Derbyshire in my late teens, and staying in Ilam Hall, I came across the work of the great Anglican writer Izaak Walton (1593-1683), known for his biographies of John Donne, George Herbert and Richard Hooker, and also as the author of The Compleat Angler.

In The Compleat Angler, Izaak Walton points out that fishing can teach us patience and discipline. Fishing takes practice, preparation, discipline; like discipleship, it has to be learned, and learning requires practice before there are any results. And sometimes, whether it is fishing in a river, fishing in a lake or fishing in the sea, the best results can come from going against the current.

Walking along the piers in coastal fishing towns and villages or on holidays on Greek islands, I sometimes watch the careful early morning work of the crews in the trawlers and fishing boats, and I am reminded that good fishing does not come about by accident. It also requires paying attention to the nets, moving them carefully, mending them, cleaning them after each and every use, hanging them out to dry.

And fishing is also about noticing the weather, watching the wind and the clouds. Good fishing takes account of contexts … it is incarnational.

Time and again in the Gospels, the Kingdom of God is compared to a huge net cast over different numbers of people and species. We are the ones called to cast that net, and we cannot hang any sign outside on our office doors saying: ‘Gone Fishin’.

Nor can we stand by the bank or on the shore, content with two sizes of fish. We are called to go after the ones that others let get away, not just those who come to Church regularly, but also those people who sit in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death.

Peter is sent to go fishing in the lake. He is told to take the first fish that comes up and that he is going to find a treasure beyond his expectations. It is an image of what working for the kingdom of God can be like.

There are days when fishing seems pointless, and there will be days when we are happy with our work together. And as we work together, hopefully, there will be days when we are surprised with what we can achieve together, all in Christ’s name and all for the sake of the one that otherwise might get away.

A fishing boat and fishing nets on the Greek island of Samos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 10 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 (9-15 August 2026, pp 28-29), is ‘Mission to the Mangyans’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update by the Revd Jewel B Tumaliuan, Programme Director, Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 10 August 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray for communities in remote areas where distance shapes daily life. May connection, support, and opportunity grow, and may your presence bring encouragement and hope.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
who made Laurence a loving servant of your people
and a wise steward of the treasures of your Church:
fire us with his example to love as he loved
and to walk in the way that leads to 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.

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 Laurence:
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.

Yesterday’s reflectionss

Continued tomorrow

‘Gone Fishin’ … fishing boats and nets by the harbour in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 94, Sunday 9 August 2026, Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X)

An icon depicting today’s Gospel reading … the Greek text reads ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid’ (Matthew 14: 27)

Patrick Comerford

This is Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X, 9 August 2026). Later this morning, I hope to take part in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, leading the intercessions. In these early hours, 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.

‘Peace. Be still’ … Christ calming the storm … the Cameron window in Saint Seiriol’s Priory Church, Penmon, Anglesey … see Matthew 14: 22-33 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 14: 22-33 (NRSVA):

22 Immediately [after feeding the crowd with five loaves and two fish,] he [Jesus] made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’

28 Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ 29 He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

‘They got into the boat and went on ahead to the other side’ (Matthew 14: 22) … boats at Messonghi in Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The Gospel reading in the Lectionary today (Matthew 14: 22-33) is the same Gospel reading I reflected on last Monday (3 August 2026) and that was an optional reading on Tuesday (4 August 2026). So, I am reflecting on this reading this morning in the light of today marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.

The bombing of Nagasaki came three days after the bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August, in the closing days of World War II. Within a week, the Japanese emperor had surrendered, and the war came to an end.

Perhaps there was added poignancy in Nagasaki as it was one of the oldest and one of the largest Christian communities in East Asia, and the cathedral was 500 metres from ground zero.

The first use of nuclear weapons was at the ‘Trinity’ test site in the New Mexico desert, at Hiroshima, and at Nagasaki. But this morning, I am asking yet again: what have we learned about war and peace, hatred and justice, since then?

The nuclear arms race continues apace, so that earlier this year [27 January 2026] the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists said the hands on the Doomsday Clock are now at 85 seconds to midnight, making it the closest it has ever been to global catastrophe in its history.

Their warning was issued just a month before the present conflict involving the US and Iran erupted in the Gulf on 28 February and quickly sucked in the rest of the world. When they reset the Doomsday Clock, the scientists said the nuclear threats have increased due to expiring strategic arms control agreements, the lack of replacement treaties, and an aggressive modernisation of arsenals by major nuclear powers.

Other factors include disruptive technologies, with the unmanaged proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) in military simulations and disinformation risks. The climate and global crises, with ongoing extreme weather events, are accelerating ecological damage, and there is inadequate international co-operation.

These are our worst nightmares. As we fall further and further into the pit, into the abyss, we see too a rise in racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia and far-right populism that are fuelled by the Trump regime and funded and cheered on by people like Elon Musk and platforms such as X (formerly Twitter).

Too much money is being spent on the arms race and hatred, not enough on hospitals, health care and reaching out to one another.

Ever since the pandemic lockdown, many people have seen themselves descending to social, spiritual and psychological depths that in the past were known only at times of great and intimate crises, such as family tragedies.

Social and spiritual isolation seem to have brought many people deeper into the abyss, and since then many people have asked: ‘Where is God in all this?’

This is the context in which I find myself reading today’s lectionary readings. In the Epistle reading (Romans 10: 5-15), Saint Paul asks, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (verse 7), a reference from the Septuagint (Deuteronomy 30) to crossing the seas. Saint Paul too knows that descending to the abyss is not the end: it leads to the end of oppression and to liberation and freedom.

Each and every one of us is overwhelmed by the pressures of life, by the demands of others, by the state of the world today. Yet we can believe, with the benefit of hindsight and through faith, that God is not neglecting his people.

In the Gospel reading (Matthew 14: 22-33), the disciples feel abandoned as they face their worst fears and face the abyss in the sea, the fear of drowning in the storms of life, of falling into the pit.

It is early in the morning, before dawn, and the boat is far from the shore when it is battered by waves and the wind. The disciples have lost control and are frightened. They see Jesus walking on the sea, and are terrified even more, thinking they are seeing a ghost. They cry out in their fears, but Jesus seeks to calm their fears: ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’

In other Gospel accounts, Jesus says, ‘Peace! Be still!’ (see Mark 4: 39).

Both frightened humanity and disorderly nature listen to the word and obey. In their response, the disciples acknowledge Christ as ‘the Son of God’ (verse 33). He is in control of their fears and of the created order, offering to bring a new creation out of chaos and darkness.

Growing complacency and adversarial, nationalistic rhetoric among global leaders are undermining multilateral safety frameworks, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has warned.

But concern for the plight of the world in these dangerous times is not an add-on to mission – it is at the very heart of mission. Two of the five marks of mission – hallmarks of Anglican identity and mission – are ‘to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation’ and ‘to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.’

In words quoted some years ago by Helen Mirren and written inside Anne Frank’s Diary, we must ‘be kind and have courage.’

One of the collects in Common Worship today prays: ‘Lord of heaven and earth, as Jesus taught his disciples to be persistent in prayer, give us patience and courage never to lose hope, but always to bring our prayers before you; through Jesus Christ our Lord.’

There is no need to fear the abyss, the pit, the nightmares we face now, 81 years after the Holocaust and Nagasaki. We are in this boat together as disciples, and Christ offers the hope he brings with calming the storm, a way out of chaos and darkness into light and peace.

‘When they got into the boat, the wind ceased’ (Matthew 14: 32) … a gondolier on the Grand Canal in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 9 August 2026, Trinity X):

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 (9-15 August 2026, pp 28-29), is ‘Mission to the Mangyans’. This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update by the Revd Jewel B Tumaliuan, Programme Director, Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI):

Nanay Norma Abnay is a lay leader in the IFI Church and a member of the Mangyan, an Indigenous people of Mindoro. She lives in Panhulugan, a remote mountain village on the island of Mindoro in the Philippines.

Access to healthcare is one of the greatest challenges for the community, with travel to medical treatment often long and difficult, and river crossings becoming impossible during the rainy season.

Bishop Ronelio, who began working with Mangyan communities in 1995, adds, ‘Sometimes we cannot reach certain communities due to security threats from armed conflict. If there is an encounter, we cannot be present at the chapels, which makes gathering very difficult.’ Despite these dangers, local leaders like Nanay Norma are given training to ensure that worship and care continue, helping the community remain resilient and looked after.

She explains, ‘When we first got to know IFI, we were given a church, and we already had a good feeling about it. As a lay leader, sometimes it is difficult, especially when there are many tasks to handle. But to the best of my ability, I do everything I can to serve our community.’

By God’s grace, a network of chapels has emerged, led by lay leaders like Nanay Norma from the Indigenous communities they serve. ‘The Church has helped us a lot,’ Norma concludes, ‘especially in fostering unity and teaching us how to work together. Although we experience poverty, they are always there to help without getting tired.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 9 August 2026, International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples) invites us to pray:

Creator God, we give thanks for the Mangyan and all Indigenous peoples, for their rich cultures, wisdom, and deep relationship with the land. Thank you that you love them and know them by name.

The Collect of the Day:

Let your merciful ears, O Lord,
be open to the prayers of your humble servants;
and that they may obtain their petitions
make them to ask such things as shall please 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.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of our pilgrimage,
you have willed that the gate of mercy
should stand open for those who trust in you:
look upon us with your favour
that we who follow the path of your will
may never wander from the way of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Lord of heaven and earth,
as Jesus taught his disciples to be persistent in prayer,
give us patience and courage never to lose hope,
but always to bring our prayers before you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Fishing boats tied up at the Quays in Wexford (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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 93, Saturday 8 August 2026

The sycamore fig, the mulberry and the fig are all related … a fig tree near Pavlos Beach in Platanias near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X, 9 August 2026). Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship recalls Saint Dominic (1170-1221), Priest, Founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans).

I am working on completing the intercessions at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. At the same time, 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.

‘If you have faith the size of a mustard seed’ (Matthew 17: 20) … Wisdom (Sophia) and her daughters Faith, Hope and Love depicted in a fresco in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 17: 14-20 (NRSVA):

14 When they came to the crowd, a man came to him, knelt before him, 15 and said, ‘Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.’ 17 Jesus answered, ‘You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.’ 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ 20 He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there”, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.’

A mulberry tree in Stoke Bruerne in Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

We have a patio area in Stony Stratford but no garden, and I have never had any real interest in gardening. Nor could anyone ever say I had ‘green fingers’. But, when I lived in houses with gardens, I liked sitting in those garden, reading in the sunshine, listening to the sound of a small fountain, enjoying the shade of the trees, and in summertime, eating out in the open.

So, it is not that I do not enjoy the garden. It is just simply that I have always felt I am no good at it.

It is an attitude that may have been nurtured and cultured by heavy hay-fever from early childhood, hay-fever that comes back to haunt me persistently at summer-time, and that has been a burden in recent weeks.

I remember once buying a willow tree in the early 1980s, and travelling back across Dublin with it in the back of a small car, a small Mini, me holding on to the tree as it stuck out the side window. By the time I got back to the house, I was covered in rashes, and my eyes, ears and nose were in a deep state of irritation. It must have been related to those willow trees in Psalm 137, because afterwards I sat down and wept.

For that reason alone, you could not call me a ‘tree hugger.’ But do not get me wrong … I really do like trees.

I relish spending time in the vast, expansive olive groves that stretch for miles and miles along the mountainsides in Crete, or in vineyards where the olive groves protect the vines.

But I cannot be trusted with trees. I was once given a present of a miniature orange tree … and it died within weeks. I have been given presents of not one, but two olive trees. One, sadly, died. The other is still growing at the house I once lived in, but it is a tiny little thing. Perhaps if I had just a little faith in my ability to help trees to grow, they would have survived and matured.

We may wonder why Christ decides to talk about a mustard seed and a mulberry tree, rather than, say, an olive tree. After all, as he was talking during the incident in today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 17: 14-20), he must have been surrounded by grove upon grove of olive trees.

But, I can imagine, he is also watching to see if those who are listening have switched off their humour mode, if they have withdrawn their sense of humour. He is talking here with a great sense of humour, using hyperbole to underline his point.

We all know a tiny grain of mustard is incapable of growing to a big tree. So, what is Christ talking about here? Because, he not only caught the disciples off-guard with his hyperbole and sense of humour … he even wrong-footed some of the Reformers and many Bible translators who make mistakes about what sort of trees he is talking about this morning.

Why did Christ refer to a mustard seed and a mulberry or sycamine tree, and not, say, an olive tree, or an oak tree?

Christ first uses the example of a tiny, miniscule kernel or seed (κόκκος, kokkos), from which the small mustard plant (σίναπι, sinapi) grows. But mustard is an herb, not a tree. Not much of a miracle, you might say: tiny seed, tiny plant.

But he then mixes his metaphors and refers to another plant. Martin Luther, in his translation of the Bible, turned the tree (verse 6) into a mulberry tree. The mulberry tree – both the black mulberry and the white mulberry – is from the same family as the fig tree.

As children, some of us sang or played to the nursery rhyme or song, Here we go round the mulberry bush. Another version is Here we go gathering nuts in May. The same tune is used for the American rhyme Pop goes the weasel and for the Epiphany carol, I saw three ships.

Of course, mulberries do not grow on bushes, and they do not grow nuts that are gathered in May. Nor is the mulberry a very tall tree – it grows from tiny seeds but only reaches the height of an adult. It is not a very big tree at all. It is more like a bush than a tree – and it is easy to uproot too.

However, the tree Christ names (Greek συκάμινος, sikámeenos) is the sycamine tree, which has the shape and leaves of a mulberry tree but fruit that tastes like the fig, or the sycamore fig (συκόμορος, Ficus Sycomorus).

Others think the tree referred to here is the sycamore fig (συκόμορος, Ficus Sycomorus), a tree we know as the big tree that little Zacchaeus climbs in Jericho to see Jesus (see Luke 19: 1-10).

The sycamine tree is not naturally pollinated. The pollination process is initiated only when a wasp sticks its stinger right into the heart of the fruit. In other words, the tree and its fruit have to be stung in order to reproduce. There is a direct connection between suffering and growth, but also a lesson that everything in creation, including the wasp, has its place in the intricate balance of nature.

Whether it is a small seed like the mustard seed, a small, seemingly useless and annoying creature like the wasp, or a small and despised figure of fun like Zacchaeus, each has value in God’s eyes, and each has a role in the great harvest of gathering in for God’s Kingdom.

Put more simply, it is quality and not quantity that matters.

Here are six little vignettes about faith that I came across:

1, Once all the villagers decided to pray for rain. On the day of prayer, all the people gathered, but only one little boy came with an umbrella. That is faith.

2, When you throw babies in the air, they laugh because they know you will catch them. That is trust.

3, Every night we go to bed without any assurance of being alive the next morning, but still we set the alarm to wake us. That is hope.

4, We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future. That is confidence.

5, We see the world suffering, but still people get married and have children. That is love.

6, There is a man who wears a T-shirt with the slogan: ‘I am not 80 years old; I am sweet 16 with 64 years of experience.’ That is attitude.

This morning’s Gospel reading challenges us to pay attention to our attitude to, to the quality of, our faith, trust, hope, confidence, love and positivity. And if we do so, we will be surprised by the results.

Perhaps I should have paid more attention to those small olive tree I received as gifts.

Faith is powerful enough to face all our fears and all impossibilities. Even if our germ of faith is tiny, if it is genuine there can be real growth beyond what we can see in ourselves, and certainly beyond what others can see in us.

Figs ripening on the branches of a fig tree in Platanias, near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 8 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 (2-8 August 2026, pp 24-25), has been ‘Faith Under Pressure in Nicaragua’. This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Reflection by the Most Revd Juan David Alvarado, Bishop of El Salvador and Primate of the Province of the Anglican Church in Central America.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 8 August 2026) invites us to pray:

God of compassion, be near to those who have been silenced, displaced, or stripped of identity. May they know they are not forgotten, and be sustained by your presence and love.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
whose servant Dominic grew in the knowledge of your truth
and formed an order of preachers to proclaim the faith of Christ:
by your grace give to all your people a love for your word
and a longing to share the gospel,
so that the whole world may come to know you
and your Son Jesus Christ 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 Dominic
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.

The Collect on the Eve of Trinity X:

Let your merciful ears, O Lord,
be open to the prayers of your humble servants;
and that they may obtain their petitions
make them to ask such things as shall please 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

A window by Edward Burne-Jones in the north transept of Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge, depicting Faith (centre), between Hope and Charity (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

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