The Feast of St Irenaeus | Friday 28 June 2024

Today is Friday 28 June, the feast of St Irenaeus, in the 12th week of Ordinary Time.

Tenebrae, directed by Nigel Short, sing “Bless the Lord My Soul” from Rachmaninoff’s Vespers. “Bless the Lord, my soul. Lord God, how great you are!”

As I begin to pray today, I acknowledge the greatness of God, who created me and everything around me - the earth, the moon and the stars - who makes springs gush forth in the valleys and grass grow for the cattle… and I place myself in the hands of that great and wonderful God.

Blagoslovi, dushe moya, Gospoda, blagosloven esi, Gospodi.
Gospodi Bozhe moy, vozvelichilsya esi zelo.
Blagosloven esi, Gospodi.
Vo ispovedaniye i v velelepotu obleklsya esi.
Blagosloven esi, Gospodi.
Na gorakh stanut vody. Divna dela Tvoya, Gospodi.
Posrede gor proydut vody. Divna dela Tvoya, Gospodi
Vsya premudristiyu sotvoril esi.
Slava Ti, Gospodi, sotvorivshemu vsya.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, blessed art thou, O Lord.
O Lord my God, thou art very great.
Thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
Blessed art thou, O Lord.
The waters stand upon the mountains.
Marvellous are thy works, O Lord.
In wisdom hast thou made all things.
Glory to thee, O Lord, who hast created all.




Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 8: 1-4

When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.’ He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Then Jesus said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’

The leper in this story was cast out. He had to live well away from other people, cut off from the rest of humanity. He lived in a separate world of the lost and forgotten. Can you imagine what his life was like? Not just his physical pain, but also the pain of being outcast, and the pain of loneliness?

Then Jesus comes along. It’s actually one of the most amazing sentences in the Gospels. It tells us, simply, “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the leper.” Can you imagine what that was like?

Living with leprosy is a very long way from the experience of most of us. But there may be other ways in which I have felt an outcast, cut off, isolated, in pain… or maybe I have cut others off. As I listen again to the reading, I notice if there any echoes of this situation in my life.

Those words, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” Can I make those words my prayer today? And can I sense the Lord saying back to me, “I do choose. Be made clean!”, and stretching out his hand, and touching me?

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.