‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’

‘In the beginning was the Word’ (John 1: 1) … an old typewriter seen in a restaurant in Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 3 January 2021, the Second Sunday of Christmas (Christmas II)

The Parish Eucharist

The Readings: Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 24: 1-12; Wisdom 10: 15-21; Ephesians 1: 3-14; John 1: 1-9, 10-18.

There is a link to the readings HERE.

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 4) … light in the darkness in the courtyard in Marlay Park, Dublin, on New Year’s Eve last Thursday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

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

The Book of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon are unusual choices in the Lectionary for the readings this morning. Too often and too easily they are dismissed as Apocryphal readings, yet they bridge the gap between Jewish Wisdom literature and the ideas that are introduced in Saint John’s Gospel.

The author of Sirach, Jesus ben Sira, understood Wisdom as leading to prosperity, and in his opening words, he declares: ‘All wisdom is from the Lord, and with him it remains for ever’ (Sirach 1: 1).

This morning’s reading opens: ‘Wisdom praises herself, and tells of her glory in the midst of her people’ (Sirach 24: 1). For Jewish writers and thinkers, the created world is God’s, so faith and reason go hand in hand; learning about creation is learning about God; reasoning is done in the context of faith in God; and knowledge of God is seen as leading to wisdom.

The Wisdom of Solomon or the Book of Wisdom was written in Greek, probably in Alexandria in the mid-first century BC, and is part of the Wisdom literature in the Septuagint or Greek Jewish Bible, along with the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon), Job and Sirach.

The central theme of this book is ‘Wisdom’ itself. Wisdom (Σοφία, Sophia) is the perfection of knowledge of the righteous as a gift from God, showing herself in action, and Wisdom is with God from all eternity.

In this book, Wisdom, the spirit of God, is personified as Lady Wisdom. This book also tells us that being made in the image of God includes sharing with God in immortality.

Earlier in this chapter, the author says Wisdom has been God’s agent in saving people in the past, and active in saving the people of Israel, through Moses. They are blameless, for they have been chosen and set apart by God (verses 1-14).

Now we are told that Wisdom has delivered a holy and blameless people from their oppressors. Wisdom entered the soul of the ‘servant of the Lord,’ and delivered the people, guiding these people by day and by night, on dry land and through deep waters.

In response to this, even the mute and small children could no longer be silent, but sang out God’s praises.

The Gospel reading this morning brings us back to Saint John’s prologue to the Fourth Gospel.

This is not just a traditional Gospel reading that many of us associate with Christmas morning, but it is a wonderful piece of classical Greek poetry, and it makes so many connections with the Wisdom literature that provides the two other readings this morning.

The Prologue is first and foremost poetry. It is a hymn – a poetic summary – of the whole theology of this Gospel, as well as an introduction to it.

The Fourth Gospel, the Gospel according to Saint John, is one of the great works of literature, and its opening phrase, Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, ‘In the beginning was the Word,’ is one of the most dramatic opening lines in literature.

This is such beautiful literature that I have often though that the Greek poetry and drama of Saint John’s Gospel would be a major possibility if I ever thought about researching and writing another thesis in theology.

The Prologue is an introduction to this Gospel as a whole. It tells us that the Logos is God and acts as the mouthpiece (Word) of God ‘made flesh,’ sent to the world in order to be able to intercede for humanity and to forgive human sins.

The Prologue is of central significance to the doctrine of the Incarnation. This Prologue can be compared with Genesis 1, where the same phrase, ‘In the beginning …,’ first occurs along with the emphasis on the difference between the darkness and the light.

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 5).

This Prologue is probably one of the most profound passages in the Bible. As simple as its language and phrases are, its description of Christ as the Logos has had a lasting influence on Christian theology.

The prologue prepares the reader for the rest of the Fourth Gospel. Important themes are signalled and Christ’s identity is established at the very outset through the use of Christological titles, divine portents or the manner of his birth.

Saint John’s is the only Gospel to speak of Christ’s pre-existence as the Logos and the only Gospel to include a poetic prologue.

What about Saint John’s use of the term λόγος or Logos (1-2) – most frequently rendered ‘Word’ in modern English translations?

This term is deeply rooted in Old Testament thinking (see Genesis 1, Proverbs 8). The role of the Logos in Saint John’s writings also parallels, in ways, that of personified Wisdom in a number of traditions within Judaism, including Sirach and this morning’s reading. However, Wisdom and the Logos need not be identified with each other, since Wisdom is a creation of God (Sirach 1: 9), while the Logos is pre-existent and Divine.

The Prologue introduces a number of terms throughout Saint John’s Gospel and his letters. They include ‘life,’ ‘light’ (verse 5), ‘believe’ (verse 7), ‘world’ (verse 9), ‘children of God’ (verse 12), and ‘flesh’ and ‘truth’ (verse 14). These concepts are introduced in relationship to the Logos, who is decidedly at the centre of all that is being said.

The single most influential thinker in the 16th century Jewish mysticism, Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572), thought deeply about why evil and suffering exist in the world. In a poetic-like response, he told a story of Creation in which God who is unlimited brings into being a limited, empty space in which Creation can occur.

The Almighty is everywhere, and only by contracting into himself – like a someone inhaling deeply to allow another person to pass by in a narrow corridor – could God create an empty space in which the Creation could occur.

Luria imagines God retracting a part of the Eternal being into the Godhead itself in order to allow such a space to exist, a sort of exile. And so, Creation begins with a Divine exile.

A stream of light then flows from God into the empty space God creates. According to Isaac Luria, God created vessels into which he poured his holy light. These vessels were not strong enough to contain such a powerful force and they shattered. The sparks of divine light were carried down to earth along with the broken shards.

The light of God pours into Creation too, and every time someone does something good, according to Rabbi Luria, we rescue one of those holy sparks and restore it.

The day will come, Luria imagines, when we all do our part, and the entire remaining Divine Light is restored to God’s world. Without access to the Divine Light, evil will be unable to survive and will crumble away to dust.

For Luria, our task, our human endeavour, is the commandment tikkun olam, to repair the world, to reverse the shattering of the vessels, to restore the light of God.

For Luria and his followers, redemption is bound up with creation – to the idea of ‘retracing the path’ to creation and revelation, in order to return to the ‘unity and purity’ of the beginning of the world.

Luria’s key ideas gave voice to the impossible brokenness of the human condition. The pain of the Divine breakage permeates reality. We inherit it; it inhabits us. But redemption – the tikkun olam that will repair the broken world – remains possible.

In the words of Leonard Cohen, ‘there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.’

In our frailty and our brokenness, we are open to redemption and to the light of the world.

As Saint John tells us in our Christmas message this morning, ‘The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world’ (John 1: 9).

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

Saint John the Evangelist is often represented by an eagle … a carving on the pulpit in Saint Michael’s Church, Waterville, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

John 1: 1-18 (NRSVA):

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me”.’ 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 4) … the River Lee at night in Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Liturgical Colour: White (or Gold).

The Penitential Kyries:

Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
in the birth of your Son
you have poured on us the new light of your incarnate Word,
and shown us the fullness of your love:
Help us to walk in this light and dwell in his love
that we may know the fullness of his joy;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Introduction to the Peace:

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and his name shall be called the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 6)

The Preface:

You have given Jesus Christ your only Son
to be born of the Virgin Mary,
and through him you have given us power
to become the children of God:

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Light eternal,
you have nourished us in the mystery
of the body and blood of your Son:
By your grace keep us ever faithful to your word,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Blessing:

Christ, who by his incarnation gathered into one
all things earthly and heavenly,
fill you with his joy and peace:

Hymns:

652, Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us (CD 37)
166, Joy to the world, the Lord is come! (CD 166)
425, Jesu thou joy of loving hearts (CD 25)

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 4) … evening lights at Knightstown on Valentia Island, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

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.

Saint John the Evangelist depicted on the Gate at Saint John’s College in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This sermon was prepared for Sunday 3 January 2021, and was part of a celebration of the Eucharist in Askeaton with limited attendance

How a pedestrian bridge with Jewish links in Cork became the ‘Passover’

Trinity Pedestrian Bridge in Cork was opened by the Jewish Lord Mayor, Gerald Goldberg in 1977 and is known locally as the ‘Passover’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Trinity Pedestrian Bridge in Cork, close to the RTÉ studios, links Father Mathew Quay and Morrison’s Quay on the north bank of a branch of the River Lee with Union Quay on the south bank.

The bridge takes its name from Holy Trinity Church, also known as the Father Mathew Memorial Church, and leads from the city centre into the area that was the heart of Jewish life in Cork in the early 20th century: there were two synagogues on South Terrace, the Cork Hebrew Congregation and the Remnant of Israel, and for a short time around 1915 a third, dissenting synagogue on Union Quay that also called itself Cork Hebrew Congregation, as well as the site of the earlier Sephardic burial ground.

Trinity Bridge was opened in 1977 by Cork’s first Jewish Lord Mayor, Alderman Gerald Goldberg, and he is named on a plaque on the bridge he opened.

It is typical of Cork city humour that ever since the bridge has been known affectionately to people in Cork as ‘Passover Bridge.’

Gerald Goldberg (1912-2003) was the eleventh of 12 children born to Lithuanian immigrants Louis Goldberg and Rachel (née Sandler). They were both born in the small village of Akmenė and were part of a wave of people who fled pogroms in the Tsarist Empire at the end of the 19th century.

At the age of 14, Louis set out from Riga for the United States in 1882. But he did not know how far the journey would be and went ashore when the boat arrived in Cobh. At the docks he met Isaac Marcus, who regularly met immigrant ships to see if any other Jews arrived needing help. In Cork, Louis was invited to stay with the Sandler family, also from Akmian. There he met Rachel, and they were married nine years later.

Louis Goldberg was well-educated and spoke many languages. But he worked as a street peddler, walking on foot all over Ireland, before opening a drapery shop in Limerick. He was able to bring his mother and two brothers to Ireland.

However, he was beaten during the 1904 Limerick pogrom and his shop was boycotted. He moved with his growing family to Cork, where Gerald Goldberg was born on 12 April 1912.

Gerald Goldberg grew up in a Yiddish-speaking Orthodox home in Cork, and was interested in politics from a young age: he saw the bodies of two Lords Mayor of Cork, Tomás MacCurtain and Terence MacSwiney, lying in state during the War of Independence.

Gerald was educated at the Model School, Cork, a Jewish boarding school in Sussex, the Presentation Brothers College, Cork, and University College Cork, where he was President of the University Law Society.

He qualified as a solicitor in 1934, and had a career in criminal law practice in Cork for 63 years, once representing the Cork writer Frank O’Connor. He was the first Jewish President of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.

Gerald and Sheila Goldberg were married in Belfast in 1937 and lived at Ben Truda on Rochestown Road.

During World War II, he set up a committee to assist Jews fleeing the Nazis and the Holocaust, but encountered resistance from various government agencies that discouraged Jewish immigration.

He was elected to Cork Corporation as an independent Alderman in 1967.

Goldberg condemned a speech in 1970 by the then Mayor of Limerick, Steve Coughlan, who made justifying references to the 1904 Limerick Pogrom. That year, Goldberg joined Fianna Fáil and he was elected Lord Mayor in 1977. When he toured the US as Lord Mayor of Cork, he was given the freedom of several cities, including Philadelphia, New York and Dallas.

While he was Lord Mayor, he also opened the Trinity pedestrian bridge, which quickly became known as the ‘Passover.’

After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Gerald Goldberg received death threats and the Cork synagogue was firebombed.

After he retired from active politics in 1986, he was one of the early defectors from Fianna Fáil to the Progressive Democrats. His life featured in an RTÉ documentary, An Irishman, a Corkman and a Jew.

He collected antiques and was said to have one of the largest private Jewish libraries in Ireland. He received an MA from UCC in 1968 and an honorary doctorate in 1993. He died at the age of 91 on 4 January 2004.

Since then, a second new pedestrian bridge in Cork has been named after Mary Elmes, who has been described as the ‘Irish Oskar Schindler.’ The bridge, behind the Metropole Hotel, links Merchant’s Quay and Patrick’s Quay.

Mary Elmes was born on Winthrop Street, off Patrick Street and died at the age of 93 in Perpignan in France. She is credited with saving the lives of at least 200 Jewish children during the Holocaust. Yad Vashem has named her one of the ‘righteous among the nations.’

Listening to the bells of Shandon that sound so grand on the banks of the River Lee

Saint Anne’s Church, Shandon, was built in 1722-1726 on the site of the earlier Saint Mary’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

The claim by the Unitarian Church on Prince’s Street to be the oldest church in Cork City may be rivalled by Saint Anne’s Church, the Church of Ireland parish church in the Shandon district.

Saint Anne’s has been described as ‘the most important ecclesiastical structure of any period, within the city of Cork and its immediate environs, it is also one of the most important early 18th century churches in Ireland and one of a small number which still retains their original 18th century bells.’

I visited Shandon last week during my search for the connections with Lisbon in one branch of the Comerford family, which lived until 1770 in Mallow Lane, later known as Shandon Street.

The name Shandon comes from the Irish Sean Dún (‘old fort’). Saint Mary’s, a mediaeval church, stood close to the site of the fort and is mentioned in the decretals of Pope Innocent III in 1199 as ‘Saint Mary on the Mountain.’ Saint Mary’s Church stood until the Williamite wars when it was destroyed during the Siege of Cork in 1690.

A new Saint Mary’s Church was built in 1693 at the bottom of Mallow Lane, modern-day Shandon Street. However, the population of Cork was growing quickly, and it was decided to build a new church on the site of the ancient church.

The present Saint Anne’s Church was built in 1722-1726 on a hill in Shandon overlooking the River Lee, as a chapel of ease to the former Saint Mary’s Church, meaning this has been a site of worship since before mediaeval times.

Saint Anne’s was designed in the Old English architectural style. The walls are 2 m (7 ft) thick and the height to the tower is 36.5 m (120 ft). This is extended a further 15 m (50 ft) for the ‘pepper pot’ adornment on the tower. The belfry, added in 1749 to accommodate the bells, is a noted landmark and symbol of the city, and the church bells were made popular in a 19th century song.

The church was built with two types of stone: red sandstone from the original Shandon Castle that stood nearby, and limestone from the ruins of the Franciscan Abbey on the North Mall.

Some sources draw a connection between the red and white materials and the red and white colours that represent Cork. The distinct colours are recorded in a rhyme collected by 19th century antiquary Thomas Crofton Croker, which he attributes to the 18th century Catholic priest and writer Father Arthur O’Leary:

Party-coloured, like the people,
Red and white stands Shandon Steeple

Saint Anne’s Church is noted for its eight bells, celebrated by Francis Mahony (Father Prout) in ‘The Bells of Shandon’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The church is noted for its eight bells, rung through an Ellacombe. The largest bell weighs a little over 1.5 tons and was originally cast by Abel Rudhall of Gloucester. The bells of St Anne’s were cast in 1750 by Abel Rudhall of Gloucester. They weigh a total of six tons and were first rang on 7 December 1752.

Some of the bells have been recast over the years but they still bear their original inscriptions. To reduce vibration, they were placed in a fixed position. They first rang on 7 December 1752, for the wedding of Henry Harding and Catherine Dornan.

The bells were cast by Abel Rudhall of Gloucester in 1750, and have been recast twice since in 1869 and 1908. They first rang out on the occasion of on 7 December 1752. They still bear their original inscriptions, including the following:

The original inscriptions are on each bell:

When us you ring we’ll sweetly sing
God preserve the Church and King
Health and prosperity to all our benefactors
Peace and good neighbourhood
Prosperity to the city and trade thereof
We were all cast at Gloucester in England by Abel Rudhall 1750
Since generosity has opened our mouths our tongues shall sing aloud its praise
I to the Church the living call and to the grave do summon all

The clock is known to people in Cork as ‘The Four-Faced Liar’ because the time seldom seems to correspond on each face. This was the first four-faced clock until Big Ben was built in London.

There are four clock faces, one on each side, each 14 ft in diameter. The clocks were erected by Cork Corporation in 1847 and were supplied by James Mangan, who had a clock shop on Saint Patrick's Street until the 1980s. One clock face is inscribed ‘Passenger measure your time, for time is the measure of being.’

The clock continues to be maintained by Cork City Council. It was stopped for maintenance in 2013, was repaired and restarted on 2 September 2014.

On top of the pepper pot, the weather vane is in the shape of a salmon. Some say it represents fishing of the River Lee, but the fish is an early Christian symbol. This gold-plated salmon weathervane, 11 ft 3 in long, was regilded in 2004. It is known to local people as the ‘goldie fish.’

Saint Anne’s Church became a full parish in 1772, and its first rector was the Revd Arthur Hyde, great-great-grandfather of Dr Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland.

Inside the church, the Baptismal font, dated 1629, has survived from Saint Mary’s Church, destroyed in the siege of Cork in 1690. The inscription reads, ‘Walter Elinton and William Ring made this pant at their charges.’ The word pant is an Anglo-Saxon word for font. The pewter bowl in the font is dated 1773.

A second survivor from the earlier church is the Piercy Memorial on the wall of the vestry. This once marked the burial place of George Piercy, who died in 1635.

Saint Anne’s also has a Victorian timber barrel vaulted ceiling and an early 18th century barley twist Communion rail. The memorials on the wall include one commemorating the Revd George Benson, a curate in the parish who died in 1832 during an outbreak of cholera, and one to the Downes family, recording the deaths of five sons in New York, London, the South Seas, Bombay and the Cape of Good Hope.

The 1914-1918 War memorial was designed by Caulfield Orpen in Dublin. The stained-glass windows include Hubert McGoldrick’s oval Saint Luke’s window.

Saint Anne’s Church was renovated in 2004.

The graves in the churchyard include Francis Mahony (Father Prout), author of ‘The Bells of Shandon.’ He was a grandson of Timothy Mahony, founder of Blarney Woollen Mills. Francis Mahony was ordained a priest in 1832, became chaplain in the North Infirmary, now the Maldron Hotel, and devoted himself to working with people during the outbreak of cholera.

He eventually left the priesthood to concentrate on writing. His pen-name Father Prout comes from the name of a learned but eccentric priest from Watergrasshill.

The graveyard to the right at the bottom of ‘Bob and Joan’s Walk’ is now called Dr Mary Hearn Park. Dr Hearn was the wife of the Revd Robert T Hearn, Rector of Saint Anne’s (1905-1939), and was known for her generosity to the poor.

Saint Anne’s Church seen behind the Firkin Crane Theatre in a plaza beside the Butter Museum Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

‘The Bells of Shandon’ by Francis Sylvester Mahony ‘Father Prout’ (1804-1866)

With deep affection and recollection
I oft times think of those Shandon bells
Whose sound so wild would In days of childhood
Fling round my cradle their magic spells,

On this I ponder, where’er I wander,
And thus grow fonder sweet Cork of thee
While thy bells of Shandon sound far more grand on
The pleasant waters of the river Lee.

I’ve heard bells chiming, full many a chime in,
Tolling sublime in cathedral shrine.
While at a glib rate brass tongues would vibrate.
But all their music spoke naught like thine.

For mem’ry dwelling on each proud swelling
Of thy belfry, knelling its bold notes free,
Made the bells of Shandon sound far more grand on
The pleasant waters of the river Lee.

I’ve heard bells tolling ‘Old Adrian’s Mole’ in,
Their thunders rolling from the Vatican,
With cymbals glorious, swinging uproarious,
In the gorgeous turrets of Notre Dame;

But thy sounds are sweeter than the dome of Peter
Flings o’er the Tiber, pealing solemnly –
Oh! the bells of Shandon sound far more grand on
The pleasant waters of the river Lee.

There’s a bell in Moscow, while on tower And kiosk O!
In Saint Sophia the Turkman gets,
And loud in air calls men to prayer,
From the tap’ring summit of tall minarets;

Such empty phantom I freely grant them,
But there’s an emblem more dear to me –
’Tis the bells of Shandon that sound so grand on
The pleasant waters of the river Lee.

The tower of Saint Anne’s Church seen from the west door of the Roman Catholic Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)