07/09/2026
Today is the 109th Birthday of Leonard Cheshire. For the next 12 months, as we make our way to his 110th Birthday, we will be concentrating our efforts on promoting his cause for beatification. Fr John marked the beginning of this 12 month project at the 10am Mass this morning. Here is the homily he preached:
Gospel Luke 6:6-11
On a Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Come and stand here.’ And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?’ And after looking around at them all he said to him, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he did so, and he was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
HOMILY.
‘Stretch out your hand’ Jesus said.
A hand the man probably spent years hiding. A part of him that brought him shame and embarrassment, causing him to avoid people and tasks he knew he couldn’t fulfil.
A part of himself that meant he couldn’t work or fulfil a trade. He was excluded from society on many levels – ignored by the majority.
And here is Jesus in a synagogue full of people and he tells the man to come out into the middle of the crowd, knowing that the scribes and Pharisees are watching closely and he tells the man to show what he had been hiding.
‘And as he did so, he was restored’ we were told. The hand was restored, yes, but also his dignity, his self-worth, his shame and embarrassment gone. Much more than the hand – the whole person was restored.
And this is something Leonard Cheshire saw. Leonard looked beyond the disability, and he wanted to honour the human dignity of each person in his care.
More than just the physical healing, Leonard heard the call of the Lord to help the spirit, the soul to heal too, just like than man with the withered hand.
In one interview Leonard says: “we are not supposed to simply make some someone comfortable, or simply to ease their pain. Their identity is much more than their illness or the disability. We must recognise the dignity of the person” which is what happened in the Gospel.
The greatest illness and disability in the Gospel we’ve just listened to actually is the pride and the arrogance of the Scribes and the Pharisees. More than a hand, it is their hearts that are withered, but because the withered heart cannot be seen they can carry on hiding it.
Looking to the restoration of the whole person is what our Gospel reminds us of today and it is precisely this that Leonard Cheshire devoted himself to.
So we celebrate 109 years of Leonard today and with that we begin our task to make him and his life better known, that following his example we too may seek to protect the dignity of the human person from conception to natural death.
