Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 16 June 2013

Fr Robin Gibbons

Eleventh Sunday in ordinary Time, year C

The Gospel never makes for easy reading or listening and it can be downright uncomfortable at times. It challenges us at every level to start living out the truth of the Kingdom and to make our own the great commandment to love in all its aspects, especially the Beatitudes. That means that each one of us, if we decide to take that step of actively following Jesus, will meet in our lives the challenges that come from this radical discipleship where we will be at odds with much of prevailing culture, yes even culture that has been accepted in the Church.

As I meditated on the readings and also mused on the Apostle Barnabas, because my own parish of Melkite Greek Catholics worships in two Anglican churches named after him, and I am preaching for the Anglican Church of St Barnabas in Oxford at their patronal festival, the word ‘encouragement’ kept coming to me. That is after all what Barnabas means. Suddenly a theme emerged, the encouragement of the Gospel is to take on three main things all our lives.

Firstly as Paul writes in the letter to the Galatians to accept that Christ loves us and that our response to that love is a life of faith lived in and with Jesus.

Secondly, our faith is not about law and legalism rather a response to the dynamics of the Holy Spirit at work in the world and in people, making us uncomfortable with complacency, half heartedness and prejudice of any kind.

Thirdly as Disciples of Christ we must ‘encourage’ one another in a love that has deep roots in the mercy and forgiveness of God. That is what our first reading and Gospel throw at us in stark terms. God loves, God forgives, who are we not to do the same?

Faith and forgiveness are partners, they cannot be separated. But there is a lovely twist in the Gospel too, how can we carry on ignoring, when it is so plain to see , that woman were not excluded from following Jesus as Disciples? We do these women of the Gospels a huge injustice by not naming and honouring them for what they were, part of that first community of disciples integral to its mission, who provided for the twelve out of their own resources. It was to an unknown woman that Jesus said, ‘Your faith has saved you: go in peace. ’Kyrie Eleison!

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Britain.