Sunday Reflections with Fr Robin Gibbons - 30 June 2013

Fr Robin Gibbons

13th Sunday in Ordinary time Year C

Shortly after I made my first vows as a Benedictine, I can remember one of the older monks quoting the phrase used by Jesus, ‘Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God’. He was referring to the journey of religious life and fidelity to that monastic life. As my own ecclesial journey has certainly been adventurous, ending up as a priest in one of the Eastern Catholic Churches, I don’t quite accept the inference that vocation or calling in the lord's field means that we can’t change our furrow, in fact as any farmer would tell you, one has to adapt the ploughing to meet the different conditions even in a single field!

In the first reading the whole business of ploughing is completely overturned and two of the poor oxen are cooked over the remains of the wooden plough itself! Of course there is more to the story than a simple event, at the heart of it is the call of Elisha by Elijah to change course and follow him in a new way, just as Jesus called his disciples away from their settled lives to go and spread the good news of the Kingdom of God. That is more my understanding of both the first and Gospel reading today.

Each one of us is called by Christ to follow him, to put our hand to the plough. Whilst some of us may be called to change often and move into a new fields ripe for ploughing and seeding, others may have a more settled manner of life. Whatever we do the key is not to look back, not to live in the past or become wistful about what might have been, we have to learn to ’let go and let God’ as people say . The Lord asks us to put our hands to the task of this day and its needs and journey towards the future in joyful hope.

Paul reminds us that we will never be alone. If we follow Christ we will be guided and led by the Spirit. We are called to serve others in works of love, but to go forward, never back. The field of life we plough may be sown with our love and goodness, but it is always done in service of others who will reap the harvest!

and

Feast of Saint Peter and Paul (29 June - but celebrated in some countries on Sunday 30 June) 

When I became part of the Greek-Catholic Melkite chaplaincy in the UK, I had to transfer from the ‘Latin-Roman’ Church to the Greek-Catholic Church, a process which involved quite a bit of change and permissions from at least two Congregations in Rome, a document signed by the then Pope, as well as acceptance by the Patriarch in Damascus. Reflecting on this shift I have often been asked what I now am. The answer is quite simple, I am a Catholic, I retain facilities to celebrate in the rite of my ordination, but juridically and ecclesially I am now part of one of the 22 Eastern Catholic Churches in communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.

Why am I sharing this with you? Because this feast of Peter and Paul teaches us that we are Catholics quite simply because we are in communion with Peter and his successors. These two apostles, so strong in character but with very evident human weaknesses, show us that God builds on nature, through the gift of the Holy Spirit in order that we too may witness to the love of Christ!

On this feast, the readings point to the growth of the early Church at a time long before the institutions of our Churches existed in definite forms, but that does not matter, Peter and Paul represent that living tradition, the faith handed on and nourished by the communities in communion with each other.

This feast is not simply a feast for the Roman Church, our Eastern Catholic Churches celebrate it as well, after all Paul was converted in Damascus, Peter presided over the Church in Antioch before he reached Rome, they are universal saints that draw together East and West.

At a time when our Catholic Churches in the Middle East suffer greatly for their witness to the faith, those of us in the West should make more time to understand and appreciate their gift of communion. Peter in the Gospel is told to feed Christ’s lambs and sheep out of love both for the Lord and of course his neighbour, that is the great law. That I think is what our present successor of Peter, Pope Francis, is trying to teach us to do, reach out beyond barriers and establish communion with each other in love. We hope that in God’s time it may be so!

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