Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 6 July 2014

14th Sunday of the Year A

I’m not sure how your lives are organized? If they are remotely like mine it is a relentless ( though at times enjoyable and fun) round of different things. My work as priest, academic and teacher means people are always making inroads on my time and space. The summer, when people assume we are on holiday, is actually one of my busiest times with eight weeks of Oxford International Summer Schools!

There will be times during this period when I know I shall be utterly fed up and exhausted with demands made on personal space and time, that’s inevitable, but I am fortunate in that I can say ‘no’! This makes me think of others who aren’t able to say no, totally weighed down by their lot in life, where each day is a struggle.

You will find examples of these ‘little ones’ in the media each day, and they are not only in the war ravaged, poverty stuck areas of the world. For around us, indeed known to us, are people whose burden is heavy and whose yoke is hardships such as violent relationships, domestic and other abuse, systemic poverty, disease and a depressing world of injustice! It is to those little ones in particular that Jesus speaks through Matthew’s words today!

How? Lets first of all tie it up with Paul’s understanding of a whole person as body and spirit, connected through the gift of the living Spirit in our baptism, when our new life in Christ began. For Paul the body isn’t evil or bad, but neutral, it is what we do with it that determines things, so for him the word ‘flesh’ refers to the misuse of the body. As Christians we are called to respect the body, honour each other as living temples of the Spirit, and so we are called to share one another's burdens!

Jesus talks about his burden being easy and his yoke light, he reminds us that insight into God’s work with us comes from a relationship with Him, not through being clever. He calls us to cast our burdens on him, not to give us, to find him. And then? Well, in the old farming image, two oxen share the yoke, to spread the load and make the burden bearable, one of those Oxen is you, the other is Christ! Rest in Him!

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

To sign Fr Robin's petition to Prime Minister David Cameron calling for the creation of a Stephen Sutton award: see: www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/prime-minister-create-a-stephen-sutton-award-and-start-changing-the-honours-system?utm_campaign=new_signature&utm_medium=email&utm_source=signature_receipt#