Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 3 May 2015

Fr Robin Gibbons

5th Sunday of Easter

I can't quite remember where I got this phrase but it certainly works for me, "Christianity is not a private matter but a personal one", meaning of course that we are not individual Christians, but belong to a community, what we familiarly call God's family. This is important because we need to keep in the forefront of our faith the images Jesus gives us, such as the vine in John's Gospel today which is all about connectivity, whatever we do, whoever we are we belong together, ultimately grounded and rooted by the Spirit in Christ!

Paul has images like this in his writings, from him we get a real development of the 'living body with Christ as our head. It's a wonderful metaphor for who we are. I think he discovered this not only by thoughtful reflection on his new faith but also by what the letter of John calls the deeds and truth found in others' actions. WE need to remember that Saul was a real problem for the early community, his Damascus conversion was not accepted easily, after all nobody knew if it was real or not, but things changed for Paul when Barnabas acted as a sponsor (perhaps as a Godparent?) and testified on his behalf to the community how he had seen a vision of the Lord and spoken to him, but more than that had testified boldly in the name of Jesus.

Barnabas' discernment allowed the community to see the Spirit at work in Paul, he who had been their enemy was now to become one of their greatest missionaries. It was a leap of faith and trust, examining not Paul's words and speeches, but the deeds and truth of his conversion!

What about us? We too are called to bring people to God by our lives, and we are also asked to discern what the Spirit is calling us, and others, to do now, today in our world! . In this sense we need to take on a bit of Barnabas' characteristics, his charism of discernment and be 'soul friends' to those seeking Christ. If we turn the words of Jesus around so that; 'without me you can do nothing' becomes; 'with me you can do everything' we remember with great joy that we are never alone, Christ is in our midst, always! Let us believe and love Him!

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