Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 10 May 2015

Fr Robin Gibbons

6th Sunday after Easter 2015

What a week we have had in the UK, the run up to election day on Thursday 7th may seemed endless and the electorate strangely quiescent in parts of England (not so in Scotland) but what a result, it looks as though politics over here is going to be a very different ball game from now on. However politics isn't everything and we know how such systems can corrupt people, being close to great power gives to people a heady mix of things and can blind them to the realities of daily life.

As if to keep us on track, whether we are in the UK or elsewhere, other events bring a sense of balance. VE day for instance, not now a jingoistic sense of triumph but a more mixed celebration of the cost and suffering of many who gave all they could, willingly or unwillingly for those of us secure and at peace in Europe now. We value and respect the sacrifice of others, but also acknowledge that no war is glorious, that alone belongs to those who gave their all so we might live as we do now!

Our scriptures this Sunday also hammer home an alternative message of a greater Kingdom with very different values than those created by human politics, yes even the United Kingdom. In this society, which has no boundaries and includes all people and living things - the ruler of all, our God, as the Book of Acts puts it so well, ' shows no partiality'. The laws of this Kingdom are totally different to our political systems, true power is here found in weakness, the law is based on love, everyone is welcome if they act uprightly and have respect for God and their neighbour. Where is this place you may ask?

It is here and now; Jesus tells us the Kingdom of God within us, about us, exists where we are and gather in His name. It is where the Holy Spirit, that living presence of the unseen God, falls on those, who listening to the Word of God accept Christ's call to be not only his disciples but also friends.

John's Gospel reminds me at least that one of the greatest images scripture gives us of the Most High is not servants or subjects but friends who are chosen and called to know God. The real political message of God is that we must love one another!

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