Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 2nd August 2015

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

One of the great hallmarks of early Christianity, was the way people lived their faith, it certainly made them distinctive. If you read the list of things an early writer, Hippolytus of Rome, tells us the Catechumens must give up before baptism its easy to see that great sacrifices were made and a radical change to their patterns of life took place. Paul reminds the Ephesians that they must not live like the pagans but 'put on the new self', who has been reborn in Christ through the sacraments of Initiation.

It wasn't all about giving up, they also discovered new ways of doing things as a community; sharing goods with the needy, being present at the hours of daily prayer when they could, coming together to celebrate the Eucharist, organizing their community structures, looking after others, teaching, witnessing, embracing life with the abiding presence of Risen Christ in the Word proclaimed and preached and in the emerging sacramental life of the community, but above all being open to the Holy Spirit.

These ancestors in faith, still present to us in the great cloud of witnesses, help us to see that what is happening to religious faith in our society is not destruction but a challenge to rethink and renew our lives, stripping away what no longer is necessary. There never was just ONE way of being Christian, Paul doesn't tell those he wrote to that they must all do exactly the same, he is big on variety whilst reminding us about the unity of faith in Jesus Christ.

That's what I get from John's Gospel (Jn 6: 24-35) when the people ask Jesus about doing the 'works of God'. Working with God starts by belief in Christ and acceptance of his gift to us, received at baptism. He is the true bread of life and feeds our deep hunger for meaning, truth, justice, love and something that lasts forever.

Christianity has that wonderful tradition of symbols and signs which reveal the presence of God in our material, living world, from the voice of the living Word of God that cuts finer than a two edged sword, the oil of anointing and the laying of a hand which reveals the Spirit or the simplicity of bread and wine which become Christ our God, the heavenly food and drink eaten and drunk by us so that we may remain always part of his very self!

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