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Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 31st January 2016


4TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Far from winning universal approval for what he did and taught, the ministry of Jesus is peppered with difficult situations and outright hostility at times. In Luke 4 we find him about to be thrown off the edge of a cliff by an angry crowd, and all because he spoke and lived the truth! What they heard him say they did not like!

This something we all deal with in the course of our lives, at times truthful people are not the most popular friends to have, especially with those of us who want things covered up or would prefer an easy passage through life. But we are not called to be children of the lie but people of the light and the way of Christ is that of truth, which hard though it might be, in the end does set us free from the bondage of sin.

Paul's great hymn to love in 1 Corinthians 13 builds on the Christian vocation to live and speak the truth in love. So eager is he to have us root ourselves in the love of God that he shares a vision of the pilgrim route we need to take; 'I shall show you a still more excellent way' and what a concise and clear path this is.

It is easy to focus in on the attributes of love in this divine hymn, but if you look at the way Paul sees love acting and also what it does not do, suddenly you might find a real piece of your personal jigsaw fitting into place. What do I mean?

Take our own lives, the highs and lows, difficulties and delights and ask yourself the question, do I learn from my mistakes, my experiences, and other people's examples? After all the fulfilment of the Law is not only active love of God and neighbour but also true self love, self understanding and that is something we are not always very good at doing, but its here before us.

This great passage of love is a blueprint for our own spiritual journey; it shows us distinct images in the mirror of our life, points to the constructive path of God's love working in and with us. There is something here for every personality and temperament if we truly want to learn!

'Love is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.'


Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Britain. He is also an Honorary Canon of Christchurch Cathedral Oxford.

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