Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 3 April 2016

Fr Robin Gibbons

Second Sunday of Easter

Like you, I am one of those mentioned in the Gospel of John in the account of Thomas and the Risen Christ. On seeing Jesus, Thomas answered and said to him: "My Lord and my God!"Jesus said to him: "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

Time and time again I wrestle with this statement. I continually ask myself, have I too seen the Risen Lord? Do I believe in Him? Can I say with any certainty that my belief is based upon any real knowledge of Jesus in my life? The confidence of Jesus in us who come after the Disciples is amazing. He has no trouble in acknowledging that somehow those of us who do not have the privilege of witnessing to his immediate resurrection, will nevertheless find Him!

Let me share an insight that came to me this Easter.

As always, Lent became a real drag, all good intentions collapsed in a heap of demands and circumstances beyond my control, this season as always has its own dynamic, and in these messes I began, once again to recognise that Lent is not a peaceful time, but a real struggle with those desert temptations ,when anything can happen and often does!

Holy Week left me cold, I felt ill and exhausted, but as I crawled through the liturgy the rawness of my emotions and emptiness of faith opened something deep within! It is when we are low that the Lord often comes, not in great consolation or sweetness, but in a glimpse of where we are and how much we mean to Him.

For me it came in moments of loving kindness this year, such as the greeting of my great friend Christopher, who on Easter Sunday before Evensong in Christchurch Cathedral, saw me and came to me to greet me with a huge hug, a sign of peace, unasked for, but full of that encounter with Christ. That was a Thomas moment! He and I have shared many discussions about faith and vocation, about finding Christ, so at a moment when I felt empty, he helped me see the touch of Christ in life, in a good friendship where Christ is!

I am sure you will find many of these moments when the Risen Lord reaches into your own life. This was not the only experience that lifted me out of my dryness this Easter, I am grateful to other loving friends, and in them as in my own community of Melkites, I have glimpsed the Risen Lord smiling amongst us.

Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

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