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First Sunday in Advent Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - November 29th 2015


Fr Robin Gibbons

Fr Robin Gibbons

Fear and anxiety are two of the most crippling emotions we can have. If we let them take hold of our lives things can become quite unbearable. In themselves they are not bad, a little bit of honest fear and a certain amount of reasonable anxiety is necessary at times. Often that slight edge to our anticipation of future events gives us the push to 'go for it' as does a healthy fear of things that need to be treated with caution. But the heavy destructive force of dark anxiety and the presence of constant fear bring misery to many. Our world is full of it; particularly the negative emotions caused by others cruelty or negligence.

The friends of God, those who have a deep spiritual insight into the ways of the human heart, often wrote and taught about how people can learn to cope with these thoughts and feelings. They frequently point to the voice of Jesus saying, 'don't worry' or don't be afraid'. From their position of compassionate understanding these teachers tell us to put our trust in the Lord and learn to face what these problems are, for most often, sharing them with others helps us enormously.

The Gospel of Luke portrays a time of huge clamour, of bewilderment and confusion, where a sense of great menace comes upon the earth. This is of course the stuff of horror films and the graphic description of such fearful events is all too easy to conjure up, but if we simply concentrate on that we miss the essential point Luke is giving us. Firstly we are to try and live in a way that is somehow prepared for God's coming, living each day to the full, allowing God to enter into our lives. Then secondly we are to open our hearts to the teachings of Jesus who will show us the path of life and thirdly it is to be confident in the promise of God's everlasting faithfulness and love even in a darkened world of sin.

In the purple night sky of Advent, when in the Northern hemisphere, the bright coldness of the night also shows the wondrous constellations of the heavens, there is another light that already shines on us, the glory of the Son of Man. The Gospel is clear; we have nothing to fear but instead must be confident. As we begin Advent our song is simple, 'hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand'!

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

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