Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 5 February 2017

Christ the Saviour

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Perhaps it's just that time of year, here in the UK, where the winter grey and somber makes our days seem heavy. Spring is not yet come, nor are there many signs of its impending birth. It's a time of brooding and waiting, there is also a sense of anxious expectation in the air, when will the days get warmer, the light brighten and the banks of spring growth appear, will a deep frost or winter snow come again in February and March? On a wider scale uncertainties in the political arena give us a greater sense of uncertainty, what is going to happen, how will events in other countries and our own affect us and the world?

It's at times like this that we need to return to our roots as Gospel people. Isaiah is quite firm in his prophetic utterance when he says:

'Share your bread with the hungry,
shelter the oppressed and the homeless;
clothe the naked when you see them,
and do not turn your back on your own.'(Is 58.7)

Those words challenge all of us, but particularly our politicians and religious leaders, because they call us to act in God's way and justice. The problem is that in many parts of our world, this simply not done! The way we define Isaiah's call to look after 'your own' is key to this. For some today 'our own' is a narrow vision of a particular people, often linked into national groups, whose identity is rigidly defined.

But Jesus did not say that we simply love our neighbour next door or those who share our own culture, faith and vision, for him they are all human beings-his sisters and brothers, and the other voiceless little ones, another type of the least, the creatures we have care for, animal and other forms of life bound up in God's great creation.

Jesus likens us to seasoned salt adding a flavour of goodness to the life of our planet, also lights shining, guiding others on the way of loving kindness, a light that comforts all in darkness and leads to light of lights, the unseen God.

This is a big call today, a tough mission, one that doesn't get us celebrity status or riches, it means rooting out oppression, facing down lies, malicious speech and falsehoods, not for us any post-truth place!! It demands from us generosity of spirit:to 'bestow your bread on the hungryand satisfy the afflicted" (Is 58.10), to become a people of the light!

Orthodox Prayer for Love

Christ my God, set my heart on fire with love in You, that in its flame I may love You with all my heart, with all my mind, and with all my soul and with all my strength, and my neighbour as myself, so that by keeping Your commandments I may glorify You the Giver of every good and perfect gift. Amen.

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Catholic Chaplain for the Melkites in the UK. He is also an Ecumenical Canon of Christ Church Oxford