Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 17 November 2013

Salisbury Cathedral

33rd Sunday of the Year C

Several years ago I had gone to visit my friend, the then Bishop of Salisbury, Dr David Stancliffe. We were meeting to discuss liturgical art, one of my specialties and wandering round that magnificent Early English Cathedral we came to the crossing and looked up at the arcading and the piers which bulge slightly. Bishop David then spoke words which have always haunted me whenever I enter a great building. "How long", he said, "do you think this Cathedral will last, because it will definitely collapse one day?". Given that our historical landscape is littered, as Shakespeare wrote, with examples of ‘bare ruined choirs’ those remains of the great abbeys pulled down at the dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century, I ought not to have been so shocked.

But there it is, human beings are always very passionate about places and buildings they love, in particular those associated with the sacred and it seems almost inconceivable that something still in use, still drawing people to itself will one day just not be there! And yet, it happens. Luke places Jesus in such a scenario, there he is discussing the beauty of the Temple with people who cannot fully conceive that it will be utterly destroyed . Instead of making that dialogue a question of architectural or artistic lament, Jesus hands over a much bigger image, that of a cataclysmic event which will end all things. The Prophet Malachi calls this ‘the day that is coming’.

This future happening is the time when those who follow the Lord will be called to bear witness to him. Jesus tells us it will be preceded by times of confusion and distress with all kinds of charlatans claiming knowledge of truth and people following them. Whatever happens we are told not to worry. The end of all time is when the Lord will come to be with us. To prepare for that and also to live out our lives in hostile and difficult situations , even persecution by those closest to us, Jesus calls us to fortitude.’ Hang on in there’, he says,’ be my witnesses, persistent endurance for the Gospel’s sake, will win you life’. That might not seem very consoling, but he does promise us this: ‘not a hair of your head will be lost. Your endurance will win you your lives’. That’s Hope!

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