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Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 23 September 2018


25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - September 23rd 2018

Slam, whack, bang! Those three words are what came immediately to my mind when looking over the three readings for this Sunday. In fact, I have to be honest; I just did not want to write a reflection on them as they made me realize just how far off the mark I am. Each reading in its own way is a real challenge from the Spirit; I can identify myself easily with the wicked in the book of Wisdom. I can hear myself muttering against those I find disagree with me and I with them, and worse in a Church in turmoil, I rage at the differing voices- here I pause, particularly at those with fixed mindsets. I may not understand just how to be a good servant, but I cannot let myself be someone who wants my own vindication instead of justice for us all! As the words of James put it so succinctly:

"Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
there is disorder and every foul practice…Where do the wars
and where do the conflicts among you come from? ". (Jas 3:16,4:1)

I know because I have only to look in my heart!

So I hang my head in contriteness as I hear these words which tell me I have a long way to go: "the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity". (Jas 3:17) Now don't get me wrong, I am not weighed down too much because I know I have to get on with the things of God and life! It's just that I am more aware at the moment, perhaps like you, of the clay feet that those of us who minster in the Church of Christ seem to present to the world. But 'be of good cheer' as Thomas More might say; there is always light in the darkness!

I half knew, but hadn't fully grasped, a real ideal of service that this Sundays Gospel reveals. Jesus is unequivocal in stating so simply:

"If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all." (Mark 9:35)

I'm tired with the overplay by religious leaders on servant models of ministry, we need waking up to the fact that we can never be servants of all until we really accept, embrace and show respect for those who are our servants! This is the shocking disclosure of Jesus with the little child.

Who are the servants in my life? Look around you; who cleans your streets?Who toils night and day to keep our cities, towns, and villages going? The cleaners in our homes and offices, the service industry people on very low pay, the nurses aching to get home yet needing to stay with a sick patient. Yes ! And those people we rant and complain at without thinking of how they might feel, the secretaries in the office, the police on duty, traffic wardens, railway clerks, postmen and women, for me in the University, porters, waiters in the dining room, receptionists. The list goes on and on! All these are our servants and we are privileged by their attention to our needs!

Yet, do I, do those in the Church in particular, recognise our neighbour's worth, their real importance? Jesus picked up a child to show the apostles that it isn't our position, or intelligence or talent that matters, it is who each one of us really is: 'Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them, "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me."(Mk 9:36,37)

It is basically love, the incomparable, forgiving, utterly unconditional love of God, that is the real model of service Christ gives us; all else is built on that. Throw away the pomp, trappings and titles, all that we really have is love:"Every being cries out in silence to be read differently. Do not be indifferent to these cries". (Simone Weil) How do we do this? The ministry of love is to read each other with care, as Bonhoeffer wrote: "Live together in the forgiveness of your sins. Forgive each other every day from the bottom of your hearts".

Lectio Divina

"Let this be the aim of meditation: to turn one's innermost being into a vast empty plain, with none of the treacherous undergrowth to impede the view. So that something of 'God' can enter you, and something of 'Love' too. Not the kind of love-de-luxe that you revel in deliciously for half an hour, taking pride in how sublime you fell, but the love you can apply to small, everyday things."

- Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life

"The Church is the Church only when it exists for others...not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men (and women) of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison




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