Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 20 October 2018

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29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

"Because of his anguish he shall see the light;
because of his knowledge he shall be content;
My servant, the just one, shall justify the many,
their iniquity he shall bear". (Is 53:11)

Those words from the Prophet Isaiah are really heart breaking, for there are very few of us who can have injustice visited on us in the way this character is described and be content! Part of me immediately linked these words to a number of political and religious activities taking place in our world right now, which smack of injustice and oppression, mendacity and deceit! Even as I write this we know there are many innocent people, hidden from us suffering dreadful hardships, many incarcerated unjustly, whose lives have been destroyed by the wicked actions of others, and who seem to have no recourse to justice of any kind because nobody seems able to help! Our prayers and thoughts must always go out to them, but at the same time, if we are able, we should draw attention to their plight and actively work to stop oppression.

Yet as Christians we must not descend into fatalism, despair or total depression, bad as things might be, that light, the Morning Star which never sets, Christ our true God, has defeated darkness, death and evil. The cosmic reverberation of his gift, his forgiveness, his eternal life is truly present in our lives! We need to touch base with that hope and proclaim our living faith in the resurrection!

This passage from Isaiah, just after the one quoted, places the 'just victim' in another dimension of life, God's, not ours:

'Therefore I will give him his portion among the many,
and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty,
Because he surrendered himself to death,
was counted among the transgressors,
Bore the sins of many,
and interceded for the transgressors'. (Is 53:12)

In terms of dealing with injustice and evil,it may not be the answer we want, but it does stress the value of 'Hope', one of the three great gifts that last, a valuable reminder that we cannot see or understand everything in life but have to trust in the Living God!

I find in these words an odd comfort, at a time when yet again global affairs reveal the venality of politics. One example is the dreadful murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi now played out amongst the geo-politics of arms dealing and oil contracts in a cloak and dagger world where all seems to be smoke and mirrors. I hope that voices of truth emerge from the murk around his ghastly death, despite those who would wish to move on, we have to remember as Catholics and as Christians these words, of St Paul, 'The life and death of each of us has its influence on others" (Rm 14:7) Those in power should bear the burden of the truth about things, that is their role and we should hold them to it.

In our Catholic world despite all the great and good things going on, and the interest in the Synod on Youth, again we find Archbishop Vigano has come out from the dark to claim specious media attention and snipe (not my word) at the Pope and others. I'm tired of this stuff, now the words he uses seem hollow, bitter, bereft of power, because they do not resonate with Christ's mercy and light. Any language full of fear and scapegoating often reveals a lot about the insecurities of the writer and what we can call 'hang-ups'.

With so many other things claiming our attention, poverty, yes healing and cleaning up of abuse in the Church and world, but also there is climate change, migration problems, the gross inequality between rich and poor to name but a few! We have to ask ourselves, are any of us standing up to uphold the words of Isaiah about injustice, or the Gospel of Jesus in Mark which states about our task in life: "But it shall not be so among you.Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be servedbut to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many"? (Mk 10:43-45). I hope there are people who will do so, challenge these negative things for the truth cannot be hidden for ever, the dawn rises from the a dark, the light grows brilliant in its splendour and in Christ all will be revealed! But it also depends on us too!

Lectio Divina

St John Fisher

"A good person is not a perfect person; a good person is an honest person, faithful and unhesitatingly responsive to the voice of God in their life."

From Dietrich Bonheoffer, Ethics

"Christ did not, like an ethicist, love a theory about the good; he loved real people. Christ was not interested, like a philosopher, in what is "generally valid," but in that which serves real concrete human beings. Christ was not concerned about whether "the maxim of an action" could become "a principle of universal law,"[101.] but whether my action now helps my neighbour to be a human being before God. God did not become an idea, a principle, a program, a universally valid belief, or a law; [102.] God became human."

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Catholic Chaplain for Melkites in the UK. He is also an Ecumenical Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. See: www.indcatholicnews.com/news/35821