Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 17 November 2019

'But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays'.

(Mal 3:20a)

There is a tendency amongst certain types of religious people to dabble in apocalyptic utterance and thought, not quite prophesying the end of things, but taking a perverse delight in the annunciation of a destruction of things they see as inimical to life and faith. It can be depressing, hearing how the Church has strayed and erred in word and deed, how the true faith can be found amongst this or that group, how clerical dress or liturgical niceties can somehow tip the balance for or against so called heresy to some odd kind of 'orthodoxy'. Even some Cardinals and Bishops (who should know better) seem to delight in telling the world and its wife, how the Lord is displeased, how Satan walks freely amongst us, an echo of that short passage from 1 Peter 5:8, 'Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour'.

What seems particularly galling for many pastoral Catholics is the way Pope Francis is used as a punch bag by people who would not have dared to speak so openly and in such a manner of previous Popes. Yet his reaction gives me hope, for like the Gospel today Pope Francis seems to shrug off the doomsayers. Whilst prophets of doom are commonplace, some people, like the Pope, ignore these evocations and prefer to give us another type of example, of blessing under pressure perhaps, or a different sense of insight based on joy and forgiveness.

Jesus well knew this type of religious person, it's nothing new, and we see in Luke, the proclamation of the imminent end of the age has itself become a false teaching. AS Jesus says elsewhere, we just do not know when the end times will be, and does it matter, each day we should be living to the full, each day we should be bringing joy, that real, solid, peace binging joy of the Good News. So ignore those grim reapers, pay attention to the Christ in your life, hear him say in your inner self these words, and do not be downcast, remember his promise:

'You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives' (Lk 21:18,19)

That's not negative; it's a surety in times of trial, for if you remember, the Lord knows all the hairs on our head and loves the faithful servant!