Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 26 September 2021

The Loving Madonna, Collegiale St Hippolyte Poligny, Jura, France

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

There is a wonderful inversion of our own tendency to deal with people who we assume are against us, or in the case of religious faith, differ somewhat from our own expectations. Naturally we like those we get on with, and we are quite good at accepting differences in character and lifestyle, some rather more so than others, but when it comes to religious belief, things can get rather thorny, problematic even. I don't need to spell this out, we have only to look, read, and listen to religiously inclined persons discussing faith matters. The saddest thing seems to be how some of us are quite convinced that we have Christ's interest at heart, we are right others are wrong. The exigencies of this present age make this interest in the teachings of `Jesus more sharply focussed, we are constantly having to make informed decisions about all kinds of moral issues, or to be faced with difficulties in sorting a way out of legislation that seems at first glance to be at variance with faith belief.

Yet today Jesus pulls us all up short, he turns things on its head and makes us reflect on things from another angle; here is what I think is a profoundly thought provoking comment:

'There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.

For whoever is not against us is for us.'(Mk 9:39,40)

Now mighty deeds are one thing, but to make a greater point Jesus adds in the following verse an illustration of one of the simplest acts we can do, that of being kind to another, in this case anticipating a need, but he attaches to it the promise of a reward from him in the Kingdom:

'Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ,
amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward'. (Mk 9:41)

How does this speak to you? What does it say? For me as I have hinted, it is a call to stop any judgemental attitude especially to those different to me, but also not to presume that I know what is right. There are of course times when the issues before us have a certain clarity, we know certain actions are harmful, certain ways of behaving wrong in that they harm others. Most of us can tell a 'bad apple' when they meet one, and to be astute is important in life. This is why the following section of this Gospel has Jesus going hard on those who claim a moral or religious superiority, who try to damage or denigrate the faith of one of the little ones.

Sin is still around, we are all quite capable of sin and excusing ourselves, but Jesus wants us to look at the cause of our sin, and the place it festers and grows in our minds and heart. The harshness of his language is meant to bring us up short, to pause and reflect: 'am I one of those who cause the little ones to sin, shake their faith?' I cannot answer that for you, sometimes we can be very blind in our zeal for God, but it does us good to push the pause button in our life and take time out to reflect. Can I aspire to the generosity of `Jesus who sees beyond the immediate to the heart of things or the potential hidden in a person, who fans into flame the love hidden in another, whose mercy is boundless? We can but try!

Reflections

Saint Francis de Sales - Introduction to a Devout Life

"We must not be disturbed at our imperfections since for us perfection consists in fighting against them. How can we fight against them unless we see them, or overcome them unless we face them."

Quotes from Br Roger of Taizé

"A simple prayer, is like a soft sighing, like a child's prayer, keeps us alert. Has not God revealed to those who are little, to Christ's poor, what the powerful of this world have so much trouble understanding?"

"When tirelessly the Church listens, heals and reconciles, it becomes what it is at its most luminous-a communion of love, of compassion, of consolation, a clear reflection of the Risen Christ." "Never distant, never on the defensive, freed of all harshness, the Church can radiate the humble trusting of faith into our human hearts."

St Isaac the Syrian

"If you cannot be merciful, at least speak as though you are a sinner. If you are not a peacemaker, at least do not be a troublemaker. If you cannot be assiduous, at least in your thought be like a sluggard. If you are not victorious, do not exalt yourself over the vanquished. If you cannot close the mouth of a one who disparages their companion, at least refrain from joining them in this.