Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: 31 July 2022

The Saviour 'Not Made by Hands' Painting - Russian icon 14th c.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The history of our civilisations on this Earth are littered with good and bad deeds and ideas alike. Alongside fantastic achievements comes the horror of mass murder in war, cruelty to others, destruction of environment and religion alas is part of this, high altruism is often mixed with base deeds. We need to realise that there is no fairy tale moment, no perfect place or epoch, each has its highs and lows, even the Incarnation and life of Christ was in the context of human mess. But, and here I do stick out my neck, the contemporary penchant in some of our western countries for seeking out culpable figures or movements in a totally negative manner needs constant monitoring, for as a people we never quite strike the right balance in redressing past wrongs.

Pope Francis on his penitential trip to Canada has been criticised continually by those who either feel he is selling out to something that is not doctrinally or ecclesially sound, those who feel he hasn't done enough or others like those who made much of the gift of a headdress which he wore, suggesting it was not earned and its real meaning had been obscured. But what to do? The Pope journeyed as a Pope has never done, to apologise in several important gestures, more than any other Pope has shown, the long view of history will show whether his was the right way to face the dreadful history of abuse and colonisation done under the auspices of religion, but I believe it had to be done, his is a gesture of putting the brakes on our tendency to never quite apologise fully, nor alas to forgive, that dreaful grumbling characteristic which never quite finds that any amends matter. Yet our religious faith is based on a premise of merciful forgiveness and salvation from a Divine One who has looked with compassionate tears on our manifold and great wickedness, if that is the Christ's gift, why then do we Christians still find that so hard to accept, harder still to forgive?

Jesus says in the gospel this Sunday: "Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions."(Lk 12:15) I can't begin to unpick that properly because it is such a minefield of pointers to my own inadequacy or perhaps even yours! It is so true that one cannot take possessions with us into death (even if some ancient cultures did try!) but possessions as we know, might not simply be the material things about us. Paul give us another package of possessions to think about, emotions, moods, those inner feelings which indicate possessiveness of other things, people, base needs, desire for power, our selfishness and so forth, he slams home the point by shocking us into reality: "Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way. But now you must put them all away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths. Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices"(Col 3: 5,7-9)

Here it is, we stand judged not by the deeds of darkness but by how far we have fallen from our calling. Paul's words take us back to our vocation as a baptised and confirmed Christian in the Catholic Church but also as a prophet for the world, for what we are called to do as Christian-prophet is not to act in these possessive filled ways, but the follow the Beatitudes day by day. To become one of the 'poor in spirit' is to prise ourselves free from anything that claims us as a possession, if we are to have any possession isn't it surely Christ ? Paul tells us we have to put on Christ, 'put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all'. (Col 3: 10,11)

Perhaps we can do no better than keep this text as our saying for the week ahead, each time we are tempted to disparage another, every time we find ourselves demanding something of another, anytime we see or hear about the uncharitable behaviour `Christians do to each other', let us pray those words 'Christ is all and in all', then let us put into practise that true freedom from possession, those constraints of sin, and bless each other with mercy and love in the name of Christ who loves us.

Lectio Divina

Extract: Homily of Pope Francis at Vespers, 28th July in Quebec, Canada

….If we look to Christ, the Good Shepherd, before looking to ourselves, we will discover that we are ourselves "tended" with merciful love; we will feel the closeness of God. This is the source of the joy of ministry and above all the joy of faith. It is not about all the things that we can accomplish, but about knowing that God is ever close to us, that he loved us first, and that he accompanies us every day of our lives.

This, brothers and sisters, is our joy. Nor is it a cheap joy, like the one that the world sometimes proposes, dazzling us with fireworks. This joy is not about wealth, comfort and security. It does not even try to persuade us that life will always be good, without crosses and problems. Christian joy is about the experience of a peace that remains in our hearts, even when we are pelted by trials and afflictions, for then we know that we are not alone, but accompanied by a God who is not indifferent to our lot. When seas are rough: the storm is always on the surface but the depths remain calm and peaceful. That is also true of Christian joy: it is a free gift, the certainty of knowing that we are loved, sustained and embraced by Christ in every situation in life. Because he is the one who frees us from selfishness and sin, from the sadness of solitude, from inner emptiness and fear, and gives us a new look at life and history: "With Christ joy is constantly born anew" (Evangelii Gaudium, 1).

St Francis de Sales

"Our possessions are not ours- God has given them to us to cultivate, that we may make them fruitful and profitable in His Service, and so doing we shall please Him".

Armand de Veilleux OCSO

On Being a Prophet

"Prophecy is not primarily about foretelling the future. It is about telling what time it is, what it is time for, in the present. As Rabbi Abraham Heschel put it, the prophet's "essential task is to declare the word of God to the here and now." Jesus is the prophet par excellence, the one who announced that the time is now and what it is time for in the Reign of God. Prophecy requires three things: a clarity of vision and acuity of hearing that is a participation in God's view of history; the ability to effectively announce that vision both to the powers which oppose God's Reign and to the people who are oppressed by those powers; and the willingness to pay, even with one's life, for the ultimate triumph of God's covenantal order, the Reign of God".