Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 11 December 2022

Hieronymus Bosch - St John the Baptist in the Desert. 1489 Wiki Image

Third Sunday of Advent

As so often happens, a chance remark yesterday started a long train of thought and necessary reflection on the place and state of the Church in the life of this country and Europe. I was at the annual Advent Mass and dinner for the Charity, Fellowship and Aid to the Christians of the East (FACE). I do resource work with them and act as unofficial chaplain.

Bishop Kenneth of the Ukrainian Eparchy in the UK gave a very moving talk about the situation in Ukraine but also reminded us all of the sheer volume of help and good will this country has shown to them. He reminded us that the Ukrainians want their country back, want really to go home, but above all want to know others remember and care for them. When he told us that over 3,000 attend the Sunday Liturgy in London, I reminded myself that recent talks about decline in Christianity are premature; the majority of these congregants are under 38! But it was in this context that somebody said to me, that the problem with us Catholics in the UK is that we cannot now be complacent or secure in our position and identity, we are now called to be an evangelising Church-we are in an age of witness and mission.

This message from Isaiah in Sunday's first reading acted as a switch on light to my own conscience:

'Strengthen hands that are feeble,

make firm knees that are weak,

Say to the fearful of heart:

Be strong, do not fear!

Here is your God,

he comes with vindication;

With divine recompense

he comes to save you'.

(Is 36:3,4)

Here in front of us is a real call to recommitment. We often get things wrong (and heaven knows our media does not help) especially when we put our human needs at the centre of news or concern. The Scriptures and the teaching of Jesus do not tell us to neglect ourselves, but to create a balancing act of love; remembering others, our living God, those who come into our life in the immediate sense or from further afield, our neighbour (which do not forget includes other living creatures as well) and always encourage each other to be strong.

The second reading from the letter of James urges us to be positive in our attitude, I think he gives us an antidote to the narrowness we all can have when single issues become the dominant force on our horizon:

' You too must be patient. Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not complain, brothers and sisters, about one another, that you may not be judged. Behold, the Judge is standing before the gates.

Take as an example of hardship and patience, brothers and sisters, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. (Jas 5: 8-10).

As Church we are also a very international family, at the heart of our mission is an understanding that we are one in Christ, we are not called to be a fortress or a ship of saved souls, but to be preachers and doers of the WORD, out there in the desert of life. James knows well that grumbling and murmuring begin a war of attrition on that gift of Charity. This is something serious, which I certainly need to check, we can easily fall into negativity, then we become detrimental to our own spiritual life, and lose that clarity of vision we seek to find.

St Benedict saw murmuring, grumbling as a serious fault in the spiritual life and mentions it constantly in his Rule, 'do not a grumbler nor a detractor be', for it is the black hole into which all good love and our sense of Gods presence can be sucked. It leads inexorably to darker patterns of destructive behaviour. It blocks out the real obedience of mutual respect and mutual listening we must have with the Most High. The real meaning of obedience is to listen and discern one with another- not blind commands enacted without thought. In Chapter 5 of his Rule Benedict tells us : 'If a disciple obeys grudgingly and grumbles, not only aloud but also in his heart, then, even though he carries out the order, his action will not be accepted with favour by God, who sees that he is grumbling in his heart. (RSB 5:17,18)

Where does all this lead us? Isn't it all part of our backpack, our map or however we wish to describe the spiritual faith necessities essential for our journey? As my colleague remarked, what we are about today is a journey into the unknown, but always a journey of faith with Christ. We are missionaries as well as contemplatives wherever we are, whatever we are doing. Jesus places this burden on us. Unlike John, we do not prepare a way for the Lord, we now walk on the Lord's Highway with Him, but we need people to recognise that he is there and his way is sweet.

Let the words of Jesus be our challenge today, instead of John we must put that word 'others': 'Go and tell John what you hear and see:

the blind regain their sight,
the lame walk,
lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear,
the dead are raised,
and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.
And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.' ( Mt 11:4-6)

Amen.

Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus Come!

Lectio

Pope Francis

APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION EVANGELII GAUDIUM (1)

'I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since "no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord". The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. Now is the time to say to Jesus: "Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace". How good it feels to come back to him whenever we are lost! Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. Christ, who told us to forgive one another "seventy times seven" (Mt 18:22) has given us his example: he has forgiven us seventy times seven. Time and time again he bears us on his shoulders. No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew. Let us not flee from the resurrection of Jesus, let us never give up, come what will. May nothing inspire more than his life, which impels us onwards!'

Rule of Saint Benedict

The 12 Steps of Humility

Chapter 7. The first step and the final comment.

5. Therefore, brothers, if we want to touch the highest summit of humility, if we desire to attain speedily that exaltation in heaven to which we climb by the humility of this present life,
6. We must then by our ascending actions set up that ladder on which Jacob, in a dream , saw angels descend and ascend.
7. This descent and ascent, can signify only that we descend by exaltation, and ascend by humility.
8. The ladder erected is our life on earth, and if we have humility in our hearts the Lord will direct it upwards to heaven.
9. We in fact say that our body and soul are the sides of this ladder, into which our divine vocation has fitted the various steps of humility and discipline as we ascend.
10. The first step of humility, then, is that a man keeps God always before his eyes, inspired by His fear, he escapes forgetfulness,
11. And he must always remember everything God has commanded, keeping in mind that all who despise God will burn in hell for their sins, and all who fear God have everlasting life awaiting them;
12. While he guards himself always from sins and vices, of thought or tongue, of hand or foot, of self-will or bodily desire,
13. He recalls that he is always seen by God in heaven,that his actions everywhere are in God's sight and are reported by angels at every hour.
67. Now, therefore, after ascending all these steps of humility, the monk will quickly reach that perfect love of God which casts out fear:
68. And all that he once performed with dread, he will now begin to observe without effort, as though naturally, from habit,
69. Not anymore for fear of hell, but out of love for Christ, good habit and the taste of virtue.
70. These are the fruits that the Lord will, by the Holy Spirit, graciously manifest in his worker now cleansed of his vices and sins.