Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 30 July 2023

The Pearl of Great Price

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

'Do you understand?' is a phrase I remember well from childhood, the question came in various voices, so to speak, a hard shaper-shaped sentence when I had managed to get caught doing something untoward and had been reprimanded. A softer toned enquiry when fun discoveries were shared with sensible elders used to dealing with hyper imaginative children, or the patient soothing tones of good teachers. The answer given was often, but not always, 'yes!' However, now many years later, if I had been one of the disciples in todays Gospel, I think I might not have answered as brightly as they did when Jesus asked: "Do you understand* all these things?" They answered, "Yes."(Mt 13:51). I like you am aware that perhaps I sometimes don't.

The reason I make this comment is that even now I am not sure I fully understand the parables. Don't get me wrong, the main sense of the story is not too difficult to understand, but where I find the problem is my ability to relate it to life, because things are rarely ever that simple. Jesus of course is aware of the many layers, the nuances and the open-endedness of his preaching, aware too that people like you and me will come along to puzzle over the meaning. That is why he never totally defines things, instead he gives us symbols and images to unravel by thought and prayer. Those of you whom love reading and reflecting on the Scriptures, who are open to the gift of 'lectio divina', will understand that we can return again and again to a phrase or a parable to find we have an entirely different encounter with it, but isn't that as it should be, isn't this what Jesus means in his response to the disciples eager 'yes' : 'And he replied, "Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old."'(Mt 13:52)

Maybe that is the challenge of our present time, to dig deep into the treasures of the Kingdom of heaven, especially in our Scriptures and Liturgy so that not only each one of us, but those we care and work with, may find new discoveries about Jesus and his message of salvation. We pray so often in the Church that the Holy Spirit may renew the face of the earth, but then we sit back and wait! Paul teaches us that we are Christ in our world when he states unequivocally: "Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it". (I Cor 12:27) Here is something we half comprehend but need to relearn, for as Teresa of Avila puts it in her prayer, 'Christ has no body but yours!' It is sometimes difficult to take that on board, yet we must for in this present world those of us who follow the Master and walk with Him discover that we are his living tap of 'Charity and Love, we can either flow with plenty or not, but we cannot be excused from the great command to love God, and our neighbour as ourselves.

So perhaps this week give yourself some slack, hear the parables of Matthew's account as though it is directly referring to your treasure, for the great treasure contained in the field or the pearl of great price is what we really are. There is a twist though, pearls and great treasures are usually worth more if they have a unique flaw, so Jesus last image of a net with fish, is one we must also hold on to, I don't think we are the catch of fish for one moment, but I do think we are the net that harvests, and if in your life bad things have happened or you have done bad things, or met bad people, remind yourself that this net is Christs, it stands for you-as-part-of-his-body, for as we so share in Him, so he shares in us. In Christ the bad things we have done will be forgiven us if we keep on returning to him with contrite and humble hearts, and let our imperfections become the forgiven grit that transforms into a pearl of great price, the bad people we leave to the mercy of he Most High, for ours is not to judge.

May our hope and prayer be as Thomas More wrote to his daughter Margaret: 'I pray you be, you and my other friends, of good cheer whatsoever fall of me, and take no thought for me but pray for me as I do and shall do for you and all them.

Your tender loving father, Thomas More, Knight'. (letter written June 3, 1535 in the Tower of London)

Lectio

From Unitatis Redintegratio

November 21, 1964

Vatican II Decree on Ecumenism

Chapter II

…12. Before the whole world let all Christians confess their faith in the triune God, one and three in the incarnate Son of God, our Redeemer and Lord. United in their efforts, and with mutual respect, let them bear witness to our common hope which does not play us false. In these days when cooperation in social matters is so widespread, all men without exception are called to work together, with much greater reason all those who believe in God, but most of all, all Christians in that they bear the name of Christ. Cooperation among Christians vividly expresses the relationship which in fact already unites them, and it sets in clearer relief the features of Christ the Servant. This cooperation, which has already begun in many countries, should be developed more and more, particularly in regions where a social and technical evolution is taking place be it in a just evaluation of the dignity of the human person, the establishment of the blessings of peace, the application of Gospel principles to social life, the advancement of the arts and sciences in a truly Christian spirit, or also in the use of various remedies to relieve the afflictions of our times such as famine and natural disasters, illiteracy and poverty, housing shortage and the unequal distribution of wealth. All believers in Christ can, through this cooperation, be led to acquire a better knowledge and appreciation of one another, and so pave the way to Christian unity.

Prayer of St Teresa of Avila

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.