Sunday reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: 10 September 2023

St Benedict and his Rule

Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

What a wonderful gift our second reading is for us all, especially if we are feeling tired, disillusioned, or simply grumpy, we can hold this phrase deep in our heart all week and never tire of it:

"Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. (Rm 13:8)

Further on we are reminded that love is the succinct summary of the Law of God, to love our neighbour as ourselves, the rule Christ lays out for us all if we are to follow him. Of course this does not leave out God at all because as St John writes God is Love, so in our faithful, gospel loving we are also in God. There is a fine simplicity of that polished sentence, it says what is means, it is what it says, do not owe anything, except for love.

In many ways this is a tremendous challenge to those of us caught in the consumer world, or the corporate greed of organisations amassing wealth, charging the earth so that we can live, those who are rich living off the poor, it is also a hint of that very useful aphorism of Shakespeare which comes in Hamlet Act 1: "Neither a borrower, nor a lender be. For loan oft loses both itself and friend. And borrower dulls the edge of husbandry'. Here that neat structure juxtaposes two essentials in Christian witness, that we do not push people into economic servitude by loans and by charging high prices of interest, nor do we give things in charity or kindness and then demand what we have be given back in another form. The Christian is not a lender of things, rather an open handed sharer, but equivalently, we are not to borrow, take other peoples things continually, we are to give them back not hold on to them. I know too many borrowers of moneys who have really no intention of handing any of it back, so ' no borrower be'! If you want an economic model for life, it should be a well worked out currency of love!

Which brings me to the exposition of this command to love given us by Jesus in our gospel, an explanation of what we might call, resolution of conflict, handling problems in a structured and loving manner that respects both sides of an argument or allows the guilty a degree of 'face'. There is something about the way this is put by Jesus that deserves very close attention, and I'm afraid I am very much in need of learning about it, for how we resolve conflicts is so important, but perhaps the greatest need we have in our age is the avoidance of rancour and belittling anybody. Jesus starts out with the context of the immediate, no gossip, no scandal, only the two protagonists, if that fails then a trusted and select group, again saving face, giving dignity to those involved and the emphasis here is not on my or your feeling but careful facts, not legalistically or forensically done, but the truthful facts. If this has no effect then more get involved. It's not a bad way of resolution, mediation and truthful speaking, but it requires a delicates many of us have not learnt. Time for us then to take a temperature check on our own attitudes and ways of behaving towards others. There is I believe just too much assertive aggression in Church thee days.

But above all and here I round our thoughts off by returning to a basic issue, love of neighbour and ourselves can only work if it is based in the love of God, and love of God involves us in openness and dialogue, spoken and un spoken with the Holy, so a last thought. Jesus promises us this ;" Again, [amen,] I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father".

( Mk 18:19)

Lectio divina

Rule of Saint Benedict

CHAPTER 27

How Solicitous the Abbot Should Be for the Excommunicated

Mar 4-July 4-Nov 3

Let the Abbot be most solicitous in his concern for delinquent brethren, for "it is not the healthy but the sick who need a physician." And therefore he ought to use every means that a wise physician would use. Let him send "senpectae," that is, brethren of mature years and wisdom, who may as it were secretly console the wavering brother and induce him to make humble satisfaction; comforting him that he may not "be overwhelmed by excessive grief," but that, as the Apostle says, charity may be strengthened in him. And let everyone pray for him.

For the Abbot must have the utmost solicitude and exercise all prudence and diligence lest he lose any of the sheep entrusted to him. Let him know that what he has undertaken is the care of weak souls and not a tyranny over strong ones; and let him fear the Prophet's warning through which God says, "What you saw to be fat you took to yourselves, and what was feeble you cast away." Let him rather imitate the loving example of the Good Shepherd who left the ninety-nine sheep in the mountains and went to look for the one sheep that had gone astray, on whose weakness He had such compassion that He deigned to place it on His own sacred shoulders and thus carry it back to the flock.

Extract from The Little Prince

Antoine de St Exupery

All men have the stars… but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travellers, the stars are guides. For other they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems. For my businessman they were wealth. But all these stars are silent. You - you alone - will have the stars as no one else has them… In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night… And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content to have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure… And your friends will be properly astonished to see you laughing as you look up at the sky!