Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - May 2024

Canon Robin Gibbons
May 4th, 2024

Christ the Bridegroom - Icon

Sixth Sunday after Easter

How do you react to these words of the apostle?: 'Then Peter proceeded to speak and said, "In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him'. (Acts 10:34,35) Does this make you think of the wider ministry of the Church? Does it challenge you, as it does me, to not be so insular ? In all honesty it gives me such hope, for as a sinner, a human by life and birth, and by vocation a priest in the Catholic Church who struggles, as do we all, to make sense of the promises of Christ in a complicated world, these words of the Lord push me out from the fear of the disciples in the Upper Room into the world of Pentecost!

Let me try to share my thoughts. As I grow older I rejoice more and more in the gift I have been given of belonging to the Catholic Church. This is not of my doing, but part of my own inheritance as somebody who has strong French ancestry. I also wish to acknowledge the strong Anglican tradition of my English family, which again has made me so aware of the great need for greater ecumenical friendship, for if Easter means anything, it shows us how much the resurrection belongs to all of the Christian community, and we must proclaim Christ's victory over death in one voice as one people! But I also recognise it as a gift I have been given, a choice of Christ for me!

If it is as Peter tells us, that the Holy One has no impartiality, no favourites, then it means that we are all are welcomed into the Kingdom, but this is not without a gentle demand of the Holy One for us all. It means as Peter reminds us, that there is a task we must fulfil for the Lord: 'He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he ( Christ) is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. (Acts 10: 39)

Today we are asked to pray for the Eastern Catholic Churches particularly in the Holy land and the Middle East. I am very strongly in favour of us knowing more about our sister communities in the Catholic Church. I have a specific vocation to make them known, for though baptised and ordained in the Roman Rite, I was asked to help my eastern Catholic family by transferring to the Byzantine Rite, to help with immigrant communities here in the UK. This has not been easy for me, as our understanding and knowledge of the 23 independent Catholic Churches, all united as one under Peter's successor, the Bishop of Rome, is very varied, even amongst church men and women who should know better. For me it has been an interesting journey of patient teaching and sometimes very varied explanation of our Christian origins. Fortunately things change and because of immigration we are beginning to know our brothers and sisters of the different Catholic Churches.

In my own ministry as a teacher and priest, I pray and hope I am trying to make this wonderful example of the Church's diversity in unity made known and understood to others by prayer and shared knowledge, as in this reflection! We have to accept the richness of our Catholic faith and live and express it with joy. We are not as Catholics just a people of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales or elsewhere. We are, despite Brexit, truly international yet bound together as ONE people in Christ. More than that our 'family' origin begins in the peoples of the Christian East, whose traditions, spirituality and liturgy we must learn to love and accept in their role as guardians of the way started by the Lord, one in which diversity, difference is always a richness to be savoured.

At the heart of this paschal journey to wholeness in Christ, these words from our second reading , the first letter of St John, call us back to the right direction of travel and face us with a truth that we might not accept but need to, for it gives us a huge loving gift from the Lord. I would suggest that it touches the very heart of who we are, for it is a wonderful statement in its audacity, marvellous in its tenderness, breath-taking in its utter divine irresponsibility:'… this is love:

not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins'. (I Jn 4:10)

Is not this the message of openness we are bidden to proclaim to a world in dire need of Christ? Is it not part of our mission to build up those faithful in our churches who are tired and weary, to comfort the fearful ones so terrified of loss, whether that might be religious practice or custom or simply fear at the end of life. So hold fast dear sisters and brothers, we are not alone, for Christ is always with us. We must let go of our prejudices and fears and trust in Him. For it is as the gospel promises, He has chosen us:

'It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another'.(Jn 15: 16,17)

May these words of John be a blessing now and always, amen.

Lectio

Epistle of Polycarp to the Phillippians

Chapter 10. Exhortation to the practice of virtue

Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood, 1 Peter 2:17 and being attached to one another, joined together in the truth, exhibiting the meekness of the Lord in your intercourse with one another, and despising no one. When you can do good, defer it not, because alms delivers from death. Tobit 4:10, Tobit 12:9 Be all of you subject one to another 1 Peter 5:5 having your conduct blameless among the Gentiles, 1 Peter 2:12 that you may both receive praise for your good works, and the Lord may not be blasphemed through you. But woe to him by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed! Isaiah 52:5 Teach, therefore, sobriety to all, and manifest it also in your own conduct.

Hans Kung, Christianity, Essence, History, and Future (New York: Continuum Publishing Company, 1995), p. 57.

Duty without love breeds weariness;
duty with love breed constancy.

Responsibility without love breeds unconcern;
responsibility with love breeds concern.

Righteousness without love breeds hardness;
righteousness with love breeds reliability.

Education without love breeds contrariness;
education with love breeds patience.

Wisdom without love breeds rifts;
wisdom with love breeds understanding.

Friendliness without love breeds hypocrisy;
friendliness with love breeds grace.

Order without love breeds pettiness;
order with love breeds generosity.

Knowledge without love breeds dogmatism;
knowledge with love breeds trustworthiness.

Power without love breeds violence;
power with love breeds readiness to help.

Honor without love breeds arrogance;
honor with love breeds modesty.

Possessions without love breeds avarice;
possessions with love needs generosity.