Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: 18th May 2025

New Jerusalem 1645

Fifth Sunday after Easter

We have heard much about Pope Leo in the media since his election. A lot of it is speculative information, people opining on their favourite church themes, or others describing their connection with him. It's a natural enough tendency a lot of human beings have, of wanting to be part of an event, somehow, in some way, but I can't help feeling this isn't where we should be for too long. Popes are a natural part of the fabric of Catholicism, but they are not a daily connection with us, except perhaps at Mass and in prayer, (and yes we must pray for them as part of our daily intercessions) because they belong more to those rare events in our lives and play little part in the daily 24 hour cycle of our immediate world .

Much more important for us is their role as one who supports and encourages, as teacher, confessor of the faith and leader by service and example rather than power. I was struck by this comparison of roles, when in the nearby town of Bicester, a disastrous fire broke out this week, in which three people lost their lives, a civilian and two firefighters.

Here is a stark example of true service for others - the laying down of life in the course of their daily work. I know they are deeply mourned and the Oxfordshire fire-service is badly shaken by their deaths. Like so very many men and women they did what they are called to be prepared to do - but pray never happens, to go that extra mile, and put their lives at risk in order that others of us may be rescued from peril or remain safe. This sacrifice, even if it is not exactly in a religious context, is what this Sundays gospel tells us is our calling the disciples of Christ:

"…love one another.
As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.
This is how all will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another."

(Jn 13:34-35)

It does make very real indeed Jesus' admonition that we are truly his if we lay down our lives for our friends. I was reminded of Pope Francis' remarks about true service: 'Suffering reminds us that faith's service to the common good is always one of hope - a hope which looks ever ahead in the knowledge that only from God, from the future which comes from the risen Jesus, can our society find solid and lasting foundations'. (Pope Francis Lumen Fide 57)

I'm afraid, looking at the rich and powerful of this world, particularly at this moment in time, that command to 'love one another' is more honoured in the breach of loving care than in its fulfilment. We have to take some blame for this, our leaders may think they can tell us what to do, but the gap between them and the ordinary person is almost too wide, it is up to us to speak up, annoy, cajole, create disturbance, point out so that eventually they may take some notice. This is part of a wider synodal way in which we help the voices of the least to speak, and those in power to listen, only we do this because we recognize the divine Christ in each and everyone but particularly in the little ones. This was certainly the constant teaching of Pope Francis who took the words of Christ and proclaimed them without fear, this will be what Pope Leo has to do, and as part of the missionary work of Christ, this is is our task also. But it's a task we need to discern within the context of the everyday, such as helping those who now find it difficult due to government cuts and taxation, to pay the rent, buy what they need, have in their old age some security. It is incumbent on us to assist those in distress, to support those on the margins, in the case of the dying to uphold their right to a dignified life and a peaceful end. We are to make a new earth by facing up the challenges of climate change and concern for wildlife and our earthly home. We are definitely not the new heaven and earth proclaimed by John in our second reading!

And yet, hope is here, the inauguration of our new pope, the many new Christians baptized this Easter, the hunger of the holy and the search for the justice and truth of God as are signs even now of what John reveals as our great promise and hope: 'The One who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new."(Rev 21:5a)'

Despite our negativity and disillusionment with the corruption of so many of our political and economic systems, we must hold on to the long view, but not in any apathetic state, our work is to help the new heaven and new earth come about. Our readings from Acts tells us that Paul and Barnabas exhorted and strengthened the faithful, very much the role of Pope Leo and all called to active ministry whether we are clergy, religious or laypersons, because in this way we go forward together, knowing that the hardships we meet are shared: We cannot hide from this fact, that for everybody …

"It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships
to enter the kingdom of God."(Acts 14:23)

Yet we have that great expression of deep and trustful hope found in John's vision:

"God himself will always be with them as their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes,
and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain,
for the old order has passed away."(Rev 21: 4)

Christ is risen, he is truly risen!

Lectio

Pope Francis

Lumen Fide 56, 57

56. Writing to the Christians of Corinth about his sufferings and tribulations, Saint Paul links his faith to his preaching of the Gospel. In himself he sees fulfilled the passage of Scripture which reads: "I believed, and so I spoke" (2 Cor 4:13). The reference is to a verse of Psalm 116, in which the psalmist exclaims: "I kept my faith, even when I said, 'I am greatly afflicted'" (v. 10).

To speak of faith often involves speaking of painful testing, yet it is precisely in such testing that Paul sees the most convincing proclamation of the Gospel, for it is in weakness and suffering that we discover God's power which triumphs over our weakness and suffering. The apostle himself experienced a dying which would become life for Christians (cf. 2 Cor 4:7-12).

In the hour of trial faith brings light, while suffering and weakness make it evident that "we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord" (2 Cor 4:5).

The eleventh chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews concludes with a reference to those who suffered for their faith (cf. Heb 11:35-38); outstanding among these was Moses, who suffered abuse for the Christ (cf. v. 26). Christians know that suffering cannot be eliminated, yet it can have meaning and become an act of love and entrustment into the hands of God who does not abandon us; in this way it can serve as a moment of growth in faith and love. By contemplating Christ's union with the Father even at the height of his sufferings on the cross (cf. Mk 15:34), Christians learn to share in the same gaze of Jesus. Even death is illumined and can be experienced as the ultimate call to faith, the ultimate "Go forth from your land" (Gen 12:1), the ultimate "Come!" spoken by the Father, to whom we abandon ourselves in the confidence that he will keep us steadfast even in our final passage.

57. Nor does the light of faith make us forget the sufferings of this world. How many men and women of faith have found mediators of light in those who suffer! So it was with Saint Francis of Assisi and the leper, or with Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her poor. They understood the mystery at work in them. In drawing near to the suffering, they were certainly not able to eliminate all their pain or to explain every evil. Faith is not a light which scatters all our darkness, but a lamp which guides our steps in the night and suffices for the journey. To those who suffer, God does not provide arguments which explain everything; rather, his response is that of an accompanying presence, a history of goodness which touches every story of suffering and opens up a ray of light. In Christ, God himself wishes to share this path with us and to offer us his gaze so that we might see the light within it. Christ is the one who, having endured suffering, is "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith" (Heb 12:2).