Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: July 5th 2026

Carrying of the Cross - Eric Gill

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This past week has been one of new experiences, some good, some difficult, but all linked to the slow process of healing. I underwent a full knee replacement last Thursday, not the best of operations, and having two orthopaedic surgeon brothers it was a procedure which was explained to me in detail. I have to admit it has been a painful and difficult week, one in which I have had to learn to hand myself over to the care of others for rehabilitation and physiotherapy, but it has been a spiritual journey as well. Pain, coupled with the struggle to return to health, is a great leveller where we have to face certain inalienable facts about our human frailty and dependency on others. And, if you are open to the promptings of the Lord, pushed by your situation to explore a little more the journey of the gospel, this time as one of the 'little ones', you discover an invitation to dig that bit deeper into the faith we possess and tap into the deep reservoir of the Spirit in the depths of our being.

I have to admit, that in this type of operation we experience a long recovery is one in which I have to hand over a lot of my independence and ask for the assistance of others. In these situations prayer isn't easy, but we learn a new method of 'basic' prayer, just being in the presence of the Lord. Surrounded by others who are in similar situations, there is also the experience of being at the raw edges of life, where one has nothing left to hide behind, and because of medication sometimes we have very little to say. This is the true prayer of accompaniment of just 'being' with others, learning a different type of patience but also an opportunity allowing the `Lord to lift the veil of our 'faux' piety so that we begin to understand in a new way the truth of that wonderful chant of the mandatum :"Where charity and love are, God is there". That is, in the service and mutual care of so many for us we discover real charity of the Spirit as a human gift.

In our hospitals, respite, and care homes, or when we are housebound with carers looking after us, we have to hand ourselves over to the gentle mastery of Christ perceived in them, just trusting in Him and these words of todays gospel :" '"Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened,* and I will give you rest'.(Mt 11:28)

To discover the presence of God as powerfully present in any experience of suffering and sickness is a difficult call to make, for we cannot see it nor expect others to, but for those of us who are able .if we but stop and let charity become our inner clothing we recognise that Christ is with us and in us and that communicates itself at some deep level to others. The yoke Jesus asks us to shoulder is not, as some suggest pain and suffering in some vicarious self offering , rather it is the Law of Christ, the great commandment of Love, not the yoke of the Torah. It is the acceptance of merciful love and forgiveness as the measure of God, not a laundry list of rules, for when barriers are down, when we have nowhere else to go then the gift of blessing of the little ones of Christ becomes our gift. This is perhaps one aspect what is really meant by this saying:

'I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones.'

( Mt 11:25)

May that blessing be ours this week as we grow to have a humble heart and become those who will also help lighten other people's burdens. Amen.

Lectio Divina

From a homily of Pope Francis

MORNING MEDITATION IN THE CHAPEL OF THE
DOMUS SANCTAE MARTHAE
God chooses the little ones
Tuesday, 21 January 2014

"A relationship exists between God and us, we who are little. God is great and we are little", and so "when God wants to choose people, also his people, he always chooses the little ones". So much so, the Pope added, that "he says to his people: I chose you because you are the littlest, those with the least power among all the peoples".

The supreme example of this "dialogue between God and human littleness", he said, is to be found in "Our Lady, in she who said: 'the Lord has looked upon my lowliness, he has looked upon those who are little, he has chosen the little ones'".

Saint Francis de Sales

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love God and man by loving. Begin as a mere apprentice and the very power of love will lead you on to become a master of the art.

We have to do everything for love, not out of force.

A sign that we love truly love God is that we love Him the same in all occasions.

Charity is a spiritual fire; when it is embraced it is called devotion. Genuine devotion is consistent with every state of life. Like liquid poured into a container, it adapts itself to any shape.