Third Sunday of Advent 2014 - Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons

The prophecies of Isaiah which we hear all though Advent, have long been some of my favourite pieces of scripture. There is contrast and colour, light and dark, intensity and joy, sorrow and despondency, but always the pilgrimage towards a time to come of hope and peace!

The passage used on the third Sunday of Advent, taken from Isaiah 61 is especially poignant given the troubled state we Christians find ourselves caught up in throughout our world. The Prophet's words are not only of comfort to us, but also an exhortation of hope, to carry on with our mission of testimony to Christ's presence and love.

As a priest, a pastor working not only with Catholics from the eastern tradition, now under persecution, but engaged in ecumenism and academic life, my time, like the rest of you, can be very taken up with all kinds of issues and demands, sometimes too many. It can lead to overload and a spiritual fatigue, so Isaiah's list of essential elements for our Christian and Priestly calling are a welcome recipe for reinvigoration.

Here they are; we are anointed to be sent out, to heal, proclaim the good news, announcing Gods constant love for our living world, and importantly for our messy human race, to do everything we can, practically, morally and spiritually to release people from the tyranny and slavery of sin, whatever form that might take! We are not alone, for the love of God is particularly revealed in the work of Spirit for us.

I can only speak for myself, but I hope that the relationship Isaiah reveals God has with us is your own. For God really is the joy of my soul, I am clothed with salvation and wrapped in God's mantle of justice. I have to let go of my fears, let God into my life. Like John the Baptist, I too am the herald that is called to prepare the Lord's way in my world, now, a testimony to the light that will never go out, the morning star that is the risen Christ. That's our destiny as Christians; we might seem a voice crying in a wilderness of unbelief and ridicule, but through us, like John, people will hear that voice of the Spirit calling.

Paul calls us to be people of unceasing prayer, that total relationship with God in every aspect of our lives!