Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 12 July 2015

St Frideswide in church of St Thomas the Martyr, Oxford

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Where are the prophets of today? I was asked that question by an international group of students this week when we were studying the great Anglo-Saxon Saints of England, and comparing their missionary expansion with our own situation. I recommend that period for anybody interested in different models of the Church, it had a flexibility about it, different forms of ministry, some great women ruled double communities and (despite not being ordained) acted as religious leaders, some we can call the founders of local churches like my own Frideswide of Oxford, these people were the prophets, bringing Christ to others!

I think the most exciting part of Christianity in this period was the boldness with which people took chances and risks to adapt to local cultures and to move beyond the institutional boundaries of the Church itself. I'll give you an example, often we hear that the Bishops are the Shepherds of the flock of Christ and successors to the Apostles, true, but not exclusively so, we too share in the call to be apostles and shepherds it's part of our mission as Christians, traveling in our world, witnessing to Christ in our lives.

But the vocation of prophet is very rarely connected to institutional leadership, in fact in the early Church we can distinguish two types of ministry, those who hold permanent office in the Church and give it that stability of place, connecting people and community with its teaching, worship, faith and mission: and those who have particular gifts for a particular time and situation, amongst them two great itinerant ministries, teachers of the faith and prophets.

These prophets are those who take risks for God, and as the Gospel suggests may not be made welcome even in the household of the Church. Why? Because they challenge our values and way of life, shake us up for the Lord! Amos is a good example of this charism, he is called directly by God to go it alone and bring the people back to the Lord's ways and word!

So, have we prophets amongst us? Of course, only we may not yet have recognised them. As Jesus says, they travel light, by that I mean they do not burden others with heavy religious baggage, the prophet encourages us, reminds us of the Holy Spirit's gifts for us, but above all calls us ' to live through love' in the abiding presence of God.

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Great Britain.