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Sunday Reflection with Father Robin Gibbons - 23rd August 2015


Fr Robin Gibbons

Fr Robin Gibbons

21st Sunday of the Year b

Like me, do you wonder why some people are drawn to religious faith and others shy away from engagement with religion or actively reject it? It's interesting to note that even amongst our own family members there may be those who seem hostile or indifferent to faith whist others embrace the journey and engage in the exciting journey of discipleship with Jesus. But that means to take risks, the journey is one of growth, discovering new things about ourselves, others and God.

Maybe that's what part of the problem's about, trying to become an adult in faith the point where doctrine becomes a real encounter and yes a struggle, where we sometimes have to make sense of what we believe in real not theoretical situations. This is perhaps what Jesus followers referred to as 'intolerable language', the moment when we have to grapple with the reality of life with God and know that some of our theories will not quite match the needs of those we live with..

The journey of faith is not an easy one because as we walk on it the path can seem winding, difficult and perhaps even dangerous. John Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress is a masterpiece of spiritual writing about this quest. Bunyan like so many teachers of the faith pictures the efforts and struggles Christian goes through, reminding us all of the many temptations we faced from the alternative and tempting pastures around us.

Who wants too much suffering, an absent God, the problems religion brings with its ethical and spiritual challenges when it's easier to ignore what is being asked of us as disciples and concentrate on what we like or want? The problem is, as Simon Peter articulates so starkly, when we have exhausted all our own selfish avenues and desires, who then do we turn to for help?

Peter says 'Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe'. Here is the Spirit calling us today as it did Peter and the others.
This call comes to all who listen for the voice of the Spirit in their lives, who try to discern just what God is asking of us in the here and now. It may simply be that we look again at the way we live out our faith or it might be to see God working in ways we never thought possible, for the Lord IS close!

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

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