Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 28th August 2016

22nd Sunday of the Year

Time and time again the teachings of Jesus challenge me deeply! One of the interesting things about our life lived in God's companionship is how often it happens, that when we think we have got to the right place, feel as though something has at last been achieved, another new lesson from life comes along and we learn again! I know that we can half understand that life isn't perfect and half know that whatever we might do is never going to be fully complete, but it can be rather annoying at times!

We can rejoice in the good things we manage to do, and in turn look at what we have not done, or done badly, but, and here is the hint, we know that underneath it all somehow everything is in God's hands, that in the end as Lady Julian of Norwich so beautifully puts it: 'All shall be well!' Until then however, the Lord challenges us to constantly seek His ways. No doubt Jesus knew well those sayings from Ecclesiasticus about striving to be gentle, balancing greatness with humility, reflecting on the Scriptures and paying attention to wise people (Eccl 17-20.28-29). He certainly lived and taught those values and through the `Gospel message asks us to continue to do the same.

Luke describes him telling a story in the house of one of his Pharisee friends, a parable based on common human behaviour (and we are all guilty of this from time to time), that of not thinking too deeply of others and wanting the best for ourselves. Jesus is radical in his approach; he invites us to think of others.

We may assume we are very important people, but there might be somebody else greater than ourselves. When we stop to ask who might that be, Jesus surprises us further, for at the end of that story he points out our God as one who loves and exalts the lowly, who is not impressed by what wealth or power brings, but looks for the heart and soul of love in somebody. This is the God of the poor, the lost, the lonely, the defender of widow and orphan. This is our God whose vision is the heavenly Jerusalem, the one who gives us our true home, where as the letter to the Hebrews puts it; 'everyone is a 'first-born' child and a citizen of heaven" (Heb 12:22) What wonderful hope for us all!!!

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