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Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 18th September 2016


Twenty Fifth Sunday of the Year

I imagine every one of us has faced the challenge of being asked to tell the truth in a situation that is both complex and difficult. It may be that speaking the whole truth about a situation will destroy reputations and lives. I'm not being fanciful, just think what happens when we discover people haven't been honest in their dealings with others, leading double lives perhaps? Suddenly a world that seemed happy and normal collapses! At that point, when we know something and realize we are being called to bear witness, what do we do?

The old adage that the truth can set us free is accurate enough, but not always, for truth can also be unbearable, hurtful, it can destroy as well as build up.

This is why Jesus sets such a high premium on us being people of the truth, we are to be trustworthy in small matters as well as great, but our commitment to honesty and integrity does not give us the right to disclose everything about a situation in public. We can be people who know the truth about some situation or person, but we have also to be charitable and loving people, who will try to act in a way that allows others to retain a sense of dignity.

Difficult isn't it? But the Gospels are peppered with illustrations of Jesus doing just that. He is openly scathing to those who are dishonest and hypocritical, but he does not humiliate people. Remember the story of the woman caught in adultery, he may have known just what her accusers had themselves got up to, but he revealed the truth of their situation by a simple retort: 'If you are without sin, then throw the stone at her!' In other words he showed them he had seen right through their deceit. That was enough to shame them.

In our society we have great need of truthful, trustworthy people. In contemporary life the spotlight of the media often reveals that in public life, hypocrisy, dishonesty and total self-interest keep re-appearing, and we become disillusioned! That's why the Christian is called to 'reflective honesty', we know we are sinful, but we also know we have the opportunity to change ourselves. How? Well, we start by prayer, opening ourselves to God. Then we try to be trustworthy in small things, so that we can become trustworthy in great matters!

Fr Robin is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Britain and Ecumenical Canon at Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford

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