Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 30 January 2022

Statue of St Paul Burgundian School XVth c Collegiale Poligny Jura

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Growing old has some advantages, but that of course largely depends on our general point of view. If we are not sucked into the whirlwind some forms of contemporary media culture blow before us, those which oft times have an unfortunate tendency to exalt youth, beauty, wealth and celebrity as something within all our grasp, but conversely and perversely airbrush out the elderly of a certain age! If we are not too heavily influenced by this subtle triumph of eternal youth, we shall, we hope, be able to deal with the ageing process with some form of dignity and mature thought. Of course I exaggerate, but only slightly, the culture of the wise elder does not always hold good in our present society, even though we do have examples that prove the exception such as our present monarch, the Queen. It is up to us as the faithful followers of Jesus, to show this age and culture, that everyone has a value, and that all voices matter, we belong together!

The ebb and flow of fashion is not what we are called to embrace, for as Christians following the Christ, there is a much deeper and constant current in the ocean of faith, one suffused with the wiser inspiration of the Spirit at work with us. It is into these waters that we are called to put out our nets. What might this be? Paul says it so clearly in that divinely inspired writing to the Corinthians, the hymn of love ( I Cor 13). His words are both the guiding compass we hold before us and the ultimate map telling the superiority of the gift of love : "So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love".(I Cor 13:13) We are called by Jesus the Christ to accept this gift, receive it freely and also to give it in the same way. Our faith only makes sense if we see who and what we are through the lens of love, but not in any sentimental manner, nor in the high drama of epic romance, our love is to be so much more, it can only be fully understood through the all-embracing gift of the Holy One.

We can sense something of what this current of love is about in the short illustration of the beginning of Jesus' ministry in our gospel reading. Here we see Luke revealing the pattern, not only of how things will work out for Jesus, but also a reminder of what we ourselves may well find happening in our own lives. This is the work of love as a gift that may not be understood, nor reciprocated, nor accepted!

Jesus came to proclaim the reign of the Kingdom and the `Good News of salvation for all. In this passage Luke is telling us that he did NOT come to fulfil religious expectations, nor be a prophet for the special interest groups of religious life! He turns expectations inside out, he points to the works of God being fulfilled at the margins and amongst the vulnerable and outcast. This is the message of Good News, but his own people, much like us I suspect, have not the insight nor wisdom from the Spirit to see what that means. And so, the ministry of Jesus begins by angering the people and lights in them a desire to kill him, to get rid of this disturbance amongst them. A pattern we see continuously in the gospels.

But for me, for you, for others, what does this say, what does it mean? Simply this, we are called to love, for that is what God is, but it is a love that deals with situations and life. When we are called by Jesus to love, it has as its basis the commitment to example and action, if you love me he says then 'keep my commands'(Jn 15:14) As Paul reminds us 'Love' is multi-layered, something we both receive in order to integrate and grow within our own lives, but also in giving and learning from that reciprocity of engagement with others. It also costs!

Maybe we can let one example of love help us better understand our route, which is not that of the world's values. I quote from a favourite saint of mine, Mother Maria of Paris, murdered on March 31 1945 in Ravensbruck concentration camp alongside so many others. Her words bear testimony to that deeper current into which we too must venture. She writes: "The way to God lies through love of people. At the Last Judgment I shall not be asked whether I was successful in my ascetic exercises, nor how many bows and prostrations I made. Instead I shall be asked, did I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners. That is all I shall be asked. About every poor, hungry and imprisoned person the Saviour says: 'I' - 'I was hungry and thirsty, I was sick and in prison.' To think that he puts an equal sign between himself and anyone in need…. I always knew it, but now it has somehow penetrated to my sinews. It fills me with awe." May that be our journey also. Amen

Lectio Divina

Luke 6:35-36

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

John 14:15-18

"If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

"Love is no destruction, but rather instruction, nourishment and sustenance for those who trust in it, for Love is repletion and the abyss and the fullness of the sea."

BENEDICT XVI

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Saint Peter's Square - Wednesday, 2 December 2009

William of Saint-Thierry

Moreover, according to William, love has another important quality: it illuminates the mind and enables one to know God better and more profoundly and, in God, people and events. The knowledge that proceeds from the senses and the intelligence reduces but does not eliminate the distance between the subject and the object, between the "I" and the "you". Love, on the other hand, gives rise to attraction and communion, to the point that transformation and assimilation take place between the subject who loves and the beloved object. This reciprocity of affection and liking subsequently permits a far deeper knowledge than that which is brought by reason alone. A famous saying of William expresses it: "Amor ipse intellectus est love in itself is already the beginning of knowledge". Dear friends, let us ask ourselves: is not our life just like this? Is it not perhaps true that we only truly know who and what we love? Without a certain fondness one knows no one and nothing! And this applies first of all to the knowledge of God and his mysteries that exceed our mental capacity to understand: God is known if he is loved!