Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 20 February 2022

St Damiano Cross, Monastery des Clarisses, Poligny, Jura, France. Image: RG

Seventh Sunday In Ordinary Time

If anything convinces me of our powerlessness, it's the force of the elements. Those of us who have experienced severe weather conditions of the power nature through earthquakes, floods, storms, bushfires, whiteouts or turbulent winds will know that all we can do is to prepare as best we can, to try, if there is warning, to keep people and animals safe and property protected as best we can. But in the end we have no way of controlling what is to come. I am writing this in Cornwall, a county bounded by the sea, so Storm Eunice hit us with full vigour on Friday 18th February, it caused here as elsewhere much disruption, but my point is that there was little any of us could do except prepare and pray things would not be too bad.

Powerlessness is something none of us like to experience, for literally we are at the mercy of something other than ourselves, and yet in following the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are asked to hand over the power we think we hold and give it into the embrace and care of God. We do this particularly in order to receive and accept the gifts given us by the Spirit, that we may truly serve others in a better way. We have it laid out before us in the `gospel this Sunday, for we hear Jesus pushing us to the limits of relationships that we find difficult. I have to be honest and say I find it hard too, being told that we must discover in our hearts and lives the gift of forgiveness and accept with equanimity those that hate us, in order that we may discover a new and deep love towards them:

As Jesus says to us all: "But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
then your reward will be great
and you will be children of the Most High"(Lk 6:31,32)

It is easy to talk about doing this, but I am not sure I can ever fully manage to truly love in this way…except with the help of God. That is the crux of the matter, alone I cannot do this, but if I take on Christ, allow the Spirit to work through me, as is my baptismal and confirmation gift from the Holy One, then and only then things may change.

This of course does not give others who we find difficult, call our enemies or detractors or vice versa, a Charter of Rights, Jesus does not demand that we allow others to walk over us, never taking the active initiative in ridding evil and injustice from our midst, for into this mixture of new behaviour we must always put the Commandments of God, the chief two being that of LOVE in three distinct ways, God, then self and others. This determines many ways of being, living, caring and acting, but it is done with Christ, very much as the liturgy puts it , 'Through Him, with Him, in Him!'

We can hear the practicalities of this behaviour towards others throughout the preaching of Jesus, how we are to react, how we are to deal with situations, how it is alright to have 'good anger' towards those who do evil, but in the end all must lead to that great gift of the `Lord to us of 'reconciliation' as a basic force in our faith life, for He came to reconcile all things to Himself.

This is a ministry we are all called to do, reconcile, bring together, and fulfil that one promise we make each time we say the `Our Father':

'Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us." Amen!

Lent is nearly upon us, for those Catholics following the Eastern Tradition and the Gregorian Calendar, this Sunday is Meatfare or Judgement Sunday, the countdown of three weeks to Great Lent and the last day we eat meat until Holy Pascha. Perhaps this year we can all share in this countdown, maybe not so much fasting from meat, but getting ready in the way our Sunday Gospel tells us to fast in our heart and spirit and instead give back love: 'For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you."(Lk 6:38)

Lectio Divina

Judgement Sunday

"'Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'"
(Matthew 25:34-36)

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Forgiving

"Forgiving and being reconciled to our enemies or our loved ones are not about pretending that things are other than they are. It is not about patting one another on the back and turning a blind eye to the wrong. True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, the truth. It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing. Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing."

Brother Roger of Taize

Forgiveness

Prayer is a treasure of the Gospel. It opens a way forward which leads us to love and to forgive.

Forgiveness can change both our heart and our life: severity and harsh judgments recede and leave room in our hearts for goodness and kindness. And we become capable of seeking to understand rather than to be understood.

All who root their lives in forgiveness are able to pass through rock-hard situations like the water of a stream, which, in early springtime, makes its way through the still-frozen ground.

However, meagre our resources, one of today's most urgent tasks is to bring about understanding where there are oppositions. Certain memories from the past are enough to keep individuals or nations apart.

Nothing is more tenacious than the memory of past wounds and humiliations. When we seek tirelessly to forgive and to be reconciled, a future opens up beyond all our expectations.