Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 4 August 2024

Gathering of the Manna - Hours of Catherine of Cleves

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The question set for us, so that we may think over and reflect on the Gospel this week is the one the disciples ask Jesus: "What can we do to accomplish the works of God?" It's a complicated question, which is not made any easier by the answer Jesus gives them, and therefore to each one of us: "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent."

There is something deeply challenging in the simplicity of this statement, which is particularly focussed on that one word 'believe', or at least I think so, because the implications of this belief, that is our own faith in the one sent by God, Jesus, draws us away from a safe, private place, where faith is very much what we share with like minded others, and feel comforted-into a far more challenging world of work, difference, unbelief and questioning within the necessities of living and working for our daily existence.

This is the reality of believing, having to adjust to the changes of daily life but holding fast to a deep reality of who Jesus is and what his promises mean.

Perhaps one focus is on this imagery of food which turns up in our readings. For instance can we understand what Jesus is trying to say when he says to us all: "Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life"?

In one sense the first reading from Exodus gives us a way out of the question if we choose to take it, because faced with the grumbling of the People of Israel, God decides to give in to their hunger and provide their food so that they may believe in his works. In this way a contrast is made with the disciples who have seen Jesus do much the same, but still need to ask further questions of Jesus. In contrast through our psalm ( Ps 78) we discover through the Israelites a type of work that endures, but that also feeds . It is the food of the spirit and soul nurtured and nourished in prayer:

"We will declare to the generation to come
the glorious deeds of the LORD and his strength
and the wonders that he wrought".

Here is a key component to the work of God, by knowing, hearing, seeking and finding `God's presence we discover in ourselves a result of praise and proclamation, and this done through a work we need to develop more, that Opus Dei, the work of physically celebrating the hours of prayer throughout our day. This has always been a hallmark of the Christian community, to pray together, consecrating particular moments in the daily round using as a foundation those ancient and nourishing parts of scripture we call the psalms.

I think this where Jesus is leading us to discover really deep nourishment. The physical food of human life needs the complimentarity of another form of nourishment, that of the of the spirit and the mind. Jesus who is the Bread of Life is given to us in different ways, but one key aspect of our Catholic life is his presence in the communion we receive, the Bread from Heaven and his Blood shed for the life of the world. These become ours through our common prayer and presence together-but also with the life giving Trinity. If we have faith in ``Christ's words that he is really "the bread of life" and that "whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst," our communal acts of praise and thanksgiving provide a huge and important witness to a world that needs praying people, and it also deepens and nourishes our understanding of that word believe.

As a practical matter perhaps we can all make an effort to at least celebrate some other aspect of the Church's great tradition of liturgical prayer than simply being part of the weekly Eucharist,for we have the beautiful daily structure of the Liturgy of the Hours, part of the work of the people of God. Maybe it might be possible to join in this praise, no matter how infrequent, because somehow these acts of thanksgiving, intercession and praise, do feed a world that has a great spiritual hunger! And let us not forget this is our vocation, for when we take our place in this holy work, we become as Ephesians puts it:

"renewed in the spirit of your minds,
and put on the new self,
created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth" .

Having been strengthened in this way, our faith and belief deepened, we are then able to proclaim the mighty works of God and feed our hungry world with that other food from heaven!

Lectio Divina

Part of Psalm 78

A maskil of Asaph.

1 My people, hear my teaching;
listen to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable;
I will utter hidden things, things from of old-
3 things we have heard and known,
things our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their descendants;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders he has done.
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach their children,
6 so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.
8 They would not be like their ancestors-
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
whose spirits were not faithful to him.

Extract from APOSTOLIC LETTER

DESIDERIO DESIDERAVI OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS - 29 June 2022

63. For this I desire to leave you with yet a further indication to follow along our way. I invite you to rediscover the meaning of the liturgical year and of the Lord's Day. Both of these were also left us by the Council. (Cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, nn. 102-111)

64. In the light of all that we have said above, we see that the liturgical year is for us the possibility of growing in our knowledge of the mystery of Christ, immersing our life in the mystery of His Death and Resurrection, awaiting his return in glory. This is a true ongoing formation. Our life is not a random chaotic series of events, one following the other. It is rather a precise itinerary which, from one annual celebration of the His Death and Resurrection to the next, conforms us to Him, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. [24]

65. As the time made new by the mystery of His Death and Resurrection flows on, every eighth day the Church celebrates in the Lord's day the event of our salvation. Sunday, before being a precept, is a gift that God makes for his people; and for this reason the Church safeguards it with a precept. The Sunday celebration offers to the Christian community the possibility of being formed by the Eucharist. From Sunday to Sunday the word of the Risen Lord illuminates our existence, wanting to achieve in us the end for which it was sent. (Cf. Is 55:10-11) From Sunday to Sunday communion in the Body and Blood of Christ wants to make also of our lives a sacrifice pleasing to the Father, in the fraternal communion of sharing, of hospitality, of service. From Sunday to Sunday the energy of the Bread broken sustains us in announcing the Gospel in which the authenticity of our celebration shows itself.

Let us abandon our polemics to listen together to what the Spirit is saying to the Church. Let us safeguard our communion. Let us continue to be astonished at the beauty of the Liturgy. The Paschal Mystery has been given to us. Let us allow ourselves to be embraced by the desire that the Lord continues to have to eat His Passover with us. All this under the gaze of Mary, Mother of the Church.