Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: August 11th 2024

Dieric - Prophet Elijah in the Desert

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Recharge by being mutually kind to each other !

The above heading is a mantra that came to me after reading and praying through our Sunday readings. I could unpack the various strands hidden in the texts, but at the moment a bit worn down by an arthritic knee that seems to make daily life a bit of a struggle at the moment, and wanting, like us all, to just carve out a few moments of peace for myself-I'd like to share a few simple thoughts which are reflected through the mirror of our second reading from Ephesians and hinted at in our other two readings.

It is God who draws us to Himself

As a point of departure I find these words of Jesus in the Gospel liberating in their directness: "Jesus answered and said to them, "Stop murmuring* among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. (Jn 6: 43,44) It's a relief to me in the tired and weary days of life, to know and understand that far from me doing the work of faith, my God, your God is at work with us drawing us ever closer, pulling us in by some many ways. We do make faith so difficult for ourselves and others, literally doing what Jesus condemned, that is laying heavy loads of rules or systems of belief on other peoples shoulders, instead it is to live out our faith in joy, a joy Saint Clare of Assisi, whose feast it is this Sunday, understood as being rooted in the simplicity of Christ ;" For the Truth says: The one who loves me, will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and we shall come to him and make our dwelling place with him". (Clare letter to Agnes of Prague 1238) That is where I must begin, as must you too-even if it means undoing years of muddled views about our religious tradition.

Be kind!

At the heart of what I am holding fast to in these readings is that one word, 'Kind', the letter to the Ephesians has it this way :"All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice.[And] be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ."(Eph 4: 32,33) Is it just me, or do those words not sum up a tiredness, weariness in public debate and life at the moment. There is just so much aggression, anger, nastiness in public discourse and manners-including the lack of good humour and reflection in civic and church matters. Kindness, the ability to be gracious, compassionate and as that word forgiving suggests, able to understand another's point of view and if it is hurtful to have the greatness of `God's grace to be compassionate in dealing with the matter.

Comparisons can be odious but one I will make is the politeness and kindness I found in the French people's manners to each other when shopping, the fact that people were helpful, said good morning to each other made life such an experience of pleasantness, which I contrasted with the rudeness of people when I got back home . There is just too much aggression and anger about us, as I found almost immediately in a supermarket when I returned to the UK, where several people in front of me were openly rude to one of the check out personnel, when it was entirely their own fault for not reading the notices or paying attention to the type of queue they were in. Civility, kindness is not an optional extra, but as is pointed out, a component of our vocation, part of the tools that we have an d it is part of what makes us good human beings. Thank goodness we haven't entirely lost this capacity of being pleasant, but it has been eroded and we have the gift as people of faith to change that.

Let us accept the kindness of God

If anything, our reading about Elijah in 1 Kings shows us a type of kindness that God has towards the weary, tired and despondent prophet, who is at rock bottom, as we can be, when something both gentle and yet transforming takes place for and with him : 'He prayed for death: "Enough, LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors."He lay down and fell asleep under the solitary broom tree, but suddenly a messenger* touched him and said, "Get up and eat!"He looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and said, "Get up and eat or the journey will be too much for you!"'( I kngs 19: 4-7) There is no rebuke to Elijah from God, only the ministry of the angels feeding, encouraging, patiently supporting him at an hour of need. So what do I get of this all? Firstly, that I need to return to a simpler manner of living out my faith at the moment. Secondly that all of us need to take a holiday from religion and the passions it engenders, and make sure we get a good robust sense of humour about the silliness we can get into over matters that really are not essential..and thirdly that we allow God to reach into our lives and let the kindness we see in the ministry of the angels towards Elijah, open us more and more to the kindness of the Spirit at work deep in us.

May we all have a good refreshing break when we need it!

Lectio

Letter from St Clare to Agnes of Prague (3)

1 To Agnes, most venerable lady and sister in Christ, deserving of love before all other mortals, blood-sister of the illustrious king of Bohemia, but now sister and spouse of the most high King of the heavens,

2 To Agnes, most venerable lady and sister in Christ, deserving of love before all other mortals, blood-sister of the illustrious king of Bohemia, but now sister and spouse of the most high King of the heavens,

3 I am filled with such great joy about your well-being, your happiness, and your favourable successes through which, I understand, you are thriving on the journey you have begun to obtain the reward of heaven;

4 and I breathe again in the Lord with elation equal to my knowledge and belief that you are supplying in wonderful ways what is lacking both in me and in the other sisters who are following in the footsteps of the poor and humble Jesus Christ.

5 I am indeed able to rejoice, and there is no one who could separate me from such great joy,

6 since I already possess what under heaven I have yearned for, and I see that you, supported by some kind of wonderful claim on the wisdom that comes from God's own mouth,

7 dare formidably and extraordinarily undermining the stratagems of the cunning enemy, the pride that destroys human nature, and the vanity that beguiles human hearts, where it is purchased by the One by whom all things were made from nothing.

8 And, to use as my own the words of the apostle himself, I consider you someone who is God's own helper and who supports the drooping limbs of his ineffable body.

9 Who, then, would tell me not to rejoice about such great and marvellous joys?

10 That is why you, too, dearest, must always rejoice in the Lord,

Saint Vincent de Paul - on Kindness and Humility

Here is some advice from Monsieur Vincent on kindness, humility, and confidence in God that will nourish all of us:

"We should not worry too much about temporal affairs. We ought to have confidence in God that he will look after us since we know for certain that as long as we are grounded in that sort of love and trust we will be always under the protection of God in heaven, we will remain unaffected by evil and never lack what we need even when everything we possess seems headed for disaster.

"We should make a great effort to learn the following lesson, also taught by Christ: 'Learn from me because I am gentle and humble in heart.' We should remember that he himself said that by gentleness we inherit the earth. If we act on this we will win people over so that they will turn to the Lord. That will not happen if we treat people harshly or sharply.

"And we should also remember that humility is the route to heaven. A loving acceptance of it when we are humiliated usually raises us up, guiding us, as it were, step by step from one virtue to the next until we reach heaven. This humility was very often recommended by Christ himself, by word and example, and we should make a great effort to master it. Humility is the basis of all holiness in the Gospels and a bond of the entire spiritual life. If a person has this humility everything good will come along with it."