Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 15 September 2024

Sep 14th, 2024

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Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 131

Every single one of us who follows the Christ and has received the gift of his life and the spirit though Baptism and Confirmation will hear this question in our lives at some point or another: "But who do you say that I am?" (Mk 8:29) It might not come in overt ways, nor is it just confined to those of us who claim to follow the gospel way, Our Christ has a wider vision, unending love and mercy and greater openness to the other that any of us can ever manage to achieve. It is this that gives me hope in these confused days of our human existence as we experience our world in its problems, locally, nationally and internationally. The Church is not immune from the confusions of our muddled society, just look at the many points of view propounded in the social media about aspects of our faith, and some of the arrogant nastiness put forward by commentators. I am aware that some of us are floundering in a world we no longer quite recognise as our own, but perhaps because of all this, I am rediscovering something taught me in my monastic training, that a humble heart is actually important and essential but very difficult to achieve.

This difficulty is perhaps what Jesus is telling us when he placed his own mission before us all through the events of these words: "…the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days".(Mk 8:31)

There is no short cut to happiness or peace given us in this statement, for all the things he preached and taught, the promises he made , have to be seen through the smoky lens of our human sight and understood in the messiness of our untidy existence. By holding onto these words which at first appear dark and despondent we begin to see another guide present with Christ, for here the Spirit points us to those last four words; "rise after three days!" There in the dark the light of a greater dawn is appearing. So in these days when we find grave problems surrounding us, the effects of our own wilful selfishness are indeed seen in the sufferings, rejections, and murderous annihilations of life. Yet as we read or hear this phrase of Christ, we are called to put it into the perspective of our existence and together with his gift of humility find our hope is found, not in empty promises or riches and power, but in the simplicity of a humble heart that has emptied itself so that we are part of God.

These foundational words of Christ's teaching must become a part of the very fabric of my life; "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it". (Mk 8: 34,35) It isn't easy, but it takes me back to my monastic calling, which despite the many changes in my ministry and life still remain rooted deep in me. Humility is not negativity, nor is it suppression of self, instead it is the way of discipleship where self is linked closely to Christ and therefore bound up in the long search for truth, and where love in all its forms is found in the good works of faith towards neighbour, both in word and deed, and towards the God that is Christ present amongst us.

This gives me hope as I pray it does you all. We may be feeling life is just too complex, or bound up in the problems of living, such as our finances or housing , sickness, relationship dfficulties, desperate concern for the state of our planet or anxieties engendered by political issues. We cannot escape these things, nor is the Lord asking us to, but instead Christ is calling us to answer that question; " who do you say I am?" This is teaching us to look a little further, not simply to say "You are the Christ the Living God" and leave it at that, but also understand Jesus is so very much more. He is found with and in the needy, the hungry, the prisoner, he is the underdog, the rejected, there he is in the cry of the hurt, in our living creatures so cruelly treated by the human animal, but he is also discovered in the joy of loving, serving, helping, building connections and healing situations . Trust Him more, let him come into your life as I shall try to let him come into mine. If we are loyal and true friends of `Jesus, our dear Lord, we shall find that despite all that we go through, in the end, at the last, we shall come to the fullness of life in the Kingdom with him. Hold fast to that hope as you travel on your journey!

Lectio

Prayer of Bede the Venerable

I pray you, good Jesus, that as you have given me the grace to drink in with joy the Word that gives knowledge of you, so in your goodness you will grant me to come at length to yourself, the source of all wisdom, to stand before your face forever. Amen.

(Holy Cross Day Sept 14th)
From the 'Dream of the Rood
Anglos Saxon poem
Translated by Roy Liuzza

" …each day I look forward

to the time when the cross of the Lord,

on which I have looked while here on this earth,

will fetch me from this loaned life,

and bring me where there is great bliss,

joy in heaven, where the Lord's host

is seated at the feast, with ceaseless bliss;

and then set me where I may afterwards

dwell in glory, have a share of joy

fully with the saints. May the Lord be my friend,

He who here on earth once suffered