Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: 29 September 2024
Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
'There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me'.(Mk 9:39)
Many years ago, I can remember being asked by some good Evangelical friends of mine, if I had a personal relationship with Jesus, if I really knew and loved him as lord and saviour ? They meant it well, filled with their own joy and great sense of friendship with Jesus part of their question to me, was actually to draw me into that company who knows and loves the Lord.
It might seem odd to any reading this reflection, but I could not answer them in a direct manner, and if truth be told, I still cannot. Yes I certainly love Christ, and my belief in that dynamic loving mystery of the Triune God is real, but I am not able to visualise the Jesus of Nazareth in terms of any normal personal connection.
Instead I think of St Francis and the ways he experienced Christ for so much of his life, slowly, inexorably, discerning and discovering Him in his dreams, the two visions of San Damiano and La Verna, and always in the faces, words and lives of those whom he encountered, such as the leper, St Clare, his brother friars, yes in the birds gathered before him, to whom he preached one of the most impressive of sermons, in the living elements of nature and of course brother wolf! Francis was far from perfect, but his love for Christ and the Trinity was real. This is not some strange form of Gnosticism, nor a peculiar pantheism, it is very much the love found in the words of Jesus in our gospel this Sunday, a love which we discover in Francis' Letter to the faithful:
'We are his bride when our faithful soul is united with Jesus Christ
by the Holy Spirit; we are his brothers and sisters when we do
the will of his Father who is in heaven, and we are mother to him
when we carry him in our hearts and souls through love and a
pure and sincere conscience, and give him birth by doing good'.
In these words I believe I can find my own answer to that question about my relationship with Jesus. It is not that of the great mystics like Teresa of Jesus, nor the passionate ecstatic lovers of Christ like St Bernard, but discerned in the ordinary, daily, little mystical way of Francis ( amongst others) where my Christ is found in dreams, flashes of insight, my own hopes, and the daily encounter with life in all its forms. My Christ is very much that of the Christ of San Damiano, the story recounted by St Bonaventure in his life of the saint and so very simple. Francis, praying before the icon-cross hears words coming from the figure of Christ that change his life, but not straight away, for what they at first appeared to mean, 'rebuild this ruined chapel of San Damiano', were in fact were a call to reconvert the Church : 'Prostrating himself before an Image of the Crucified, he was filled with no small consolation of spirit as he prayed. And with eyes full of tears he gazed up, and he heard with his bodily ears a Voice proceeding from that Cross, saying thrice: "Francis, go and repair My House, which, as thou seest, is falling utterly into ruin."' This is a Christ I understand, the voice of my inner conscience, very much like another well loved `Christ image, that of the Christ on the `Cross in Giovanni Guareschi's stories of The Little World of Don Camillo, but I know that one day that voice will become a much loved face, seen by me for the first time when I awake from the dreamless sleep of death!
Why these insights from Francis? Maybe it is because his feast is Friday this week (October 4th) but more personally because that day is my baptismal day and for many a long year an affinity of deep friendship with Francis has grown. But it's also because our readings reflect his simplicity of style in following the gospel. He took literally Chris's words to become poor, to see him in the least of all, so the letter of James warning us about worship of and enthralment to wealth, riches power is very much him. Whilst the words of James; 'Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries'(Jas 5:1) may seem a bit excessive, in another way this sentence is a necessary warning, a jolt to pull us up and take notice. For riches and wealth corrupt if not balanced with generosity of heart, care for others and a sense of humble stewardship. We may be fortunate in our situation, but our wealth is not just for ourselves, it has to be used in the service of the Lords people and the Lord's planet, for good not just for oneself as the example of Francis showed.
And what of our first reading from the Old Testament ? It is a reminder that God works in many different ways, acts not only through the known paths but also the unknown, in facing that fact we are bidden not to make rash judgements, not fence in those who like Edad and Medad, who outside the framework of institutional faith prophesy or work in the name of the Lord. But as Jesus teaches we are called to live in this way , open to the other :'For whoever is not against us is for us.. Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward' ( Mk 9:40,41)
And our reward? Maybe Francis vision of the seraph, at La Verna in 1224 two years before his death, where he received the stigmata, is a hint of what may be!
"At length he understood therefrom, the Lord revealing it unto him, that this vision had been thus presented unto his gaze by the divine providence, that the friend of Christ might have foreknowledge that he was to be wholly transformed into the likeness of Christ Crucified, not by martyrdom of body, but by enkindling of heart. Accordingly, as the vision disappeared, it left in his heart a wondrous glow, but on his flesh also it imprinted a no less wondrous likeness of its tokens"(Bonaventure's Life of Francis)
Lectio
The Canticle of Creatures (St Francis)
Most High, all-powerful, good Lord,
Yours are the praises, the glory,
and the honour and all blessing.
To You alone, Most High, do they belong
and no human is worthy to mention Your name.
Praised be you, my Lord,
with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
who is the day,
and through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful
and radiant with great splendour;
and bears a likeness of You, Most High one.
Praised be You, my Lord,
through Sister Moon and the stars,
in heaven You formed them
clear and precious and beautiful.
Praised be You, my Lord,
through Brother Wind,
and through the air, cloudy and serene,
and every kind of weather
through which you give sustance to your creatures.
Praised be You, my Lord,
through Sister water,
who is very useful and humble
and precious and chaste.
Praised be You, my Lord,
through Brother fire,
through whom You light the night,
and he is beautiful and playful
and robust and strong.
Praised be You, my Lord,
through our Sister Mother Earth,
who sustains and governs us,
and who produces various fruit
with coloured flowers and herbs.
Praised be You, my Lord,
through those who give pardon for Your love,
and bear infirmity and tribulation.
Blessed those who endure in peace,
for by You, Most High, shall they be crowned.
Praised be You, my Lord,
through our Sister Bodily Death,
from whom no one living can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin.
Blessed are those whom death
will find in Your most holy will,
for the second death shall do them no harm.
Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks
and serve Him with great humility.
Francis receives the stigmata at La Verna, 1224
(Bonaventure)
Francis, full of the Spirit of God, verily understood that, like as he had imitated Christ in the deeds of his life, so it behoved him to be made like unto Him in the trials and sufferings of His Passion before that he should depart from this world. And, albeit by reason of the great austerity of his past life, and continual sustaining of the Lord's Cross, he was now frail in body, he was no whit afeared, but was the more valorously inspired to endure a martyrdom. For in him the all-powerful kindling of love of the good Jesus had increased into coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame, so that many waters could not quench his love, so strong it was.
When, therefore, by seraphic glow of longing he had been uplifted toward God, and by his sweet compassion had been transformed into the likeness of Him Who of His exceeding love endured to be crucified,-on a certain morning about the Feast of the Exaltation of Holy Cross, while he was praying on the side of the mountain, he beheld a Seraph having six wings, flaming and resplendent, coming down from the heights of heaven. When in his flight most swift he had reached the space of air nigh the man of God, there appeared betwixt the wings the Figure of a Man crucified, having his hands and feet stretched forth in the shape of a Cross, and fastened unto a Cross. Two wings were raised above His head, twain were spread forth to fly, while twain hid His whole body. Beholding this, Francis was mightily astonished, and joy, mingled with sorrow, filled his heart.
He rejoiced at the gracious aspect wherewith he saw Christ, under the guise of the Seraph, regard him, but His crucifixion pierced his soul with a sword of pitying grief. He marvelled exceedingly at the appearance of a vision so unfathomable, knowing that the infirmity of the Passion doth in no wise accord with the immortality of a Seraphic spirit. At length he understood therefrom, the Lord revealing it unto him, that this vision had been thus presented unto his gaze by the divine providence, that the friend of Christ might have foreknowledge that he was to be wholly transformed into the likeness of Christ Crucified, not by martyrdom of body, but by enkindling of heart.