Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: 13 October 2024

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Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 143

"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Mk 10:17)

How many of us ask that question of ourselves let alone God?

There seems to be another type of question that perhaps due to a more secularised culture leaves out any suggestion that we work to enter eternal life and simply demands an answer to the destination of our journey "Where am I going after this life?" I have to say, even this is less frequently asked, for many I know either assume they will be "going up there' as it is put, or tell me they don't believe in any such "place".

It isn't that religion is despised, for many it seems to have little place in their lives at all, and that for myself, as one who has devoted my life to the 'great search', is hard to hear.

Is this a problem? I believe so, and suggest the fault is because of many things, ignorance, lack of good honest, loving examples of adult faith , an over emphasis by some on what we might say is an older form of harsher piety and the harshness and narrowness of some Christian ideas and perceptions. And a tendency amongst some to turn the clock back Am I being too hard? No, I don't think so, the appalling behaviour of those who have abused others, or assumed a privileged position that religion might give in its structures play a large part in the dismantling of faith's generous and gentle positions in life .And, do not forget we have those helps and gifts from the God who loves us, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the different and abiding presences of Christ and the gift of the Word :" Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart". (Heb 4: !2)

Yet I do not despair, that is not my vocation-we are a Church in mission, called to minister to others, to proclaim by our deeds as much as words a singularly simple message of humble service, unencumbered by OUR personal opinions. We who are Christian disciples need to regain our sense of trust in God, to remind ourselves of these words in the gospel :'Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God."' (Mk 10:27) This is no cop out, no slick answer for it implies on our part a work of relationship with that Triune God of Father , Son and `Spirit, now. It starts with that frightening step we are called to make into the vastness of the unknown One's love, and it is about handing over our selfishness to let God work with us.

The following words of Jesus are not negative, but a positive, transformative process every living creature makes, it's called change! "Peter began to say to him, "We have given up everything and followed you."Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last, and [the] last will be first."l (Mk 10:28-31)

Might not this be the antidote to much of the opposition to faith in the public space? If it is even part of an answer it still involves us in a journey of continual learning and of humility. If we honestly believe that the gospel is the Good News of Salvation and `Redemption in Jesus then the call of Christ is simple to serve onne another in love, and not only human beings but all of created life. To give up in the way Jesus so briskly and starkly puts it, is not a process of pain or creating problems, rather it is the task of learning to be bigger than we think we are. Every day, each day there will be a moment when you and I have to give up self to allow somebody else's growth, it might be a simple as giving up a seat on a bus or train and let another sit, or just assisting somebody in need of a little help. I have never forgotten who one of Oxford's homeless, who when teaching there, I passed most days and said hello to, responded to me , when I truthfully said I hadn't any money; " that doesn't matter, the fact you always smile and say hello means I am a person again". To give up ourselves means we become more alert to others needs and learn to accept and receive the hundredfold we never even guessed existed.

Our thoughts go out to those caught up in tremendous loss not of their own choosing, those in the conflicts of the Middle East, Ukraine and the victims of the Hurricanes in the United States and elsewhere. Even in these events great unselfishness and love are seen in the deeds and actions of others, it is these acts where faith, love and hope come together in the open love of a persons generosity and unselfishness, where we discover the answer to that question of how to gain ourselves and others a place in the eternal life of the Kingdom. In the end it is the Lord's gift, but take hope, these deeds , words, acts, and examples, far more than some of our prayers can, speak directly to the heart of people and also of God, as the motto of st John Henry Newman states: Cor ad cor loquitur! .

LECTIO

Mark 10 :17-22

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up,
knelt down before him, and asked him,
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good?
No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments: You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
you shall not defraud;
honor your father and your mother."
He replied and said to him,
"Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,
"You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
At that statement his face fell,
and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

From an interview with Fr Basil Pennington OCSO on Transforming Suffering

The virtue of humility means acceptance of reality. If we are not in reality, then we can't possibly be in the things of the spirit. The reality is that God is good, all loving and that his creation is good. What immediately follows upon the perception of reality is beauty and goodness, and what follows that is love. We love this immense beauty and we love most of all the author of this goodness and beauty, God himself. These are things of the spirit. It is astounding when we start to reflect that God, the source of all goodness, all truth, all beauty, all life, all love, did, in His enormous love, enter into our struggling evolving human reality and accept our suffering. Suffering is a thing of the spirit, too, for that reason. It has been made a vehicle of love and everything can become something of the spirit when it is informed by love.