Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons 16 March 2025

Second Sunday of Lent

1. Christ is the Word that calls us

A question I have for you all is this: What portions of Scripture touch your heart and soul and confirm in you the truth about Jesus and a realisation of the presence of God with you?

Yes, it is a long question, a good one for our Lenten journey, and though I will provide my own answer to share and help us reflect a bit more, the answer is up to each one of you, and a way to find it is to examine yourselves and reflect seriously on the power of Christ the Word and Light, Christ of the Transfiguration whose love transforms us if we but let it and see when and where His power touched you.

2. Two images of Christ in our hearts

I begin my reflection with two very powerful images taken from contemporary life. The first is the 672 catechumens gathered in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, at the Liturgy on Saturday 9th March, to begin their journey to baptism with the Rite of Election. In his words to them, the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich reflected on their call by Jesus in his homily: 'Je leur demandais : Quelle est l'origine ? Qu'est-ce qui a changé dans votre vie depuis que vous connaissez le Christ ? Et beaucoup m'ont répondu : Il a mis en moi la paix du cœur ; il m'a aidé à passer au cœur des épreuves que la vie m'a réservées jusqu'à présent ; il m'a donné la joie et l'espérance.

'I asked them, "What is the origin (of your call)? What has changed in your life since you came to know Christ?" And many answered me, "He has given me peace of heart; he has helped me to get through the trials that life has held for me until now; he has given me joy and hope."

Both the numbers of catechumens presenting themselves and their living testimony as recorded by the Archbishop are a powerful encouragement for us on our faith journey, for it is true, alive, and joyful with the touch of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Does this help us, as it did the downcast disciples on the Emmaus Road ,which we shall hear about at Easter, to discover that like them we find our hearts warmed and awakened within us to Christ's voice?

The second image was at the funeral of my nephew Harry, a young man of 22, which we celebrated in Kingston-Upon-Thames on the 13th March. The church was absolutely packed to standing room, and I would suggest that the majority of those present were under 30 years of age. A vast company of friends and relatives, mourning the tragic loss of a young man. In my homily, I addressed three groups separately, firstly that large number of young friends bereft and perhaps lost, then the family in their grief, and lastly following Cardinal Basil Hume's example at Fr Michael Hollings funeral, I spoke with my nephew, making that part a living dialogue betweem him and myself. I don't know how I managed to do this, but the suggestion came not from my skill but from a deep prompting within my heart, a voice of the Holy Spirit saying 'do it!'. I don't know, as I don't ask, but I am told people were touched and felt a sense of something from the Lord, and not myself, very much present there.

In both these events the words of scripture and the touch of Christ reaching out towards people becomes obvious.The catechumens seeking truth have been touched, often through pain and difficulties by the transfigured and Risen Lord.

Or in the case of my nephew, the young grieving him, having lost their friend tragically, needed some healing consolation, his family bereft and hurtingall without realising heard another call , one that said "I am with you'.

This is always found in the deepest source of love, that of Christ. Discovered not only in the loving individual acts of care, but so much more in the different glimpses of an unending source, those words of Jesus Our Good Lord,in our hearts. He who alone has eternal life and who alone is the truth and the way.

3. A touch of Christ in our heart

At Harry's funeral I shared with all of those present this thought, which I wish to share with you. A thought built on my own faith and long experience as a priest, pastor and educator, and constantly renewed in me with those surprisng ways the Lord has of transfiguring us without warning , so that we feel His warmth and experience His light. It is this :" Harry's life and death will leave a mark that we can either freeze and park in our memories, or more positively see as a seed that will grow in us to bear some harvest as yet unknown, for the living find the dead are with them always, our relationship might change, but it is not ended".

These words for me are a hint of the resurrection we will discover, a glimpse of what the letter to the Philippians in our second reading teaches us Christ will do for us: "He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself". (Philippians 3:27)

4. The Transfiguration the reality of the promise of risen life

This brings me to the Gospel of the Transfiguration, a favourite of mine, and one which left a mark on St Peter-the one awake disciple of the three with Jesus on the mountain, who in the second letter that bears his name, writes this eyewitness account of our gospel today: " For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honour and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain".(2Peter 1:16-18)

There is a simple reality of our Catholic faith, an unerring instinct that allowed those who wrote the Gospels to let apparent contradictions remain, not to try ands smooth out the surprises, because it is this mixture of hints, guesses, and fact, that enable us to go on a journey of exploration into the living Word, rather than accept a single carefully document of supposed truth. It is there in`Peter's words, 'we ourselves heard this very voice' that carries the simplicity of truth. It happens so often in our faith, like Paul at Damascus who hears the voice of the Holy One, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" and later, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting". Words which completely turned him around and made his leave his old life to follow the Risen Christ, an account we find in Acts (;3-8) Or in the answer to the prayer Saint Augustine shares with us in his Confessions ,when having prayed for guidance he heard children crying out:' "Tolle lege, tolle lege." "Take up and read." And he took up the Scriptures which transformed his life reading this text of Romans 13:13-14: "Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires."

This was Augustine's inner transformation, his conversion to following the Lord. We too have these moments, transformative, powerful, deep. Sometimes because we don't want to respond, we can park them in our unconscious where they tweak at us from time to time but will eventually surface to challenge us, or we can fully embrace the light and heat of the love that is the Spirit revealing to us the Lord. This is what we hear in that voice of todays Gospel if we but let it enter under our defences, isn't that part of the answer to my question?.

5. Let us be prophets of love

As we journey onwards in our Lent, may we become aware of our own dignity and vocation as Christians, baptised, anointed and sealed with the Spirit, called to proclaim the good news, and the bring and show the love and person of Christ to others.

But today may we also pray for the Holy Father Pope Francis, who in his sickness shows us that witnessing to Christ's risen presence is found not only in the dynamism of pastoral and missionary action, but in the contemplative transfiguration of our own lives by Christ in the pain and mess of the here and now, letting the light and hidden presence of the City of God merge and meld with our City of human life. The Pope shows us that sign of Christ found in those who appear to have little to share, in the quietness of their grave sickness and in the silence of near death, but whose presence and voice in the reality of Jesus are the real great gift givers of the grace of prophetic love. For in them, in their prayers and their struggles, the crucified Lord becomes very close to us all, and leads us onwards to the light of his transfiguration and resurrection, to endure with and in His people until the end of the ages to help us become prophets of His' abiding, victorious and unconquerable love. Amen

Lectio

Extract from the Homily of Archbishop Laurent Ulrich to the Catechumens at the Rite of Reception March 8th 2025

Quand je pense à vous, quand je pense aux lettres d'un grand nombre d'entre vous que j'ai déjà pu lire, je vois qu'il y a parmi vous - non pas un certain nombre mais tous - des hommes et des femmes qui cherchent à voir Jésus. Vous avez votre vie, vous avez votre vie personnelle, sociale, familiale, professionnelle, vous avez cette vie-là dans laquelle vous cherchez non pas de l'or probablement, mais à bien vivre. Vous cherchez certainement à être aimés, vous cherchez à aimer, vous cherchez du sens à votre vie, vous cherchez ce qui pourrait mobiliser vraiment et donner de la force au fait de vivre qui ne soit pas simplement de consommer et de passer de rendez-vous en rendez-vous qui occupent l'existence. Vous sentez qu'il y a quelque chose de plus. Et il me semble que beaucoup d'entre vous courent après Jésus, et cherchent à le voir depuis longtemps. Le Père Géniteau, tout à l'heure, a dit que pour certains cela fait des mois, pour quelques-uns cela fait des années, que peut-être sans oser vraiment, vous cherchez à entrer dans la relation avec quelqu'un qui vous fasse vraiment du bien, qui vous dise quelque chose de vrai pour votre existence.

Translation RG

When I think of you, when I think of the letters of many of you that I have already been able to read, I see that there are among you - not a certain number but all - men and women who are seeking to see Jesus. You have your life, you have your personal, social, family, professional life, you have this life in which you are probably not looking for gold, but to live well. You are certainly looking to be loved, you are looking to love, you are looking for meaning in your life, you are looking for what could truly mobilize and give strength to the fact of living that is not simply consuming and moving from one appointment to another appointment that fills your existence. You feel that there is something more. And it seems to me that many of you are running after Jesus, and have been looking to see him for a long time. Father Géniteau, earlier, said that for some it has been months, for some it has been years, that perhaps without really daring, you are seeking to enter into a relationship with someone who will really do you good, who will tell you something true about your existence.

Extract from the Homily of the funeral Mass of Harry James Robert Gibbons March 13th 2025

To his family, all of you.

I cannot give you answers, but I will share these thoughts. A life lived long or short matters, it is never wasted because it has an effect on each of us. Nobody has a right to any length of years, nor perhaps to good health, wealth or success, these are gifts given to some but not all of us. So make each day count, live life fully, and do to others as you would have them do to you.

You may think that Harry has not been able to achieve many of the things he might have wished to do, as those of us who are older have done, but that is simply our sense of loss, the idea that his life is unfinished, but it is not! In prayer and thought we now wish him well, in God's good time he has fulfilled more than you will know now, but one day will understand.

It is the quality of love that matters, not the length of days we waste making a mess and muddle of things, and surely we can say he was and is loved, and more than that, Harry's life and death will leave a mark that we can either freeze and park in our memories, or more positively see as a seed that will grow in us to bear some harvest as yet unknown, for the living find the dead are with them always, our relationship might change, but it is not ended.