{"id":79492,"date":"2023-01-14T16:03:44","date_gmt":"2023-01-14T21:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldcatholicnews.com\/sunday-reflection-with-canon-robin-gibbons-15th-january-2023\/"},"modified":"2023-01-14T16:03:44","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T21:03:44","slug":"sunday-reflection-with-canon-robin-gibbons-15th-january-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldcatholicnews.com\/sunday-reflection-with-canon-robin-gibbons-15th-january-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons – 15th January 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

Ottavio Vannini<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the Northern Hemisphere we have passed that point on the day of the Winter Solstice where dark and light wrestle for the pre-eminent place in our daily life, January is supposed to be a gradual recovery of longer light: but as so often happens in life, the reality of more light isn’t quite what we experience, instead our weather seems to take a perverse delight in confounding this hope, the days are grey, the rain pours, the wind is bitter and biting and the ever present threat of snow and ice are never far away. I cannot speak for those on the other side of the world, but everybody can empathise with the effects of weather and light on our mood. I find January a difficult month, being one who responds to SAD it is difficult to keep my equilibrium these days and I wish and pray that more light, more sun would come. One secret wish is that enough of us might clamour for some kind of light festival throughout this month culminating in the celebration we know as Candlemas day on the second of February, like Christmas it is a religious festival rooted deeper than Christianity so might fit the bill!<\/p>\n

Therefore it is with a degree of hope that the gospel of this Sunday switches on, so to speak, the ministry of John the Baptist, and if we choose to share in his calling, it is also our task as well, and that is to be the herald of the Light. We must place this passage in its context, it comes shortly after that great elegy from John 1: 1-18 about Christ as Word made flesh and as the Light. Of John the Baptist, John the Evangelist writes : ‘A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world’.(Jn 1:6-9) It is with this illumination that our knowledge of John the Baptist’s testimony must be read and understood. So when we are faced with a difficult sentence in our passage, ‘I did not know him’ (vv 31 &33) we might easily be confused-for why does John clearly say that he did not know Jesus? How can this be if, as we are told in the infancy narratives, there is a connection between them?<\/p>\n

The easiest way to approach this is to ignore the infancy narratives in this particular case, for there is much scholarly debate about whether they appeared first in original texts of the gospels, instead what we must do, as John the Gospel writer does, is to focus on the ‘meaning’ of the Christ appearing amongst us and revealing His Light and Salvation which we are then called to experience. For us he is always the Christ of His passion death and resurrection, these can never be fully isolated from his ministry and meaning for us, for it is in that sure and certain hope of forgiveness of sin and resurrection to eternal life, that moves us onwards in our pilgrimage of seeking, yearning and discovering a deeper meaning in our life and impels us to believe and find in Him the answer that we have unknowingly sought all our lives. John tells us of his own ministry:<\/p>\n

“I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the desert,<\/p>\n

“Make straight the way of the Lord,”‘<\/p>\n

as Isaiah the prophet said.” (Jn 1:23)<\/p>\n

He is not only the baptiser but also the one who reveals Jesus to a world that does not know the Messiah, and it is this that John means when he says’ I did not know him’ for it is only when the voice and the Spirit appear at Jesus’ baptism that actual confirmation of what John has given his life to is shown in the Word and Light experienced in the humbled person of Jesus. You all can understand how John felt, for how many of us have great companionship with others, even family members, but discover at some point that we have never yet really known who they fully are, we are suddenly surprised to see something more in them, a greater whole, a reality we have been blind to until that moment-when something new dawns. I’m using that image of light and of sight, not external vision but the inner vision of the mind and heart part of the giftedness of the Spirit who allows us to penetrate into others hearts in a good and non-intrusive way. <\/p>\n

To end our reflection, I suggest that perhaps what we might take away as a point to ponder this week, is not only our calling is to be as John revealing Light and truth in Christ, but also to seek for Him in our own lives. Where is the Lamb of God for us? Where is the one who takes away our sin? He is here and there, he can be found, but our task, our calling is not only to do that for ourselves, but having encountered Him to lead others into the orbit of his love.<\/p>\n

St Augustine gives us his experience of the Lord as a way of helping us to understand how we may also encounter the Holy Christ, and I leave us all with these words from the Confessions as a way of understanding:<\/p>\n

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.”<\/p>\n

Amen, may it be so for us! <\/p>\n

Lectio<\/strong><\/p>\n

Homily of St John Chrysostom<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“And John bore record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from the heaven like a dove, and It abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the Same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.”<\/p>\n

He puts the “I knew Him not” repeatedly. On what account, and wherefore? He was His kinsman according to the flesh. “Behold,” saith the angel, “thy cousin Elisabeth, she also hath received a son.” ( Luke i. 36.) That therefore he might not seem to favour Him because of the relationship, he repeats the “I knew Him not.” And this happened with good reason; for he had passed all his time in the wilderness away from his father’s house.<\/p>\n

How then, if he knew Him not before the descent of the Spirit, and if he then for the first time recognized Him, did he forbid Him before baptism, saying, “I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?” ( Matt. iii. 14 ), since this was a proof that he knew Him very well. Yet he knew Him not before or for a long time, and with good cause; for the marvels which took place when He was a child, as the circumstances of the Magi and others the like, had happened long before, while John himself was very young, and since much time had elapsed in the interval, He was naturally unknown to all. For had He been known, John would not have said, “That He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing.”<\/p>\n

For “He who sent me to baptize with water,” and sent me for this end, “that He should be made manifest to Israel,” Himself revealed Him even before the descent of the Spirit. Wherefore even before He came, John said, “One cometh after me who is preferred before me.” He knew Him not before he came to Jordan and baptized all men, but when He was about to be baptized, then he knew Him; and this from the Father revealing Him to the Prophet, and the Spirit showing Him when He was being baptized to the Jews, for whose sake indeed the descent of the Spirit took place. For that the witness of John might not be despised who said, that “He was before me,” and that “He baptizeth with the Spirit,” and that “He judgeth the world,” the Father utters a Voice proclaiming the Son, and the Spirit descends, directing that Voice to the Head of Jesus. For since one was baptizing, the other receiving baptism, the Spirit comes to correct the idea which some of those present might form, that the words were spoken of John. So that when he says, “I knew Him not,” he speaks of former time, not that near to His baptism. Otherwise how could he have forbidden Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized of Thee”? How could he have said such words concerning Him?<\/p>\n

The Living Flame of Love<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

St John of the Cross<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

O living flame of love
that tenderly wounds my soul
in its deepest centre! Since
now you are not oppressive,
now consummate! if it be your will:
tear through the veil of this sweet encounter!<\/p>\n

O sweet cautery,
O delightful wound!
O gentle hand! O delicate touch
that tastes of eternal life
and pays every debt!
In killing you changed death to life.<\/p>\n

O lamps of fire!
in whose splendours
the deep caverns of feeling,
once obscure and blind,
now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely,
both warmth and light to their Beloved.<\/p>\n

How gently and lovingly
you wake in my heart,
where in secret you dwell alone;
and in your sweet breathing,
filled with good and glory,
how tenderly you swell my heart with love.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Credit: Source link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ottavio Vannini Second Sunday in Ordinary Time In the Northern Hemisphere we have passed that point on the day of the Winter Solstice where dark and light wrestle for the pre-eminent place in our daily life, January is supposed to be a gradual recovery of longer light: but as so often happens in life, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 15th January 2023 - WORLD CATHOLIC NEWS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.worldcatholicnews.com\/sunday-reflection-with-canon-robin-gibbons-15th-january-2023\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 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