Matthew under the arm 16
Already on thius pilgrimage, I have grown to love Columba. He listens. He watches. He is there - no - here (!) for me totally... or so it seems. I walk beside him and am aware that as he looks into the middle distance, he 'holds' me in his heart, but I don't feel suffocated by that holding. What is so strange though is that I notice that as he leant across a fence yesterday to talk to a farmer feeding his cattle, he was uniquely attaentive to him as well. I was jealous. I want Columba's company on this pilgrimage just for me; my possession! Oh dear.... I better open the passage....
Matthew 5:27-32
Lust and adultery are not in themselves central to this passage! The expectations of the arrival of a Kingdom among religiously aware people were acute. The Gospel imperative is entirely centred on God. Anything that gets in the way of that might well lead not only to moral collapse but more importantly to a lack of preparedness for urgent coming of the Kingdom. It’s not so much sexuality itself, but possessiveness that gets in the way. That is a universal truth. The longing for sexual fulfilment is delightful and healthy! However, the desire to possess the one I long for... that's where the deadening of love begins. Possessiveness is a poison: it is inordinate attachment to that which I desire. Being 'cast into hell' is a poetic description of what it is to be separated from love – separated from the freedom that is the non-possessiveness of the Love of God.
Let your heart be open to the Love of My Holiness
In praying, I may be afraid of moving into what is apparently a loneliness, a void, emptiness. If I choose God over against possessing what I desire: sex or otherwise, I fear I might be left with nothing. That seems frightening. I ask in my meditation for the gift of being open (and that means using the gift of faith given by God) to the possibility of freedom and not possession. Out of that, I may be some instrument of freedom for others. I no longer need to possess you. You are free. And that is love! And that is so hard. It’s a crucifixion almost. Holiness is nothing other than the space, the freedom of God. There is a beautiful pain in this meditation as in the silence I am bound to encounter the possessiveness that strangles my freedom. Staying with the sentence will help me to move beyond the choke of possessiveness to the freedom of God, just a little.
+Martin
Argyll and The Isles
Matthew 5:27-32
Lust and adultery are not in themselves central to this passage! The expectations of the arrival of a Kingdom among religiously aware people were acute. The Gospel imperative is entirely centred on God. Anything that gets in the way of that might well lead not only to moral collapse but more importantly to a lack of preparedness for urgent coming of the Kingdom. It’s not so much sexuality itself, but possessiveness that gets in the way. That is a universal truth. The longing for sexual fulfilment is delightful and healthy! However, the desire to possess the one I long for... that's where the deadening of love begins. Possessiveness is a poison: it is inordinate attachment to that which I desire. Being 'cast into hell' is a poetic description of what it is to be separated from love – separated from the freedom that is the non-possessiveness of the Love of God.
Let your heart be open to the Love of My Holiness
In praying, I may be afraid of moving into what is apparently a loneliness, a void, emptiness. If I choose God over against possessing what I desire: sex or otherwise, I fear I might be left with nothing. That seems frightening. I ask in my meditation for the gift of being open (and that means using the gift of faith given by God) to the possibility of freedom and not possession. Out of that, I may be some instrument of freedom for others. I no longer need to possess you. You are free. And that is love! And that is so hard. It’s a crucifixion almost. Holiness is nothing other than the space, the freedom of God. There is a beautiful pain in this meditation as in the silence I am bound to encounter the possessiveness that strangles my freedom. Staying with the sentence will help me to move beyond the choke of possessiveness to the freedom of God, just a little.
+Martin
Argyll and The Isles
posted by Martin at 8:17 am
1 Comments:
The freedom of God is about the most exciting idea I can contemplate. Thank you!
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