Matthew under the arm 55

For over a week now, a young man has been catching up with us, everywhere we stop. Columba is getting more and more irritated with him. So this morning, just as we were setting off (lovely breakfast of bread and thick milk!), he approached us and started to ask whether he could join us permanently on the pilgrimage. 'No!', Columba said sharply. Frankly, I was disturbed by the apparent unkindness. 'But I want to learn more and more about the spiritual path of following the Gospel of Matthew from you. You, Columba, have become so vital in giving me encouragement and strength to face the journey. In fact, I regard you as a friend. More than that.. I want to be one of your students.' 'You will be a student of mine if you leave me alone, learn the Gospel of Matthew, enter deeply into prayer and follow Christ by living the Christ-like life.' I was rather cross about this actually! 'Well... dependence has only any meaning in God. Certainly not in or on me!' 'Should I leave you then Columba?' I smiled.... Columba smiled too.

Matthew 12:45-50….
In early Christianity it took a while to articulate, the actual unity that is to be had in relationship to God. The prophetic nature of Christianity is that all exclusive behaviour and culture, particularly familial and religious is challenged. This is disturbing to any society. Christianity is not about taking people away from their families into some group. Christian history has had too much that. The reality is that in God we are all one – but we behave as if we are separate from each other.


Let your heart be one with all around you through union with Christ


To be detached from exclusive relationships demands huge courage and possibly rejection. However, remember love cannot be love if it includes possessing the one I love. Christ did not shun his Mother and his brothers. He knew he was already one with them, even if they didn’t. That oneness he also has with you right now. Enjoy it in using this sentence. You may not feel any unity, see it, it taste etc… Meditation is about waiting and acceptance. Hold to the discipline of praying in the Unity of God. Who are you intimate with and how much do you want to possess them? Pray for freedom from that desire to possess and your love will grow as your Unity in God grows in this life and beyond….

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 54

News came to us this morning just before we set out walking, that fighting had broken out in a neighbouring country. Refugees were making their way across the border. There was a real fear that the fighting would spread. Columba listened to the person carrying the news with close attention. I turned away with my heart pounding. Frankly, I was terrified. However, I was too ashamed to show it to any one, including Columba! He found me in a little church on the outskirts of the village. There I was kneeling, trying to pray and all I could feel was the terror at the pit of my stomach and a sense of shame. There was no point in hiding any more. So I told Columba of my fear and my shame. 'Why shame?' he asked. I replied with a low and quivering voice, 'Your first thought was for the refugees and those who would be injured or killed. Mine was for myself: would the fighting spread onto the pilgrimage? Would I be at risk? Would panic break out - including in me? I am worrying about myself.' So he asked me to name ALL my fears in this situation to him. I put my head against his shoulder at the back of the church and wept like a 6 year old child.... Was this the shoulder of Christ?

Matthew 12:43-45….

Most people in our culture have difficulty with belief in external spiritual entities such as demons, angels etc… Therefore, it would be all too easy to overlook the vital spiritual significance of this passage. Artists frequently talk about ‘muses’ that inspire and ‘the black that dog’ (Winston Churchill) that depresses and kills inspiration. One way of looking at the passage (but, by no means, the only one!) is to see ourselves with internal 'sub-personalities' that we can allow to have too much control over us – internalised ‘voices’ from our development – fear, power, deception etc… Protecting ourselves from the power of these is one of the tasks of spirituality.


That my inner life may be strengthened for the service of others



One of the ways of protecting yourself from the power of 'sub-personalities' from your own history (the ones that we might call 'demons' - that have a destructive quality to them) is to accept them and understand them, for example, the 'little boy or girl' afraid from an experience of childhood that still can control some of your responses. Affection can heal and even use the memory creatively. If these ‘elements’ are not accepted they can grip you and dictate your responses in ways that you do not realise. Worse they can become destructive in others lives. Use the sentence to all the Spirit of God to strengthen your inner life and be free of the power of the forces that memories can release.

+Martin

Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 53

This morning, Columba and got absolutely soaked! So, when the rain finally ceased at about 3 o'clock, we stopped to dry all out kit. The path is now high and we were looking over the dark grey sea, which still had a huge swell. Wonderful sight! 'Go on... take your clothes off!', Columba said. 'But what if someone comes along. What will they think?' 'Do you want to dry your clothes or catch pneumonia?' That reminded me... 'You Columba are known as a holy man!' He laughed. So I stuttered a question. 'If I did catch pneumonia, could you....?' 'Stop right there!', he barked. He was silent for a long time and, after ringing out his sodden vest, then on a muddy patch on the ground, with his stick, he drew a huge fish. Underneath he wrote; 'The Sign of Jonah'. He smiled. That's holiness.....


Matthew 12:38-42….
Insecurity [our common 'dis-ease'] leads to the desire for ‘signs’ – assurances, indications of survival. The seduction and, indeed, addiction to affirmation. Although being affirmative is a fine human quality, no affirmation is finally satisfying. To live for it as such is illusion! Three days in the belly of the whale like Jonah is all the sign Jesus gives. Swallowed, in total darkness... Lost. In parallel to other religious cultures, the ego that hunts constantly for security must ‘die’ in order that the True Self can come to birth that is ‘hid with Christ in God’. But it’s not just dying that is significant, it is HOW we prepare for our dying… so that my dying is a gift to others and it begins now.

I would be attentive to the Spirit’s reconciling and healing of Creation


‘Dying to self’ is, frankly, a tired phrase. ‘Dyings’ in the plural, of which one is my physical death, is better. Because I have not been free enough in heart to die to the hungers of my ego, I add to the damage my environment. ‘It’s my space over against yours.’ So enter into silence that is a 'dying' and wait for a moment. Look over your behaviour recently. In what ways have you wanted to exercise the power of your ego over against others – no matter how subtly? Who do you know personally or in history that has genuinely ‘died’ to the power of the ego for others? What has their life really meant? And your dying….? Is it a contribution to the care and freedom of others and creation?

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles
(I will find it difficult to add a posting for the next few days... But I'll do my best)

Matthew under the arm 52

I looked at Columba as he got into his bunk tonight. He is getting old. My goodness! he will not be around for ever. Somehow, I had always assumed that such a man has an 'eternity' - a certainty to them. Such as Columba will always be with me in whatever pilgrimage I make. (stupid!)When he laid his head down, I heard him cough. 'Are you OK?' I asked. Although I couldn't see him from my bunk in the dark, I heard him whisper! 'Of course, I'm OK. You will have to start letting me go, you know!' 'What do you mean?' I asked anxiously. 'Well.... My coughing like my breathing will end... and then what of your pilgrimage?'



Matthew 16:6-12....
Religious certainty is destructive. To believe in a religious system that gives certain guidance leads to licence to decide others fate: anything from over-riding control, rejection, to a crucifixion - even genocide. 'That person, those people are denying my religion, therefore they are blasphemous and must be rejected.' We are hungry for certainty as if it were bread in the wilderness. We are deluded enough to believe that certainty in religion will banish our deepest secret - fear. The dangerous ‘leaven’ of religion.


Through Your Wisdom, I would realise the freedom of insecurity.

What is the gift you have received, the generosity you have experienced that has been given without any expectation - that has created a sense of freedom in you? Picture the giver and the gift. Go before Christ and 'hold' it out to Him in deep thanks. Even allow yourself to smile! What certainties have you been given? Any? Do you really want them? Generosity is an act out of uncertainty, even insecurity, otherwise it wouldn't be generosity. Now enter your prayer and experience the freedom that spiritual insecurity, uncertainty brings. (‘Blessed are the Poor in Spirit...’)

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 51

My feet were sore yesterday, because I stumbled in a pot hole, because I wasn't looking! So i sat down to rest. Columba waited beside me and gave me a massage. Wonderful! (And me.... with my sweaty, smelly feet!) Afterwards, we prayed with this passage of Matthew. Columba, of course, as usual providing the sentence that suggested itself from the passage. Later, I asked him if there really was anyone, no matter how appalling their atttitudes and behaviour may be, who was utterly condemned. 'Oh yes!' he replied. 'Well... Mmmm.... If you are expecting me to consign someone to Hell irretrievably, then I must include myself.' He stood up. My jaw dropped.


Matthew 12:22-32….
Does denying the Holy Spirit really mean that we will never be forgiven? The forgiveness of God is the Love of God. To deny the work of the Spirit, is in fact to deny the work forgiveness and healing. It is to be in a self-imposed exile from creation because we put ourselves outside forgiveness. The sin against the Holy Spirit is not about whether I believe in God or not. What is absolutely crucial is whether I intentionally set out to destroy the economy of Love. The passage says ‘…in the this life or the next’. But!.... God will cross even my being ‘unforgiven’ in any world to come, out of love. There are outcasts around us now let alone in some vision of eternity. By responding to them in love now, I acknowledge eternity’s breaking in here now.


That I may perceive the Spirit of Forgiveness and Healing within me


To acknowledge that healing and forgiveness is happening means that you will be accepting change, transformation within you. That can be uncomfortable and bring apprehension. So you avoid it! That is, in a way, a denial of the Spirit of God. Does that condemn you to be an eternal outcast? If so there is no one acceptable to God. Christ, however, is the acceptance of God and will wait for every age you will be in, beyond your death, for an acceptance of love in its fullness. The beauty of this is awesome. Let the sentence lead you into the deep silence of this beauty! Now is the time to be truly responsive.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 50

We went into a little Church yesterday. There was a local festival. I can't remember the name of the saint who was the focus of the celebration. At the end, as we were leaving, we couldn't help overhearing an argument between a priest and another visitor. It seemed as if the visitor objected to what the priest said. I can only guess that it was one of those pathetic arguments between different styles of Christianity. Inevitably, like all such arguments, someone was 'right' and someone was 'wrong'. I spoke to Columba and asked him to go and put both of them right. He didn't. But he went to the back seats and knelt in prayer. Eventually the arguers noticed and fell silent themselves. They also noticed that Columba's back was rising and falling as if he was having difficulty in breathing. I rushed to his side. He was weeping. The priest and his adversary came to help. Nothing was said, but we all realised what was the cause of his sadness which he took into prayer and silence.


Matthew 12:15-21….
Christians have all too often distorted the Christ-like life. Christendom can seem distinctly noisy and even egotistically strident whereas Christ makes few if any assumptions. And yet, there is a strange paradox, the gentlest Christians have often been the strongest – the ones whom we have to strain to hear have spoken loudest. Jesus wanted to avoid too many assumptions being made about him, as his Father’s Kingdom was not yet realised. This psychology is particularly difficult in our age when celebrity is revered and yet there is a vacuous quality to it .

Come to me and I will give you the Spirit of Love, Truth and Service




The desire to have my ego fed is so strong and yet can never be satisfied. It becomes an addiction particular in religion, where some personalities want to have spiritual power. The Kingdom of God is the 'otherness' of God. There are tastes of it now, but there is always a part of the ‘kingdom-process’ that is not yet…. So establish silence that in itself is a placing of the attention beyond the desire of satisfaction. By the service of others, the feeding of that love through silent meditation, I enter into the life of Christ the powerless one whose authority was of God.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 49

Today it poured! So we sat under a blanket on a bench beside the path. The bench was made of old planks and logs. As I sat, a splinter (The Scots call it - a 'scelf') lodged itself in an unmentionable place! All Columba could do was to joke. 'Ah! Now we are getting down to the bottom of things!' Grrr! Two young people came to sit beside us. They were beaming and full of praise and thanks for Columba. He gets it all the time! Columba told them quite firmly that they must constantly recollect their healing experience from the day before. Later he told me that the two young people had been walking for days arguing sometimes and in cold disdain for each other the rest of the time. I knew that they were near to us on the walk, but I didn't notice their behaviour. 'How did you get involved?' I asked rather resentfully. 'I don't know. They simply stopped, waited for me to catch up and asked if I could help. All I did was to listen to them, look at them and love them.' I so resent Columba's 'aura'. I burn with desire to have the admiration of others on this pilgrimage - so much so, that it is poisoning me.


Matthew 12:9-14….
The slightest hint that someone experiences the presence of God, or is admired and wanted by others…. then I feel that appalling poison of jealousy. That’s the Pharisee in me. What can I then do to undermine that person and stifle freedom? Luckily not everyone has this neurosis! Then ‘my withered hand’ – will I have the courage to stretch it out before Christ, exposing the dark decaying part of myself? The man in this healing story says nothing. Nothing need be said when I expose the weakest part of myself. He had little to lose. Losing face is what stops me.


Receive the gift of Faith and stretch out your life before My Healing Love



What do you feel to be ‘withered’ in your life? Look at your hand and ‘see’ it there. What do you feel about it? It may not be something in you that cries out for physical healing. It may be a relationship, a memory, a fear….etc Now stretch out your hand. Then with the other hand use the sentence deeply. Receive. Then put your hands gently together, lay them on your lap and let Christ come to you through your repetition of the sentence.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 48

I was on my own for a whole day. Great. I could relax and not think too much about Columba. However, when I walked passed a group of houses, I could see a commotion outside a farm. A neighbour had complained that his fence didn't really mark the true extent of his land. He wanted the lawyers to fight his cause. The neighbours almost came to blows. Columba strode threw the middle of the argument and, without saying a word, ushered the neighbours to follow him. He got to the disputed fence and lay down on the ground and closed his eyes.'What are you doing?', said one farmer. 'Stop wasting my time!' said the other. Columba opened one eye and said, 'I'll lie here until you realise that this land belongs to neither of you'. Hours passed. The neighbours waited and waited. Columba stood up and said, 'Come with me on my pilgrimage and I'll teach you how to pray for each other'. They didn't, of course. But when they both returned home, they prepared themselves for bed and realised how stupid they were. The dispute is over. Who got the best out of it? Does it matter? The neighbouring farmers met the following day. There was no argument but they wondered who the stranger was.


Matthew 12.1-8....
The dynamic that lies at the basis of religion is the inspiring life of a prophet or an event that galvanises community. It is not an institution or a system. Inevitably once people gather round the dynamic, and a system is developed to manage the dynamic. The difficulty comes when the management becomes so controlling that the institution is confused with the dynamic. This passage illuastrates that tendency clearly. Spirituality is about staying in touch with the dynamic, using institutions and systems where they are useful and flexible asa is the way of dynamic.

In Your Wisdom and Truth, I would grow in awareness of Your Presence.

The Gospel's sense of 'Love' is always in the direction of love of 'the other'.When love of 'the other' happens, there is an experience of the presence of the Christ. So when silence and prayer are disciplined, then you are directed by the Love of God from your inner life to 'the other'. Christian meditation is about moving inwards in order to move outwards for 'the other'. What really matters is the longing that comes from your meditation. That is why it is important to meditate no matter what you may be feeling like. Concentrate on this sentence. Do not repeat the sentence until you are focused on every word. Then allow God to love others through your longing for God.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles