Matthew under the arm 103

[I can't help noticing that the current disturbing treatment of +Rowan our Archbishop, at least for me, has echoes from in the time of Christ's Passion. The Roman 'Law' was held supreme in Palestine and yet it clashed with Jewish Law. Christ dared to stand in the middle of that clash and pose questions.... Where did that lead....? Or for that matter look at the way St Paul wrestled in his letter to the Romans with Law and Grace. I thank God for the depth of +Rowan's prayer and his presence which is his leadership. He or she who has eyes or ears......... ] It was a very cold day yesterday. Columba and I found it particularly hard to keep going. Further the landscape was tedious, not helped by the low lying mist. We came across a crossing of paths and felt uncertain as to which direction to take. Behind a stone wall, there was an old evergreen tree, the shape of which was distinctly influenced by the prevailing winds, and yet it was still there and still green. Columba seemed to be looking at the tree for an inordinate time. I was getting cold. So I tapped him on the shoulder. He didn't turn, but fell to his knees in prayer before the tree. 'Can't you see?', he almost snapped at me, 'We are being invited not simply to read about the Passion. This tree is speaking: "Be the Passion!" Matthew 21:18-22…. The word vandalism initially comes to mind. However, understanding this story is difficult, given the years and the consequent difference in cultural assumptions. Authority over nature itself was presumably regarded as a mark of divinity. Although allegorical interpretation is not regarded as highly as it once was, the fig tree that bears no fruit might be paralleled with the tree (the cross) that did bear the fruit of Redemption, particularly as the story is placed just before the Passion. The heart of the story is faith and prayer. The starkness of the story illustrates the utter centrality of God in and over all things. That in your stillness you may Receive My Gift of Faith and have My Grace to live it In the Middle and Far Eastern religious cultures, the story of God is portrayed in myth. Myth is truth told ‘at a tangent’. If you were invited to tell a group about faith and prayer, as you understand it, perhaps you would use story and myth. In the stillness begin with the sentence; tell a brief story that comes from you about the centrality of faith and prayer for you. Perhaps afterwards, you may want to write it down. Then with a friend or spiritual director tease out how you live out the faith given you. +Martin Argyll and The Isles