Matthew under the arm 112

For two days now, Columba has had that pinched look to his face. Frankly, the great man is being a pain. But there is a beauty to that! he had a sleepless night last night and I had to join him in his lseeplessness. He moaned away that no one had spoken to him about anything worthwhile for days. No one had asked for advice. No one had said 'thank you'.... etc. etc. 'Poor you!', I mockingly added. He turned over and snorted. In fact, I am certain he swore at me! Rather self-righteously, I said to him,'But Columba, you have spoken about giving away power, about humility....' 'Yes!' he replied, 'I spoke about it, but I can't do it'. I added, 'Well, if it was me saying these things, you would be remarking something like... "If you can't live it yourself, then let Christ live it in you."'. Another snort!

Matthew 23:1-11….
The reality is that those who have any level of psychological security do not need to be noticed or given status. In political and religious institutions in particular, the weaker they become the more names, ranks and hierarchies seem to appear. It reveals an anxiety about collapse and loss. Jesus makes the assumption that the one who follows him has begun to experience inner security for two reasons. The first is that he or she acknowledges the Kingdom of God as the only process into which human endeavour is aiming to be incorporated. That process is entirely characterised by service and not power. The second is that God has such prior place in human consideration that status and posture is of little if no significance.

I would be more and more free to be of service to the Hope of Christ.

What you choose to wear, your manner in all conversations, what you spend your resources on, are give-aways! Self-image is one that is more important than most are prepared to admit. Lack of affirmation can lead to alienation and resentment. If whole classes or ethnic groups feel such, there are profound dangers, which our cultures are now experiencing. On the other hand, to seek for admiration or conversely sympathy for its own sake is to be cut off from the health of Christ’s vision for hope in God. In the silence, look at recent days and relive the experiences where you sought for attention for its own sake. This exercise is not about guilt, but about becoming awake to motivation and action. In your prayer, ask deeply to have your ‘compass bearings’ reset to the love and service of God in others.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 111

[I appreciate that there is huge anachronism in these 'posts' given that it is in the period of Holy Week and Easter. There is a magnificent and disturbing painting by Matthias Grunewald, contained in the triptych known as the Isenheim altarpiece. Christ is putrid and decaying on the bent and knotted framework of the cross. Below Him is John the Baptism holding the text: 'I must decrease.; he must increase'. With his free hand he points to the hideous figure that has that inimical and severe beauty to it. Of course, the 'presence of John the Baptist' at the crucifixion is, perhaps, a glorious anachronism! After all, my standing at the foot of the cross with you, is also an anachronism...... Remember that these meditations are shared with you from the perspective of thousands of years of living in the economy of a Risen Christ crucified... time is turned on it head! May the souls of the dead visited by Christ this day (Holy Saturday) be for us the mystery of hope.]

Two days ago, late on in the afternoon, Columba was climbing some steps over a dyke wall. Admittedly, it was pouring with rain as well as being bitterly cold. He and I were soaked through and miserable. Yes, Columba, thank God, was miserable. That was reassuring, at least! However, he fell and, having put his right hand out to stop his fall, his wrist audibly snapped! He cried out in agony, dancing around at the edge of the field, moaning and wailing. Cruel though this may seem, I was even more reassured. So Columba can make a fuss too....! I did my best to wrap his wrist with a cloth I use to keep my Matthew's Gospel dry! All the way to the village, he was nothing short of panicing. 'My hand has come away from my arm...I am never again going to be able to use it.' When we sat down by a gorgeous blazing fire, he calmed down as I helped him drink some soup and eat some fresh bread. Columba looked at me like a child... 'How, my good friend, am I going to understand Christ's pain when I can't come to terms with this?' I shrugged my shoulders. He shouted his question again... His question was not rhetorical, he was beseeching me to answer. A deep question from Columba! Humility indeed.


Matthew 22:41-46….
Some first century Jews held that Messiah would be David’s son. However, if Messiah is greater than David, there is a difficulty. So Christ is both son and Lord… In our western way of thinking we assume here some sort of hierarchy. Jesus plays with this. To be son is to be in God and to be Lord is to be a slave! Thus Jesus puts a question mark over all assumptions about power and indeed about human relationships.


Let Me be your servant that you, being in God, may serve


Notice the importance of questions in the Gospels. In a strange way, they reveal the power of Jesus. Normally when questions are asked they demonstrate that one person is dependent on another to answer. So asking a question gives away power. Questions then reveal humility. That is precisely where the ‘power’ of Christ is: service. So the focus of spirituality is in the inner desire to know, to grow in order to move outwards to serve. You may have a question for someone today. What lies at the heart of that question? In your silence enter that question then use the sentence. What is the real question in your heart that you want to put to God?

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 110

Yesterday was a difficult day. I was feeling depressed and tired. Matthew's Gospel had been with me for all this time and I felt I had come to know Christ less and less, let alone be known by Him. Columba had a terrible habit of slapping me in my lower back when I looked low, as if to say: 'Snap out of it!' He was always nauseatingly free of depression. Bad tempered frequently, but not morose, like me! To make matters worse several pilgrims had been gathering for days at various junctions of the pilgrim route to meet with Columba and ask him questions and catch pearls from him. Watching all this, made me hugely jealous! I want that kind of following and admiration, but I daren't tell anyone... This morning, Columba insisted that we rose even earlier than usual to leave the inn. 'Why?' I asked him. 'The worst part of my personality is that I want to hold onto those I have come to love.' 'But all they would want to do is to say thank you!', I added thoughtlessly. 'Precisely!' Columba quipped.

Matthew 22:34-40….
The two greatest commandments have a simplicity to them that disturbs. They are imperative. The whole person must move out to The Otherness of God. In the slip-stream of this movement is the love of neighbour. The development of the personal spiritual life happens as a consequence of this attitude and activity. However, the inner life is where the well-spring of The Spirit is. The Love and Service of the other person is a reflex reaction to the inner life.


Wait still on My Life and My Love that your life may be Christ-like in simplicity and service


In your meditation, it is important to remember a simple process. You move in, in order to move out. That is why that pattern must be explicit in Christian Liturgy. The Eucharist is a process of moving in to offer 'ourselves' (the community of faith... the 'Body'), then to receive the sacrament, the active sign of God, in order to move out to give. That is why all prayer is Eucharistic, sacramental. In meditation, 'we' move into pray in silence in order to offer our 'lives' in Love to God, with all your distractions, doubts, hope and emptiness. We then move out, while still in meditation. Otherwise the meditation bears little or no relationship to living.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 109

[As you can see, I am going to get nowhere near the conclusion of St Matthew's Gospel in time for Easter. Well... I justify myself by suggesting that I, for one, can only see the resurrection through the prism of the crucifixion... Anyway to all your bloggers out there, I hope your postings and receivings are strength-giving and encouraging for you during this Holy season.]

Two ponies looked rather doleful at the edge of a field we passed earlier. This was not surprising, as the wind was almost horizontal and the snow seemed to cut into everything. Columba climbed the wall, gave them some feed which he had gathered by scrabbling around beneath the snow cover. He was speaking to them and consoling them, gathering broken branches to form a wind-break... That evening at the inn, Columba winced as he listened to the acid gossip of two men. He stood up and held his cloak in front of the men, in effect hiding them from the guests in the inn. 'What are you doing?', I asked. 'I am protecting the guests from the storm from these men's mouths.' Mmmm. I laughed and then remembered my own inclination to undermine!

Matthew 22:23-33….
Most have had the experience of coming across an argument that will win us a debate. Either we will win admiration or we will have trapped our opponent. The motivation is to raise the status of our ego and reduce the other’s. Admitting to the desire to undermine someone of whom we are jealous or afraid is hard. The Sadducees desire to trap Jesus is one with which we can identify all too painfully. Every circumstance becomes a creative opportunity for Jesus. So he speaks of ‘now’ – the living. This is the moment of God. While we argue about what we do and do not believe, which is more about hubris, we miss the opportunity to perceive of God’s desire for this moment.

I would receive Your Grace to listen to others as Your Living Presence in the present moment.


Establish silence with the use of the sentence, remembering that one of the ways of describing meditation is ‘Listening to God’. This listening then becomes more and more an attitude that you will have towards others in your daily life. Silence is not the same as the absence of noise or the refusal to speak or engage. The Carthuisians have that lovely phrase: 'We speak in silences'. Further, there are some to whom you will probably find it hard to listen. Maybe you would, in your heart of hearts, like to undermine that person to inflate or protect your own ego. See that person in your imagination and ask for the gift of listening. Ask also to be freed from the desire to undermine. What happens is the gradually you will see what is true in that person because you are being true to yourself. The desire for ego-inflation becomes redundant.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles

Matthew under the arm 108

A priest joined us on a relatively easy part of our walking. He had that look on his face which I always leaves me guessing. Was he arrogant or fearful. After all, arrogance is often a posture adopted by the fearful as an attempt not to have the fear exposed. Columba was talking with this priest for hours on end. What struck me was that most of te time Columba asked the priest a question, he seemed to have an answer. When the priest asked Columba a question, frequently Columba's response was of not knowing or even uncertainty.

Matthew 22:15-22….
Two groups which represent religion and local politics feel threatened by Jesus. So they hoped by a pincer movement to trap Jesus – either for blasphemy (Caesar is divine – therefore a direct challenge to Jewish theology) or for incitement to dissidence (Caesar is not divine – against the political status quo). His neat reply is almost like a Zen conundrum (koan). The Kingdom of God is breaking in but it is also not here. All religion falls into the trap of either being over-identified with political power and norms or putting itself beyond them. The motivation for both can be disturbingly similar. The way of Christ demands simplicity. However, true simplicity is delicate and demands a refined balance.

Let the Way of Your Truth deepen my awareness of Your Life in all things.


By disidentifying yourself from the drive for power over others and by refining the spiritual antennae of awareness, you can remain free to live and work in the middle of human structures, and so bring a simple prophetic insight of detachment, by the way you are. This demands great discipline. That is why you are asked to spend time regularly in prayer – by dropping down into your inner life. That refined balance is achieved by the Spirit of Christ that then has a consequent affect in your outer life.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles.

Matthew under the arm 107

Several weeks ago, Columba and I stopped by a rather half-hearted fountain in the middle of this admittedly picturesque little village. I pulled out from my bag some bread and broke some for Columba. He produced some rather pathetic looking tomatoes and an apple from his pockets which he shared with me. Next to us, two men and a women were having an animated discussion about someone else in the village. The absent subject of the conversation was having his personality torn to shreds, which is always the danger of gossip, of course. Columba stopped munching and looked at me, horrified. He turned to the group and said, 'Move on from your self-destruction'. They stopped and looked puzzled. Later he said to me that at least their puzzlement stopped their destructive conversation. 'As for you', he raised his voice to me, 'You were enjoying their gossip'. I was. We reached a crossroads and turned left. As I turned left, I broke into tears. Columba laughed and gave me some ginger from his little paper bag. 'Be ready on all occasions for the presence, the suffering, the death and the resurrection of Jesus', he added with a wink.



Matthew 22:1-14….
The ones who are at the crossroads are at least prepared to go in whichever direction they are called. They are waiting. But the waiting to which Christ alludes must include a personal readiness: a waiting on God. So we are summoned to be at the crossroads and to have all our affairs in order – the wedding garment. The Gospels writers assumed that readers would be familiar with the Kingdom of God being like a banquet, a wedding, a party. After all, the best parties are about relationships. Beautifully cooked food and prepared tables are a sign of love for the guests. Good parties and eating together are also a sign of a group ready to move on in their relationship. Once again the Kingdom of God is not seen as a place but as a process, a journey. Experience shows that the best parties take place on pilgrimages!


In stillness, let your heart and mind be aware of my call to follow My Way

In this exercise, if you can, go out for a brief walk with your bible. Notice the simple activities of how you prepare for this walk. Begin by noticing the environment of your walk: the weather, the street, path or pavement, the buildings, the natural world around you. Smell, look, feel. Stop for a few moments (in a safe and, if possible, inconspicuous place!) and read this passage twice. Then as you continue, recall the parable. Return to your place of prayer and use the sentence to deepen your awareness to Christ’s vocation and the state of your personal readiness.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles