Matthew under the arm 123
Columba is beginning to worry me. He is exhausted. But there is a limit to what I can do....isn't there? Surely? This evening when we arrived at a little cottage to sleep in the barn, the old lady who owned the house, offered us water to wash ourselves. Columba said he was too tired. I replied that he stank to high heavens! 'Well then. You wash me! I'm too tired to do anything for myself'. There was silence. 'I'll wash your feet and your head and hair....' 'When you were a boy', he then asked, 'Did your father or mother not wash you all over.' 'Of course', I answered apprehensively. 'Well, I am your child now. Wash me all over'. When I lay down on my blanket to sleep, I buried my head. Why? I turned away from Columba and could not face the intimacy.
Matthew 26:6-13….
Jesus’ host’s skin-disease was probably contagious. It would have been seen as a moral ‘sentence’, not unlike leprosy. Then, for Jesus, it would have been risky to have a woman be physically intimate with him. Further, the oil was expensive and lavishing it on Jesus seemed to contradict Jesus teaching about poverty. To cap it all, Jesus used this anointing to prepare his disciples, men and women, for his death, his burial. Of course, anointing was associated with death, but Jesus' death? He has been called The Sign of Contradiction. On every count in this story he ‘goes against the grain’. Why? Because his kingdom is not of this ‘world’.
I would look for the signs of Your Kingdom in among the rejected.
In your silence, recollect a time when physically you have been loved in whatever way: some act of love given freely entirely for you, no matter how small. Get into the detail and enjoy it. It is Eucharistic! ‘Do this in remembrance of (recollecting - 'anamnesis') me.’ ‘This is my body. This is my blood.’ Now recollect some intimate act of love you have given for someone else, particularly to someone most people would reject. If this is difficult, then simply imagine someone you would be inclined to reject and then - love them! Go on - do it - now! Use the sentence to deepen your prayer.
+Martin
Argyll and The Isles
Matthew 26:6-13….
Jesus’ host’s skin-disease was probably contagious. It would have been seen as a moral ‘sentence’, not unlike leprosy. Then, for Jesus, it would have been risky to have a woman be physically intimate with him. Further, the oil was expensive and lavishing it on Jesus seemed to contradict Jesus teaching about poverty. To cap it all, Jesus used this anointing to prepare his disciples, men and women, for his death, his burial. Of course, anointing was associated with death, but Jesus' death? He has been called The Sign of Contradiction. On every count in this story he ‘goes against the grain’. Why? Because his kingdom is not of this ‘world’.
I would look for the signs of Your Kingdom in among the rejected.
In your silence, recollect a time when physically you have been loved in whatever way: some act of love given freely entirely for you, no matter how small. Get into the detail and enjoy it. It is Eucharistic! ‘Do this in remembrance of (recollecting - 'anamnesis') me.’ ‘This is my body. This is my blood.’ Now recollect some intimate act of love you have given for someone else, particularly to someone most people would reject. If this is difficult, then simply imagine someone you would be inclined to reject and then - love them! Go on - do it - now! Use the sentence to deepen your prayer.
+Martin
Argyll and The Isles
Labels: Intimacy and Rejection
posted by Martin at 3:03 pm
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