Matthew under the arm 131

For days now, Columba and I have been walking through wilderness. Nothing seems to grow except the occasional desolate scrub. The pathway is like caked clay. Beside the road, family groups huddle on their haunches staring hopelessly at us as we pass. They have been fleeing for weeks from the war. It is as if, as Graham Greene would have put it, they were waiting at an appointed place for their inevitable fate. In my bag, was a bottle with just a suggestion of water at the bottom. Wrapped in cloth was the remainder of yesterday's bread and cheese. Columba was needed. So I urged him to continue past the groups until we found a place where could have something to eat and drink. Eventually, beside a ruined sheep pen, I gave him a little bread and the bottle. he disappeared with both. Later in the afternoon, he was rasping for water. I realised then that he had taken his food and drink back to the group. Christ of the alienated and destitute, I am still on this pilgrimage and I have still not learnt!


Matthew 27.1-10
One of the greatest challenges to any legal system even in supposedly sophistictaed societies, is to ensure that the outcome of litigation is not engineered in advance. Even in the UK, there have been recent legal cases where evidence has been distinctly loaded or 'spun' in order to produce a desired outcome. After all, it can be said that agile council has the precise job of attempting to steer the mind of the court or jury in a particular direction. That's the job. Even on a personal level, I want you to be seen to be wrong and for you to accept that I am right. Worse, I am in danger of assuming that you need to have the 'Jesus Christ' that I want you to have. Worse still, I might find myself using the Bible as spiritual justification for my own prejudices and desire for influence over others. My outcomes! So the devastating and intolerable guilt that welled up in Judas when he realised that the case against Jesus was 'stacked' was too much. What an end! A potter's field - a graveyard for foreigners. Maybe that is where Christ is to be found first! Otherwise what's the point of the story being included on the Gospel?

I would have the trust and courage to find You in the places of alienation

Where is it that you feel, or have felt, most alienated yourself? Remember that this question is to be asked in the context of you praying! So establish stillness and focus. Sit in stillness, breathe easily and keep your hands resting on your lap. (or choose whatever posture helps you!) Be with Judas as he goes through his own agony in this passage. If you have the nerve, allow yourself to BE Judas in this story. Then, recall times when you have felt alienated, particularly by your own behaviour, attitudes, even words. What is essential, as always, is to conduct this exercise in the presence of Christ. This maybe a disturbing exercise. Share your experiences of it with someone you trust. What lies at the heart of the exercise is to recall what your feelings were about Jesus Christ as you prayed.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles