Matthew under the arm 136
We had walked off the path, to sit for a while and look at the snow covered landscape that was now piercingly painful to look at in the bright sun. Columba’s fingers were blue with cold. His breath was laboured as he sat on a rock and tried to shield his eyes. We had left a village that morning, lucky not get beaten up. He had been invited to speak about our pilgrimage in the local church. Instead, Columba quietly chided the congregation that they were sitting there well-clothed and protected. ‘Homeless families are struggling to find warmth and you exclude them from the Church after they had been sleeping at the back overnight.’ The priest was furious. ‘You have taken advantage of my invitation to you to preach!’ Columba replied in the hearing of all as he left: ‘I haven’t started yet!’ For two days, we huddled with the families, until we were thrown out of the town for breach of the peace. God?
Matthew 27:45-56
The cry of God. Here was Jesus, God in History crying across the whole Universe, audible in every corner of it. Forsaken, Christ accompanies all those who feel abandoned by God; all those who experience His absence. In the blackest of black holes somewhere in space, the cry still echoes: ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ Yes, it’s a quotation from a psalm. The cry can be explained away but to no one’s satisfaction. The question ‘Why?’, is by its very nature never met with a satisfactory answer, let alone solution. God enters his own abandonment. In the middle of the terrifying earthquake and storm, at the moment of abandonment, the centurion recognises Jesus as the ‘Son of God’.
THAT IN THE PLACES OF FEAR, DESOLATION AND THE EXPERIENCE OF YOUR ABSENCE, I MAY REMAIN THERE AND WAIT ON YOU.
Simone Weil, the French philosopher and mystic starkly suggested that we cannot come to real belief in God without a real experience of atheism! Many of the great men and women of faith, seem to experience the Real Absence of God as well as the Real Presence. So allow yourself to experience in this moment of silent prayer a time when you not only did not believe in God, but felt the weight of his absence. Then feel yourself ‘cry out’ with Jesus about your sense of being abandoned. Maybe that describes where you are now! Remain with that experience. Now recall when you had an inkling of his presence. Both of the experiences are vital.
+Martin
Bishop of Argyll and The Isles
Matthew 27:45-56
The cry of God. Here was Jesus, God in History crying across the whole Universe, audible in every corner of it. Forsaken, Christ accompanies all those who feel abandoned by God; all those who experience His absence. In the blackest of black holes somewhere in space, the cry still echoes: ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ Yes, it’s a quotation from a psalm. The cry can be explained away but to no one’s satisfaction. The question ‘Why?’, is by its very nature never met with a satisfactory answer, let alone solution. God enters his own abandonment. In the middle of the terrifying earthquake and storm, at the moment of abandonment, the centurion recognises Jesus as the ‘Son of God’.
THAT IN THE PLACES OF FEAR, DESOLATION AND THE EXPERIENCE OF YOUR ABSENCE, I MAY REMAIN THERE AND WAIT ON YOU.
Simone Weil, the French philosopher and mystic starkly suggested that we cannot come to real belief in God without a real experience of atheism! Many of the great men and women of faith, seem to experience the Real Absence of God as well as the Real Presence. So allow yourself to experience in this moment of silent prayer a time when you not only did not believe in God, but felt the weight of his absence. Then feel yourself ‘cry out’ with Jesus about your sense of being abandoned. Maybe that describes where you are now! Remain with that experience. Now recall when you had an inkling of his presence. Both of the experiences are vital.
+Martin
Bishop of Argyll and The Isles
Labels: Absence of God
posted by Martin at 8:11 pm
2 Comments:
You say that we need to experience the real absence of God as well as the real presence of God in our lives. That this is absolutely vital. My Question is WHY? what will that achieve?
Well, Lydia, if you enter the exercise, you will begin to see and, indeed, feel Christ's own sense of the Absence of God! What is achieved? Well, I am not too sure what achievement you may be imagining. However, the gift of the Holy Spirit is an exepreinced the crucified and risen Lord. So our experience of abandonment is an essential part of entering into the Christian mystery of salvation.
Bishop Martin
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