Matthew under the arm 137
A wealthy pilgrim joined us for two days. A delicate looking man, he wore fine clothes, too fine for a long pilgrimage. Some distance back, he had heard Columba give a talk in a barn on the Christian life about the important dynamics in being a Christian: to pray and to love in action. He wanted to know more. Our new companion, took us into an inn and bought us a hearty supper. All those in the inn recognised him as a wealthy man. An old man approached him and started to insult him for his wealth and the lack of wear and tear on his face and hands. Columba turned to the old man and growled. [Beware of Columba’s growl!] “Your skin is hard and cracked from hard work and hard weather, but so is your heart and your mind. This man has opened his heart to the risk of God.”
Matthew 27.57-61
A burial place, particularly wealthy and powerful Jews, would not only be in keeping with their life-style but also be a place of ‘permanence’, where they could be remembered. In that sense, the memory of the dead person would live on in others. So it was a considerable sacrifice for Joseph of Arimathaea to make his own tomb available for Christ. Legend has it that Joseph came to Britain with the Holy Grail, a unfounded connectedness that ‘Celtic’ Christianity may have had to the passage of the ‘relics’ of Jesus life through Europe. This intriguing ‘walk on’ part in the Passion narrative is perhaps a deep reassurance to most of us who feel at some distance from the centre of the story.
I WOULD HOLD ALL I AM AND HAVE BEFORE YOU IN OBEDIENCE TO YOUR LOVE.
This passage is one of the wonderful Gospel stories in which silence is so demonstrative of love, gentleness and generosity. The two Marys sitting opposite the tomb create that wonderful image of looking and listening with complete attention. In this exercise, in your own imagination, go back to a time when you were silent and were able to look and listen. What did it feel like for you? What was happening? Where in your life now do you feel you are being called to be a listener…someone who looks and gives attention? Give a little time to an occasion when you did not listen or look, when perhaps that might have been helpful. Now, in prayer, what do have which is most precious to you, that you would give out of love, out of love for Christ.
+Martin
Bishop of Argyll and The Isles
Matthew 27.57-61
A burial place, particularly wealthy and powerful Jews, would not only be in keeping with their life-style but also be a place of ‘permanence’, where they could be remembered. In that sense, the memory of the dead person would live on in others. So it was a considerable sacrifice for Joseph of Arimathaea to make his own tomb available for Christ. Legend has it that Joseph came to Britain with the Holy Grail, a unfounded connectedness that ‘Celtic’ Christianity may have had to the passage of the ‘relics’ of Jesus life through Europe. This intriguing ‘walk on’ part in the Passion narrative is perhaps a deep reassurance to most of us who feel at some distance from the centre of the story.
I WOULD HOLD ALL I AM AND HAVE BEFORE YOU IN OBEDIENCE TO YOUR LOVE.
This passage is one of the wonderful Gospel stories in which silence is so demonstrative of love, gentleness and generosity. The two Marys sitting opposite the tomb create that wonderful image of looking and listening with complete attention. In this exercise, in your own imagination, go back to a time when you were silent and were able to look and listen. What did it feel like for you? What was happening? Where in your life now do you feel you are being called to be a listener…someone who looks and gives attention? Give a little time to an occasion when you did not listen or look, when perhaps that might have been helpful. Now, in prayer, what do have which is most precious to you, that you would give out of love, out of love for Christ.
+Martin
Bishop of Argyll and The Isles
Labels: Silent witness
posted by Martin at 2:19 pm
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