St. Columba
St. Columba started out life the same way a lot of saints did, a rich kid who got himself in trouble. He was similar to St. Patrick in this way. He started a battle between two clans over possession of a book, which just goes to show how important books were back then. As penance, he exiled himself from Ireland and made is way into pagan Scotland.
Now, under Brehon Law (Irish Law), the worst penalty was exile. (They did not have capital punishment.) In a clan based society, your livelihood depended entirely on your family, your people. They would put an exiled man in a boat with no oars and a bit of food and water (not enough to survive on for long), and basically give him over to God's mercy. Later, men who wished to emulate the Desert Fathers of the East set out in boats like exiled men looking for a "desert in the sea," where they could pray and separate themselves from the world. These men were called peregrinato.
So, St. Columba willingly undertook this worst of all penalties, and set sail from his home in northern Ireland towards the islands of Scotland to find one that was uninhabited.
This story is from the vita (life) of St. Columba of Iona written by Adamnan (Ad'-av-nawn) the ninth abbot of Iona, who succeeded St. Columba.
Iona Today
St. Columba was well-known for his prophesy. God gave him knowledge of many future things: the outcome of battles, when and where people would die, and apparently even sins that were being committed far away.
One night he woke up his fellow monks and urged them all to pray because at that moment a horrible sin was being committed. Later Lugaid, another monk, but one who did not live at Iona, came to visit the island, bringing with him a penitent man who came to search for the healing of his soul. When the boat they were coming on neared the shore, St. Columba suddenly sat up and called to Dermot, a younger monk, and told him to run down to the shore and command the penitent man to not set food on the island. The man told Dermot that he would not eat food anymore if he could not see St. Columba right away. St. Columba knew that this was the man who had committed the grievous sin. He was reluctant to do anything for him. Another monk lectured St. Columba telling him about how God forgives sinners. Obviously, Columba knew this, so he told his fellow monk. "Yes, but this is the man who has committed the sin of Cain (killed his brother) and also lain with his mother!"
St. Columba finally went down to the shore and saw that the man was kneeling on the shore! St. Columba said to him, "If you do not return home to Ireland, but spend 12 years being a missionary among the Britons (pagans at the time), then God may forgive you." So, the man left, contented, but St. Columba was troubled. He said to his fellow monks, "Pray for this man because he will not remain in Briton, but he will return to Ireland and not seek forgiveness for his sins. Because of this he will be given over to the hands of his enemies when he returns." All of what St. Columba foretold came true.
So, what are we to make of this? To modern sensibilities this seems like an unforgiving kind of Christianity. That may be the case, but I think there is more to the story than a crotchety old man and a very wayward young man. First of all, think of Iona as a safe haven from which the monks can pray and seek God. They have purposely separated themselves from the world to do this more fully. They see their prayers as powerful tools that the Lord can use to impact the lives of his children that are in the world for good. So, the monks live lives that are similar to Jesus'. They're not married, they live simply, they pray a lot, they support themselves by working the land. They also served as missionaries. Often they did not have to go to people, often people came to them, as seen in this story. The island of Iona is a symbol of the purity of the group of monks. St. Columba's admonition that the (un)penitent sinner not be allowed to set food on the land was a practical one. He did not want the sin of the man to infect his monastery. It might seem silly to us, but see it as a symbol. Sin is like a disease, in that it can spread from person to person. So, the pure haven of the monks was tained by the footstep of the sinful man.
Now, this man was not just sinful, he was pretty far gone. He was so bad that:
- Well, who would even do what he did. It's just nasty.
- He disobeyed direct orders from the abbot.
- He did not behave in a humble way. He demanded to be seen, threatening to kill himself if Columba did not come.
- He did not follow through on the penance that was given to him. He was looking for a quick fix. He wanted to play chess with God. I did this, you do this back to me and we're square right? That's not true penitence.
This story reminds me of the story in Kings when Naaman comes to Elisha's house to find a cure for leprosy. Elisha will not come out to Naaman, but sends his servant Gehazi instead to give him instructions. This angers Naaman so much that he is about to not go and follow the simple instructions that were given to him. How could he not come out to see me!? He was so angry. His servants had to sweet talk him into doing what the prophet had ordered. Was Naaman's real problem leprosy, or was it a lack of humility?
Naaman and the young man from this story are people who demand God to work on their own schedule. What makes the young man from St. Columba's story worse than Naaman is that the young man was supposedly a Christian and should have known better. Naaman was a pagan and idol worshiper and he eventually did what God's prophet asked him to do. The young sinner was quite a different story.
No comments:
Post a Comment