THE BARE TREE

St John of the Cross (1542-1591) wrote, “Carve out a day every week, or an hour a day, or a moment each hour, and abide in loving silence with the Friend. Feel the frenetic concerns of life in the world fall away, like the last leaves of autumn being lifted from the tree in the arms of a zephyr. Be the bare tree.”

Carving out the time is no easy task and allowing the concerns of life to fall away isn’t either. Maybe a couple of reasons for this: the time issue is often a real or imagined obstacle… few feel they have enough time and much less time for ‘abiding in silence.’ This can lead to the idea that silence is wasted time.

The other reason is that if one becomes the bare tree and issues have fallen away like autumn leaves and we are truly bare, uncovered and naked before the Lord and ourselves… we may not like what we see. We will see the real us when the tree is bare. Most would rather not be exposed to themselves.

“When day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place; and the crowds were searching for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them.  But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.” Jesus