By Fr. Finbar Maxwell

The Memory Tree

As we celebrate the feast of St. Columban this year, I am drawn to the image of trees.

One of my good friends in Ireland is a Sacred Hearts priest named Michael Ruddy.  Michael is a poet, and he sees things with a poet’s eye and heart.  One day, a number of years ago now, Michael was out walking in the forested lands around their community house in Cootehill, Ireland.

While walking, he saw that one of the big trees had been cut down, leaving behind large stump. Its numerous rings indicated the tree’s many years of age.

Michael noticed several spots  on the tree’s rings – where one ring, representing one year, merged with the next – that bore cracks, knots, marks or ‘wounds.’   Michael thought that these might have been caused by challenging seasons, such as a hot summer or a harsh or wet winter. Yet, what struck Michael was how the tree seemed to have embodied or remembered these difficult times without allowing them to stop its growth. Instead, the tree persevered and it continued to grow for  many more  years.

As Michael looked at the cut tree stump, he reflected on how it can serve as a powerful image of life itself. We all have our cracks, breaks and difficult years, but they do not define us. We are far MORE than those breaks. We continue to grow and to become, and to live into our full POTENTIAL.

Looking at this tree stump, Michael had a sudden idea. He hurried  back to the house to get a saw, and returned to the forest, where he cut a thick slab from the top of the tree stump. He then brought it home, cleaned and polished it, fixed wooden legs onto it, and made it into a small altar for their community chapel. The tree stump was transformed into a table to celebrate the Eucharist- a sacred time for remembering the broken, wounded, crucified and resurrected Jesus among us.  It is still there.  I have seen it and it is beautiful.  I call it  the “Memory tree.”

Minah’s Tree

Today, I am also reminded of another very different tree stump.  This is an art image created by our Korean Columban Sister, Minah.

I love this image and am very much drawn to it, and I invite you to reflect on it too.  To me, it represents our lives as Columbans in all our diversity – ordained, lay, students, sisters, co-workers, mission supporters.  The many rings of the stump represent LONG Life.

In the image, you can see a circled cross at the center. The Holy Spirit, represented by a dove, is depicted entering the tree trunk through a deep crack in its body.  The bark which encircles and holds the tree is a good representation of our creator God.

Take a moment to ponder Minah’s tree stump – with its long life, its many rings, its crack on one side THROUGH WHICH the Holy Spirit enters into the very HEART of the tree. It is here, at the Heart of our Life, that Christ dwells, symbolized by the cross.

Imagine the great ‘alchemy’ of the Holy Spirit engaging with Jesus and our Creator God, stirring everything into life.  From this energy, we too are ever stirred and renewed into New Life, represented by the new green leaves that spring from the outer-most ring of the tree.

On this feast day of our patron St. Columban, I am reminded of the General Assembly 2024 and Post-GA Regional Assembly that we just had.  At these gatherings, we reflected on the reality of our diminishing numbers. Yet, we also affirmed the equally important reality that we are STILL Alive.  There’s a lot of life left in the Old Tree, even if we might not be sure what directions that new life might take or look like in the future.

We are called, though, to pay attention to those new signs and stirrings of new life and to respond to them.

The Columban Tree

So, what might this new life, these new sproutings of leaves, mean for us at this time?  We must seek out those signs of new life and new growth.

Today I remember all Columbans in the Philippine Region, and throughout the world, as I think of this tree and the life that is within it.  I celebrate All Columbans on this day, in all our diversity, as we celebrate the Feast of St. Columban.

May we be attentive to the sprouting buds and leaves on our Columban tree of Life, held steady in our diverse “synodal” way by the Triune God: Creator, Word and Holy Spirit.

Amen

 Taken after the mass on the Feast of St. Columban 2024