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What’s the weekly mettle maker?
Training tips and educational info in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? Mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
Mettle maker #458: A Tree, a Cress, and a Morsel
One of the things that makes American Rough ‘n’ Tumble different than other martial arts is that we embrace training breadth as well as depth. We think that:
Doing chores, like digging ditches, breaking horses, chopping wood, and so on, build functional strength.
Going outside, getting to know flora and fauna, learning to identify edible plants, and generally getting dirty, is tonic for the soul.
Reading and writing — particularly journaling — strengthen the mind.
Looking to the example of our early American frontier forebears, we believe that all of these things make you a better fighter — literally better at fighting, and also better able to discern when it’s appropriate to use, and not to use, your very dangerous skills.
Toward that end, I decided to go for a long walk the other day and make some new friends — to look for some unfamiliar plants and attempt to identify them (see photo set above).
I soon stumbled upon a tree I don’t recall encountering previously — the Big Tooth Aspen or Populus grandidentata. According to my sources, this tree only grows in Northern Virginia, but there it was down the street from my house, pretty as you please. The trunk resembles a Tulip Poplar, which is likely why it’s sometimes called “Canada Poplar.” Like poplar, the wood of the Big Tooth Aspen is soft, good only when you need something that can be easily carved and worked.
The second new plant I familiarized myself with is Lesser Swine Cress or Lepidium didymum. A member of the cabbage family, it lacks flavor, but is edible in a survival situation. Not surprising, given its name implies it’s good only fit for hogs.
Outdoor skills are martial arts practice, at least around these parts anyway. So put this sort of thing in your training journal!
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Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter 5/18/25 – Father Mitch
Readings: Acts 14:21-27, Psalm 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13, Revelation 21:1-5a, John 13:31-33a, 34-35
John 13:31-33a, 34-35 World English Bible
When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him immediately. 33 Little children, I will be with you a little while longer. 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Brothers and sisters, just prior to the current scene, Jesus has identified who will betray him by saying that whoever takes the morsel of bread which he has dipped in the delicious juices of the plate will be his betrayer. Judas accepts this choice bit of bread and Satan enters him. According to the Expositor’s Greek Testament,
“[I}t is an ordinary Oriental custom for the host to offer such a tid-bit to any favoured guest; and we are rather entitled to see in the act the last appeal to Judas’ better feeling. The very mark Jesus chooses to single him out is one which on ordinary occasions was a mark of distinctive favour. At any rate he is thus all the more effectually screened from the others.”¹
The image is familiar. Most of us have had the experience of using a piece of bread to sop up the delicious juice of a ribeye steak or some of the rich, salty gravy after Thanksgiving turkey. Imagine, if you will, Jesus dipping that bread in the most delectable corner of his plate and, rather than taking it for himself, giving it to Judas as a gesture of honor and love. And in return, Judas does not reflect. His heart does not soften. He is immune to second thoughts. He is as cold as a January headstone. Then we read that “having received that morsel, he went out immediately. It was night.” (John 13:30).
The Greek word for “immediately” is euthys, and this is the same word used in the next verse. We read, “When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him immediately.”
Perhaps we should consider that this repetition, this rhythm, is not coincidental. The immediate consequence of Judas’ lack of discernment is his final departure from Jesus’s company and movement into total darkness. As we read in John 1:5, “The light shines in the darkness; and the darkness has not overcome it.” The Greek word for “overcome” is katelaben, which is akin to grasp or wrestle. This is why John 1:5 is sometimes translated “comprehended” and other times “overcome.” Perhaps we should read it as “and the darkness has not contended with it.”
Judas has not contended with, or attempted to grasp, the gravity of the situation. He is unaffected even by Jesus’ attempt to reach him with the loving gesture of the sopping morsel of bread. Jesus shines his light into Judas, and he does not comprehend it. The consequences of his callousness are immediate –Judas moves out of the light and into the darkness.
In an opposite and opposing immediate movement, The Son of Man is glorified. Knowing that Judas is going to betray him, Jesus nonetheless bestows upon him the honor and brotherly love of the choicest morsel of sopped bread from his plate. Jesus treats Judas with the same decency and respect he treats all of the other disciples, even more so, right up until the time that Judas parts company and goes out into the dark. Jesus’ makes a last ditch attempt to reach Judas, and the consequences of this selfless act are also immediate. “The Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.”
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¹ Expositor’s Greek Testament entry for John Chapter 13 accessed via www.biblehub.com available at https://biblehub.com/commentaries/egt/john/13.htm