Faith

The monks who went into the desert did not expect quick results. They knew that their life of fasting and prayer would not result in sudden enlightenment. So, they developed metaphors for how faith can grow slowly. Today’s story introduces one of those metaphors.

John who had been exiled by the emperor Marcion, said, “One day we went into Syria to see Poeman for we wanted to ask him about hardness of heart. But he did not know Greek and we did not have an interpreter. When he saw we were embarrassed, he began to speak in Greek saying, “The nature of water is soft, the nature of stone is hard; but if a bottle is hung above a stone letting water drip down, it wears away the stone. It is like that with the word of God; it is soft and our heart is hard, but if a man hears the word of God often, it will break open his heart to the fear of God.”

The Desert fathers story sees the constant drip of water as being like the wisdom of God slowing dissolving a hardened heart. As we get older, we may see our faith journey as being akin to a creek, which winds this way, and then that way; occasionally dries up, and then begins again. It can take a long time for a spiritual truth to become obvious to us - decades, even. Many of us have had the experience of re-reading a familiar Bible passage and hearing something new in it. The text has not changed, but we have. Some kind of resistance in us has worn away, dissolved over time. So that a spiritual truth, like a drop of water, can penetrate deeper.Peace.  

-Rev. Stephen Milton, Lawrence Park Community Church, Toronto

Quotation source: The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks, Translated by Benedict Ward, ( London, 2003),p. 191.

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