“Knowing how to overcome yourself every single day.” (Saint Josemaria Escriva).
There are four natural elements of this planet – earth, fire, wind and water.
In some eastern philosophies, the composition of the elements is studied and there are various theories proposed about behaviours based on the idea that some combination of the elements in that person’s nature affect whether they behave in certain ways when certain things happen to them.
All of the natural elements are powerful. Earth is powerful because it is heavy and dense and when impacted can become so solid that it could almost be treated as though it were rock. Fire is powerful because it has the ability to destroy and clear the earth by consuming everything in its path. The wind is so powerful that it can be channelled to produce electricity. And then there is water…
Water can be powerful when waves have the ability to demolish everything in their path. But water has another strength…
A drop of water is in fact the most powerful of all the elements and has the ability to make more change than all of the potherb elements put together. You see, of all the elements, Water is the element that is least likely to destroy and most likely to reform. The constant drip drop of water over time will erode even the strongest stone and reshape it…
And that constant drip drop of water is not the only constant catalyst of change. There is also the constant drip drop of diligence that is needed to overcome my own weakness… “However, a powerful enemy is lying in wait for us, an enemy which counters our desire to incarnate Christ’s doctrine in our lives. This enemy is pride, which grows if we do not reach out for the helping and merciful hand of God after each failure and defeat. In that case the soul remains in the shadows, in an unhappy darkness, and thinks it is lost. Its imagination creates all sorts of obstacles which have no basis in fact, which would disappear if it just looked at them with a little humility. Prompted by pride and a wild imagination, the soul sometimes creates painful calvaries for itself. But Christ is not on these calvaries, for joy and peace always accompany our Lord even when the soul is nervous and surrounded by darkness… We must convince ourselves that the worst enemy of a rock is not a pickaxe or any other such implement, no matter how sharp it is. No, its worst enemy is the constant flow of water which drop by drop enters the crevices until it ruins the rock’s structure.” (Saint Josemaria, “Christ is passing by”, page 77).
And I have been thinking about that. Because that constant drop drop drop is possibly the one sure thing either keeping inside or outside of Heaven, and it occurs to me today that I have spent a lifetime underestimating the strength of a simple drop of water…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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