Salted with Fire
What lies beyond the "boundary" that Isaac [of Nineveh] is tongue-tied to describe? Many have tried to describe it and failed. Many have alluded to it knowingly, and even more writers unknowingly, especially those who in their disgust with popular religion have turned from it.
In the end we find that even the way of tears and fire is not a way except in that it is a commitment not to have one. Yet it is still the way of tears because it is a commitment to willing powerlessness, to a continual letting go of favorite images and security systems, to continual change, adaptation and transformation.
It is a commitment to let God determine the way, the means, what will be sought, and what will be left behind; to sow us with what we can receive, and, out of sight, to bring to fruition those gifts we have received and committed to God to do with what God will. By this means does God salt the earth with fire.
[The Fountain and the Furnace, p. 255]
In the end we find that even the way of tears and fire is not a way except in that it is a commitment not to have one. Yet it is still the way of tears because it is a commitment to willing powerlessness, to a continual letting go of favorite images and security systems, to continual change, adaptation and transformation.
It is a commitment to let God determine the way, the means, what will be sought, and what will be left behind; to sow us with what we can receive, and, out of sight, to bring to fruition those gifts we have received and committed to God to do with what God will. By this means does God salt the earth with fire.
[The Fountain and the Furnace, p. 255]
posted by Maggie Ross at 8:56 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home