The Mountain

"'Not enough!' That's what He screamed at me. If you ask, Brother Leo, what God commands without respite, I can tell you, for I learned it these past three days and nights in the cave. Listen! 'Not enough! Not enough!' That's what he shouts each day, each hour to poor, miserable man. 'Not enough! Not enough!'... 'I can't go further' whines man. 'You can!' the Lord replies. 'I shall break in two!' man whines again. 'Break!' the Lord replies."

- Nikos Kazantzakis, God's Pauper

After the abyss is navigated it would be wrong to think that the path suddenly becomes easy. The abyss is only the initial test that separates us from more profane souls: bottomless though it is, the abyss is but a narrow rift at the end of a flat, featureless plain where the going was hitherto easy.

After the abyss comes the mountain. The long climb up this endless mountain makes the arduous ascent out of the abyss seem simple. Its way is hard, treacherous, craggy and steep beyond our initial endurance: yet, sometimes imperceptibly, we become stronger with each step. 

To fall from its narrow ledges means to be shattered on jagged rock or to tumble into the new abyss that surrounds the mountain like a moat. It looms upwards to the heavens, sheering through clouds and piercing the skies at heights we cannot perceive with our fleshly eyes. The temptation upon reaching the mountain is to skirt around its foothills after an initial burst of energy, thinking that the effort we have made is good and that we deserve a longer rest than we have earned. 

But perching in the foothills without further movement would be to spend forever in the lowest parts of purgatory. If we are to reach the heights of the mountain's peaks and look upon eternity, we must climb until our limbs are shattered, our lungs are rent and our hearts are ready to burst.    

About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.

Luke 9:28-29