Anthropomorphic Analogy

It is true that a canvas simply and blindly offered to the brush feels at each moment only the stroke of the brush.  It is the same with a lump of stone.  Each blow from the hammering of the sculptor's chisel makes it feel—if it could—as if it were being destroyed.  As blow after blow descends, the stone knows nothing of how the sculptor is shaping it.  All it feels is a chisel chopping away at it, cutting it and mutilating it.  For example, let's take a piece of stone destined to be carved into a crucifix or a statue.  We might ask it: "What do you think is happening to you?"  And it might answer: "Don't ask me.  All I know is that I must stay immovable in the hands of the sculptor, and I must love him and endure all he inflicts on me to produce the figure he has in mind.  He knows how to do it.  As for me, I have no idea what he is doing, nor do I know what he will make of me.  But what I do know is that his work is the best possible.  It is perfect.  I welcome each blow of his chisel as the best thing that could happen to me, although, if I'm to be truthful, I feel that every one of these blows is ruining me, destroying me and disfiguring me.  But I remain unconcerned.  I concentrate on the present moment, think only of my duty, and suffer all that this master sculptor inflicts on me without knowing his purpose or fretting about it.

That analogy from—can you guess it?—Abandonment to Divine Providence rings true.  We are that canvas or that stone.

Have you ever felt like everything that is happening to you is making you worse, like you are losing all you have gained?  Do you ever feel like everything inflicted upon you makes it impossible to become the beautiful light that you ought to be to set the world on fire?

In those moments perhaps you may find some consolation in this analogy.  For whatever we may feel, whatever we may think, we are not omniscient.  Only One knows truly what will come of every blow that rains upon us and every chiseling away of what we consider necessary.  He is the one who will make of us a statue of incomparable beauty that will take away our breath when we see it at last exposed from the rough stone.