Like an overgrown path

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The way of perfection is the way of compassion.*

It is the way of true holiness, and it is hard to find.

The human story has ceaseless and recurrent narratives about what is the path of life.#

In the later stages of his life, Huevelin (1838-1910), the Abbe de Tourville reflected:

[Perfection] is not like going up a great hill from which we see an every-widening landscape, a greater horizon, a plain receding further and further into the distance. It is more like an overgrown path which we cannot find; we grope about; we are caught by brambles; we lose all sense of the distance covered; we do not know whether we are going around and round or whether we are advancing.

We are certain only of one thing; that we desire to go on even though we are worn and tired. That is your life and you should rejoice greatly because of it, for it is a true life, serious and real, on which God opens His eyes and His heart.

We are too apt to think of virtue as a broad, smooth road, whereas it is really a very rough and narrow one. It never becomes smooth or less uneven, until we observe that, in spite of all the jolting, we do manage to stay on it an even to advance a little, thanks to our Lord who holds us. Our confidence in Him, gained by experience, gives us a certain inward tranquility in spite of the jolting.

Source: Letters of Faith through the Seasons, James. M. Houston.

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* Compare Matthew’s and Luke’s rendition of the same idea:

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:48

Be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.

Luke 6:36

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# The Psalmist sings to knowing the path of life:

You have shown me the path of life:

You fill me with joy in your presence…

Psalm 16:11