NOTES for Mat 7:1-8

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you..." Here it is fitting to recall an ancient wisdom spoken by Ovid, in order to see how close and at the same time how distant these two worlds are: enlightened, golden antiquity and the small community of the early Christian Church standing opposite it. "Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe cadendo." "The drop hollows the stone not by force, but by falling often." It would seem that this says the same thing: constancy in seeking. It sounds like a call not to despair when no result is visible, but to dare further. Yes, the similarity is obvious... But if we look at this picture a little more closely, we notice that there is something dead in this stone, some indifference to the drop, and a cold static quality shows through the whole situation.

Christianity is entirely different. The main thing that distinguishes Christ's words is the presence in them of a living answer. Yes, this too is a call to constancy in seeking, but in a completely different way: it will be opened to you, it will be given to you... What can a drop expect from a stone? Nothing, only dead silence. Here, however, we have a living answer. There is a striking expression: if a person, praying to God, does not expect an answer, he is simply an atheist. And sometimes someone hopes to get through to God with monotonous prayers, morning and evening, which, like that same drop, resemble one another day after day, performed without creativity and, most importantly, without dialogue... No, the way to Him is only dialogue, only creativity, only standing over the abyss.