Sometimes I have heard this metaphor used to grasp the idea of eternity.
They took it from a story in the Brothers Grimm where a shepherd boy has to answer several riddles, one of which is “how many seconds of time are there in eternity?” The boy answers by telling the story of a bird who sharpens its beak every hundred years on a mountain. When the mountain is gone, one second of eternity will have passed.”
I was thinking about this regarding confession and confessing the same sins repeatedly. I need a regular confessor, so I can just say “ditto.” While I recognize that these repeated sins are being reduced, interiorly, it feels like the bird pecking away on them.
Yet, I am also thankful that there is progress, however minute. I think of St. Paul’s repeated prayer that was denied and Jesus telling him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
I recently ran across this aspect of confession I had not considered before in “Divine Intimacy” by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.
“It is well to remember that the efficacy of the absolution is not limited merely to sins that have already been committed, but that it even extends into the future. By means of the particular sacramental grace, the soul is strengthened beforehand against relapses and it is offered the fortitude to resist temptations and to carry out its good resolutions. The Blood of Christ is, in this sense, not only a remedy for the past, but also a preservative and a strengthening help for the future. The soul which plunges into it, as into a healthful bath, draws from it new vigor and sees the strength of its passions extinguished little by little. We see then the importance of frequent confession for a soul desirous of union with God, a soul which must necessarily aspire to total purification.”
