Archbishop of Sydney

Perseverance

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
7 March 2004

“Slow and steady wins the race” is from Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare.  Is this still true? 

Aesop lived in the sixth century before Christ.  Millions still use his stories.  We have all heard of the wolf in sheep’s clothing, of grasping at shadows, of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, of counting your chickens before they are hatched.

Here Aesop was urging the importance of perseverance, warning against arrogance and over confidence.  In the race between the hare and the tortoise, the hare was so far ahead that he decided to take a nap.  He fell into a deep sleep and when he awoke it was too late.  The plodding tortoise had already arrived.

Perseverance is just as necessary today in our age of science and technology as it ever was.  Perhaps it is more important in the things of the spirit, in that which touches the human heart.

“Hang in there” is not just a cliché for those going through a tough patch.  It is also useful and appropriate for those battling to do good. 

At Christ’s death he had a few hundred followers at the most.  They persevered because they believed he was the Son of God and that his teachings worked, that they were true, bringing healing and peace.

The early Christians had no schools, no hospitals, not even public church buildings.  They met in private homes and persevered in their faith and practice through nearly 300 years of intermittent persecution.  Today there are more than one billion Catholics alone and many hundreds of millions of other Christians.  They kept going despite hostile pressures as Christians do today.

Often we are surprised in the world of nature by the long term effects of repeated or continuous effort.  We marvel at how running water can wear down stone, how plants can grow through a crack in a rock.

In St. Peter’s basilica in Rome there is an ancient bronze statue of St. Peter, the first head of Christ’s apostles.  The foot of this statue has been worn away badly from being kissed by pilgrims over hundreds of years.

Some great causes have needed decades, even centuries of persevering work before they triumphed.  Sexual life, marriage and the family were in a more chaotic state in the ancient pagan Roman Empire than they are today.  Christians slowly improved this by practising Christian teaching.

Slavery had died out in Christian Europe, but when it was used by Europeans in the New World it took decades of work to stop it.  So too with women’s rights to vote and to education.  An equally long struggle will be needed to educate the majority about the evil effects of abortion on the unborn and their mothers.

Human progress is often achieved only after a long haul and with great perseverance.