During a war, the famous conqueror Alexander the Great, arrived in Gordion, a city in Phrygia, where the chariot of Gordius with its famous knot was located in the acropolis. An ancient oracle had promised the empire of Asia to whoever could untie this knot. After many unsuccessful attempts, Alexander managed to loosen it. How did he do this? With a slash of his sword, he cut the knot in two, thus exercising another form of mental genius. The Gordion Knot is thus used as a metaphor for solving a difficult situation by exercising brute force, meaning resolving a problem decisively and without delay. It is also used to mean urgently figuring out a situation before it becomes worse.
To really be able to cut the knot of sin the first absolutely necessary condition is the desire to do it, which means having a firm and energetic will. If this is lacking, nothing will ever be achieved, and all of God’s graces and the means that He offers will not be helpful, either because we will not use them, or because we will use them only halfway, which is equivalent to not using them at all.
A firm will means a will that does not yield, that remains steadfast even when temptations or desires are strong. It is a will that sees the good that must be done (as Herod saw the good that needed to be done) and does it (this was Herod’s problem, as he imprisoned John instead of following his advice). One can have a weak will either because he does not want to acknowledge the good that must be done, or because he fails to act on the good he recognizes he ought to do.
We must especially apply this principle to the means we must use to abandon sin. On the one hand, some will give up the desire to leave sin because they do not know how to leave it; they do not bother to learn the necessary means to abandon sin, or they have relied on ineffective methods and, instead of seeking effective ones, they settle by saying, “I don’t know how to break free from sin.” On the other hand, others know the means but do not want to apply them because they are difficult, because they require too much effort, or they try them only for a little while due to a lack of perseverance. In both cases, the will is not a firm will, and that is why it is incapable of leaving sin.
An energetic will means a resolute will. Weak or half-hearted wills never achieve anything; they are wills that never take a step forward on the path of perfection because they are spiritually lazy. They are the ones who waver between wanting and not wanting, as the Proverb says: The sluggard wants, but does not want (Proverbs 13:4). Today yes, tomorrow no—they are the ones who desire holiness on the condition that it costs nothing, that it is easy, and for this reason, they cannot muster all the necessary energy to abandon sin, to cut off occasions of sin, or to distance themselves as much as possible from anything that “smells of sin.” An energetic will is one that says, “I want, I want, and I want.”
