July 2007 - Volume 11, Issue 12

About An Oyster And A Pearl And The Presence Of God - Part II

By Rev. Richard Scheiner C.P.

Now, whichever explanation you may wish to subscribe to, there is a spiritual lesson to be learned from each.

From the first explanation of how the pearl got into the oyster, we may begin to better understand that there lies within each one of us a fragment, so to speak, of God our Creator. Think now, have you ever felt that you have been touched, and maybe even overwhelmed, by a presence that was beyond your understanding, a presence that you could not explain, a presence that was infinitely greater than yourself. And perhaps, like the oyster, in responding to that presence you may have opened the hard crust of yourself to let in a fragment of the presence of God. Once you do that, you will find that the fragment of God's presence begins to grow and to mature, with the result that your life begins to be a living example of God's presence in his world; you will then be bringing God's presence wherever you go.

When we come to consider the scientific explanation for the pearl in the oyster, the spiritual lesson may appear to be somewhat illusive. But there is one to be found there. Did you ever consider this: that the spiritual beauty you so often find in a person may very well be the result of intense pain, or even some irritant in his or her life, like the grain of sand in the oyster that he or she would dearly love to be rid of, but which he or she patiently bears. The lesson to be learned here is this: that the pain, or even a simple irritant, borne in patience and love, could be creating a deep and profound beauty, like a pearl of great price, within us. And isn't this the beauty which ever so slowly becomes a reflection of God's own beauty?

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