The Pearl of Great Price

 “The kingdom of heaven, the commonwealth of God, is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. 

Gospel of Jesus, Matthew 13

I can’t say I have had much use for pearls in my life, but the creation process of a pearl is precious to me. Pearls and their beauty come into being at a great price. I believe this is why Jesus used the pearl in his wisdom teachings. He knew the origins, as did the people of his day. Pearl making, like spiritual journeying and formation, have similarities.

Pearls are created by oysters who live in intercoastal waters where fresh and salt water meet. I first heard Cynthia Bourgeault use this word, intercoastal, as descriptive of the relationship between the Divine and creation. It comes from the term imaginal realm described in ancient Islamic mysticism, “where two seas meet.” It conjured for her the placental realm where fetus and mother’s blood are mingled. Two beings, one blood. “This imaginal realm is a meeting ground, a place of active exchange between two bandwidths of reality. -Cynthia Bouregault 

It is in these waters that the oyster lives and where the pearl is born. In addition to its unique habitat, pearls are born from a suffering the oyster bears. Sr. Joan Chittister has used the oyster to describe her journey of leadership in her spiritual home of the Catholic Church. “Like the oyster, mine is a ministry of irritation,” she writes.  “An oyster is an organism that defends itself by excreting a substance to protect itself against the sand of its spawning bed. The more sand in the oyster, the more chemical the oyster produces until finally, after layer upon layer of gel, the sand turns into a pearl. And the oyster itself becomes more valuable in the process.” 

I have thought on this process throughout this year of global pandemic, racial reckoning, and political discord. I have noticed the ever-present feeling in me that I am sitting in a pool of irritation from a myriad of sources. With the help of spiritual companions, I am helped to stay awake to what is being born from these places of suffering and dislocation, disorientation. How are these irritants actually bringing me to a new realm of consciousness? Can I welcome the possibility that this is gifting my life? 

And what new consciousness is being born in our global, spiritual, intercoastal commonwealth? What pearl is forming, at great cost, but that will bring a spiritual wealth and precious gift to the human community?

Christian monastic communities knew the wisdom of the oyster and the pearl. In the Rule of St. Benedictine, there is  a name for the purification that comes through friction in human community: ‘thlipsis.”  So important, it is identified as part of the corporate spiritual work of a monastic life alongside manual labor and hospitality.

Spiritual companionship allows a container for our journeys to be heard, a place where the many grains of sand can do their work in us, if we allow it. It is a place to notice how I am carrying all this in the intercoastal waters of my own being, and accept its gift. 

The suffering itself is the field in which the precious pearl is hidden.
-James Finley

Blessings for the Journey, 

Elizabeth+