A friend and I were talking about the movie “Evan Almighty.” In this movie, God has asked Evan to build an ark. Everyone thinks it’s silly and that he is crazy. His wife is at her wit’s end and is struggling with the whole idea. Sitting eating fish at a restaurant, she asks the waiter for a refill. The waiter turns around and asks if she’s ok, and the character portraying God speaks to her. She tells him all about her troubles, and he responds:
“Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?”
That’s how God works. It reminded me of Father Worth’s homily this weekend about how a pearl is formed. An oyster gets a piece of sand inside it. It’s an irritant, so its body secretes this substance that begins to wrap around it. It begins to protect it from the scratchy edges of the sand. Eventually, that substance hardens and smooths and becomes what we know as a pearl. What was once irritating has become a source of beauty, something to be cherished and treasured.
We can often see those pearls when we reflect on our lives. My back surgery, at the time, was a storm of irritation. Pain and discomfort were all I knew for weeks and months, but now that I see God’s handiwork in all of it, I see the pearls He made from my sand. I got to spend years with my children that I would have spent working 80 hours a week as an electrician. I saw my daughter take her first step, be at play rehearsals and band concerts, and be there for many of the “firsts” of their childhood.
What does that mean about now? How do we take this information into today? We all have irritations in our lives. Things that make life difficult and painful. For some, a neighbor mows late at night or sets off fireworks for weeks after the holiday is long past. For others, it’s the fear of their children who have walked away from the faith or are living a life full of their own sand and hardship. Today, the Gospel reminds us to take time and thank God for the sand. We often thank him for the blessings, but today let’s thank Him for those things that sanctify us, that give us opportunities to grow in virtue. Let’s thank Him for the pearls before they are made because that’s what faith is about. Trusting that even when it feels like an entire truck of sand is being dumped into our lives, we know that all those pearls will shine filled with faith, hope, and love in Heaven.
A homily for Wednesday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time: August 2nd, 2023