Finding the Pearl

Celebrating 175 Years of SHCJ: Sister Spotlight
Sr. France White shares a few thoughts on gratitude.

The year has often been called “unprecedented” with the pandemic, unbelievable and heart-wrenching racist tragedies, outrageous floods and wildfires, contentious politics – all of which thousands upon thousands of people worldwide have experienced. Yet even in this year, one can find cause for gratefulness. There are kindnesses received and given, memories of better times, holding dear what has been lost, and learning, at last, our blindness to realities. 

God, the transcendent anchor of our life, showers us with gifts like an indulgent parent. Sometimes the gift includes an irritant that, like a grain of sand in an oyster, results in the creation of a precious pearl. We know the past year’s irritants; have we found the pearl?

One of the first things we are taught as children (and that we pass on to our own children and students) is to say thank you when we are given something, be it a glass of water, a helping hand, a compliment, or a present. In time, we learn that gifts take many different forms. In reality, everything we receive is a gift. Those who recognize this are blessed; their lives are full of gratitude. 

Gratitude seems like a simple thing, a response to some good or kindness received. For some, gratitude is a way of life. What a blessed gift that is, to be grateful, to be able to see a silver lining, whether there are clouds or sunshine, to find the glass half full rather than half empty.

I want to be counted among the grateful ones, one who recognizes the Godsend as it comes. So I am determined to make 2021 a year of gratitude, of giving thanks. Lent has been a reminder to make this more concrete in my daily living.

And I invite you to join me in making this Lent and this year a time of gratitude, to cultivate an inner spirit of gratitude. You know how hearing a “Thank you” can put a smile on your face, which, by the way, usually finds its way to your heart. Have you noticed how saying an inner thanks, how feeling grateful also brings a smile to both face and heart? That’s what I mean by making this time a time of gratitude, of inner gratitude.

Yet undoubtedly, this year of pandemic, has brought many changes, and to many has brought hardships and/or sorrows which challenge their faith, which challenge our faith. Without denying the struggle, God is in the struggle with us, with you. Jesus knew weariness, knew disappointment, knew sorrow and grief. Jesus emptied himself of his God-ness and became truly human as we are human, even to accepting death on a cross. In very real ways, this year, we have been invited into the emptying of the Son of God; we are invited both to walk with Jesus and to let Jesus walk with us. 

Living in this way expands our gratitude; a wordless heartfelt thank you, a spoken or written thank you, will open our heart. Being grateful will open us to understand what God would have us learn from the pandemic. Just as the crucifixion made possible the resurrection, have faith that we will rise stronger, kinder, more compassionate, and more broadly and deeply grateful because of our experiences of this year. Find the pearl that the pandemic is creating in your life. 

With your family, with friends, neighbors and colleagues, explore the depth and breadth of what you are grateful for. Blessed are those whose lives are full of gratitude. Let us be among the blessed!